Annual financial statements 2020 published

Kölleda, 27 April 2021 - The Funkwerk Group, one of the leading technology providers of innovative communication, information and security systems, achieved solid growth and a very good result in 2020 despite the serious impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Group sales increased by 4.1 % to EUR 98.8 million (previous year: EUR 94.8 million) and the Operating result by 25.3 % to 20.4 million euros (previous year: 16.3 million euros). The forecast revised upwards in August 2020, which assumed sales of between EUR 93 million and EUR 97 million and an operating result at the previous year's level, was therefore exceeded, as some orders were completed earlier than planned. Consolidated net profit, which was negatively impacted in the previous year by a value adjustment on financial assets totalling EUR 5.8 million, improved from EUR 8.2 million to EUR 13.6 million.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all divisions of the Funkwerk Group were confronted with new challenges. Although logistics processes and the maintenance of supply chains in particular were significantly more demanding and complex, deliveries to customers were guaranteed at all times and no short-time working had to be utilised at any of the Group's sites in 2020.

Funkwerk has also not had to cope with any major losses in terms of orders to date, as projects in the capital goods market are characterised by long lead and implementation phases and economic trends are generally reflected downstream. In 2020, the Group-wide Incoming orders At EUR 97.7 million, sales were around 2.7 % below the extraordinarily good prior-year figure (previous year: EUR 100.4 million), but were in line with expectations. The Order backlog as at 31 December 2020 amounted to € 75.7 million (previous year: € 76.1 million).

The parent company Funkwerk AG reported net retained profits of €3.1 million in the 2020 financial year (previous year: €3.1 million). The Executive Board and Supervisory Board have decided to use this to distribute an unchanged Dividend of EUR 0.30 per dividend-bearing share. Subject to the approval of the Annual General Meeting, the total dividend payout will amount to EUR 2.4 million.

The forecast for the Fiscal year 2021 will be positively influenced by a special project in the area of train radio, resulting from a federal government funding programme as part of the Future Package, which runs until the end of 2021. Among other things, the federal government is supporting the improvement of train radio reception along the railways in Germany, for which the train radio systems and modules are being modernised and upgraded to interference-resistant technology. Overall, Funkwerk expects turnover to increase to between EUR 105 million and EUR 110 million in 2021. Due to the additional sales volume, the operating result could once again reach the level of 2020, although concrete planning is extremely difficult due to the currently very uncertain economic environment. In particular, the further spread of the pandemic and the resulting impact on the economy cannot be reliably estimated.