Company achieved sales of 150 million euros and a pre-tax margin of more than 16% with a high increase in headcount
Ahrensburg, March 21, 2019 – Basler AG, the leading global manufacturer of industrial cameras, is releasing the audited annual report for fiscal year 2018 today.
In a stagnating market environment in 2018, the group’s sales stabilized on the high level of the previous year and amounted to Euro 150.0 million (previous year: Euro 150.2 million) in 2018. Incoming orders amounted to Euro 154.0 million and were close to the previous year’s level of Euro 153.6 million. Thus, Basler AG stabilized the sales level which increased by 54 % in 2017, compensating the previous year’s large projects in the electronics industry by business with a broader base of customers in less cyclic markets.
The earnings before taxes decreased to Euro 24.5 million (previous year: Euro 29.8 million), particularly due to planned strategic investments in the building up of personnel. Thus, the pre-tax margin summed up to 16.3 % (previous year: 19.8 %). With these results, Basler achieves the forecast communicated to the capital markets and performs above the mid-term targeted EBT-margin of > 12%.
The free cash flow calculated as sum of the cash flows from operations and cash flow for investments reached a value of Euro 1.3 million (previous year: Euro 22.0 million, -94 %). It was significantly impacted by the acquisition of Silicon Software GmbH in July 2018.
With 100 new employees, the number of staff increased significantly especially in marketing, sales and R&D. Focus in 2019 will be an efficient training of new employees, the further integration of Silicon Software GmbH, which was acquired in 2018, and, furthermore, the establishing of Basler China by taking-over the business from the local distribution partner Beijing Sanbao Xingye (MVLZ) Image Tech. Co. Ltd..
Because of the high uncertainty of the markets and the economic slowdown, Basler plans to reach sales figures between Euro 160 – 180 million for the fiscal year 2019. Therefore, the company would develop better than the market. Basler estimates the market trend for vision components to stagnate again or to decrease slightly in the year 2019. Despite the present weakness of the economy, Basler’s management holds on to its growth course, as the growth drivers are still intact for the medium- and long-term. In 2019, Basler expects a pre-tax return rate within a corridor of 7 – 11 %. The management will seek to further refine this forecast corridor during the fiscal year.
The full annual report can be found on the Basler website (www.baslerweb.com).
Basler is an internationally leading manufacturer of high-quality cameras and accessories for applications in factory automation, medicine, traffic and a variety of other markets. The company's product portfolio encompasses line scan and area scan cameras in compact housing dimensions, camera modules in board-level variants for embedded vision solutions, and 3D cameras. The catalog is rounded off by the user-friendly pylon SDK and a broad spectrum of accessories, including a number developed specially for Basler and optimally designed for the Basler cameras. Basler has 30 years of experience in the area of computer vision. The company is home to approximately 600 employees at its headquarters in Ahrensburg, Germany, and its subsidiaries and sales offices in Europe, Asia and North America.
For more information contact us by phone at +49 4102 463 500, by email at [email protected] or via our website at www.baslerweb.com.
