AUGUST 30--ISRA Vision (Darmstadt, Germany; www.isravision.com), an international supplier of industrial image-processing technology, has had a continuation of its successful business development of the past few years in the first nine months of FY2005/2006, with continuing gains in turnover and overproportional increases in profits. This is now the ninth consecutive year that ISRA has increased its turnover and profits.
The ISRA group's EBT (earnings before tax) climbed 25% in the period October 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006, increasing to 6.5 million euros. Turnover and total operating revenue (turnover plus work capitalized) grew by 7% each, rising to 33.0 million euros and 36.7 million euros, respectively. Ongoing measures to increase efficiency have resulted in manufacturing costs in the first nine months of FY2005/2006 rising only subproportionally in relation to total operating revenue. As a consequence, the gross profit margin (gross profit in relation to total output) improved to 58%.
The retained profits for the period improved by 27% to 4.4 million euros, leading to earnings per share of 1.07 euros (previous year: 0.88 euros). Cash assets benefited from the good profit situation and the capital increase at the end of March, rising to 15.4 million euros (previous year: 5.9 million euros). A solid share of equity capital in the amount of 77% (previous year: 73%) serves to secure sustained internal and external growth for the long term.
The continued growth of the Surface Vision business division meant it was able to further strengthen its worldwide market position. In the ISRA Group's largest division, total operating revenue was up by 8% to 27.1 million euros. Profitability also continued to improve, with EBT putting on 23% to reach 5.1 million euros. As a result, the EBT margin improved by 3% to 19%. In the Industrial Automation division, there was no repeat of the weakness of the market in the previous year; total operating revenue in the division climbed to 9.6 million euros. EBT increased by 31% to 1.4 million euros. This resulted in an EBT margin of 15% (previous year: 12%).
