JUNE 1--ISRA VISION (Darmstadt, Germany), a supplier of industrial image-processing equipment, has continued its profitable growth in the second quarter of FY2005/2006. The company has increased its turnover and profit for the ninth year in a row. The ISRA Group's earnings before tax (EBT) increased in the first half of the year by 30% to 4.4 million euros. The EBT margin (EBT in relation to total operating revenue) improved to 18%, gaining three percentage points in comparison to the same period last year. Turnover increased by 9% to 22.2 million euros. The total operating revenue (turnover plus capitalized development expenditure) also improved by 9% to 24.7 million euros.
An improved product mix and permanent measures for increasing efficiency, such as shortening processing times and optimizing business processes, organization and production, are reflected in the 13% growth of the gross profit (total operating revenue minus production costs) to 14.2 million euros. The gross profit margin (gross profit in relation to total operating revenue) rose in comparison to the same period last year by 2 percentage points to 58%.
The net profit for the period rose by 26% to 2.9 million euros. Earnings per share improved from 0.58 euros in the same period last year to 0.73 euros. The cash flow from operating activities reached 5.0 million euros in the first half-year (previous year: 5.4 million euros). Because of the good profit situation and the capital increase, the net cash flow (changes in fund assets) rose to 10.8 million euros (previous year: 1.5 million euros). Liquid assets have now reached 16.7 million euros and account for 21% of the total assets, which now stand at 79 million euros, after 67 million euros at the end of the previous fiscal year.
As expected, business in the industrial-automation segment has improved after the market weakness last year. The total operating revenue climbed by 18% to 6.5 million euros.
ISRA VISION supplies machine-vision systems for surface inspection and robot guidance. Clients include DaimlerChrysler, KUKA, ABB, BMW, Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Schott, Saint Gobain, Pilkington, MAN Roland, Asahi, 3M, DuPont, Stora Enso, Weyerhaeuser, and Crane.
For further details, contact: ISRA VISION AG at tel.: +49 (0) 6151 948-0; www.isravision.com.
