- Dividend stable at 0.65 Euro
- Investments of 9 million euro in 2016 for further growth
- Contracts of Management Board Members extended by five years
Schramberg, July 07, 2017 – Shareholders present at Schweizer Electronic AG’s 28th Annual Shareholders‘ Meeting on July 7, 2017 followed the proposal submitted by the Executive and Supervisory Boards and agreed to pay a dividend of 0.65 Euro per share for the fiscal year 2016. This corresponds to a dividend ratio of 45.4% after allocation to the profit reserves. Thus, the dividend of Schweizer Electronic AG remains stable. Furthermore, SCHWEIZER again will have employees participate in the company’s success with a payout amounting to 525,000 Euro this year and this way expresses their appreciation for the outstanding contribution. Furthermore, the Supervisory Board of Schweizer Electronic AG extended the period of office of the Management Board members Nicolas Schweizer and Marc Bunz by another five years.
The Shareholders’ Meeting approved the actions of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board for the year 2016 with a vast majority. Beyond the proposal for paying a dividend, the plenum, which gathered in Rottweil, agreed to all other proposals concerning the election of the Supervisory Board with a vast majority. With about 183 shareholders joining the meeting, 69.24 % of the share capital was represented. In addition, about 40 guests were present.
In their speeches, board members Nicolas Schweizer and Marc Bunz reported on a dynamic fiscal year 2016 where SCHWEIZER managed to stabilise its turnover with a slight increase of 0.5 percent to 116.1 million euro, while the global PCB market declined again. Sales of SCHWEIZER’s innovative high technology products boosted by 5 percent and accounted for 55 percent of the total turnover. Moreover, first orders to customers from the aviation sector were carried out in the last fiscal year, contributing to the year-end result. This business is forecasted to grow considerably as the entire aviation sector expects disproportionately high market growth rates in the years to come.
In 2016 the EBITDA according to IFRS (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) amounted to 9.5 million euro against 11.4 million euro the year before. The EBITDA margin came to 8.2% in 2016 compared to 9.8% in 2015. The EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) was 1.8 million euro (2015: 3.7 million euro), corresponding to an EBIT margin of 1.6% (2015: 3.2%). With an equity capital of 64.8 million euro corresponding to an equity ratio of 55.1% and net gearing of -1.5 % the company’s financial structures continued to remain on a solid level.
Substantial new product startups with a lower rate of return in the ramp-up phase, disproportionally increasing personal cost as well as a comprehensive investment programme burdened the year end result, which decreased to 0.6 million euro in 2016 (2015: 1.5 million euro). Investments into fixed assets and software amounted to 9 million euro in 2016. Emphasis of these investments was on the one hand on the elimination of bottlenecks, which had occurred due to the increasing technology requirements of the product portfolio. On the other hand, SCHWEIZER invested strongly into the expansion of its high-technology plants as well as into a combined heat- and power plant on its premises.