William Demant Holding A/S
Interim Report 2014 – full report

DGAP-News: William Demant Holding A/S

14.08.2014 / 08:26

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  -- In the first half-year, the Group realised a growth rate of 8% in local
     currencies, corresponding to revenue of DKK 4,539 million. The Group's core
     business, wholesale of hearing aids, realised unit growth, clearly
     exceeding unit growth in the market. A continued roll-out of new products
     is planned for the third quarter.
  -- The period under review was characterised by a high level of spending and
     investments in relation to the establishment of a new distribution centre,
     the transfer of ITE production to Poland, the roll-out of global IT
     projects and the expansion of Oticon Medical, all of which will secure
     future growth and profitability for the Group.
  -- In the first half-year, Oticon Medical continued to deliver double-digit
     sales growth, both in bone-anchored hearing systems (BAHS) and in cochlear
     implants (CI). The feedback provided on our CI products at the recently
     held CI conference in Munich was very encouraging - strongly supported by
     an independent study, demonstrating in three out of four tests the superior
     performance of our Saphyr Neo speech processor compared to speech
     processors from our competitors.
  -- In addition to the adverse effects of current spending on operating profit
     (EBIT) in the first half-year, foreign exchange rates negatively impacted
     EBIT by DKK 60-70 million. EBIT reached DKK 834 million, and the EBIT
     margin was realised at 18.4%. Earnings per share (EPS) were realised at DKK
     11.2, matching last year's level.
  -- The expected continued strong cash flow generation combined with a limited
     pipeline of acquisition opportunities leaves room for channelling the
     Group's substantial excess cash flow back to the shareholders going
     forward. Therefore, we plan to buy back Company shares worth a total of DKK
     2.5-3.0 billion in the period 2014-2016 of which amount we have
     year-to-date already bought back shares worth DKK 493 million.
  -- We maintain our full-year outlook for 2014, including our expectation to
     generate growth in both our business activities and to deliver a rise in
     earnings per share of 5-10%. Acquisitions are expected to contribute by
     3-4% to Group revenue in 2014, even though we expect more than half of this
     impact to be offset by the Group's weakened invoicing currencies.
News Source: NASDAQ OMX



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Language:    English                     
Company:     William Demant Holding A/S  
 
 
             Denmark                     
ISIN:        DK0010268440                
 
 
End of News    DGAP News-Service  
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