Heidelberg Financial Year 2006/2007: Targets Achieved - Further Improvement in Earning

In the period under review, the Heidelberg Group increased its operating result to 362 million Euro, significantly up on the previous year (previous year: 277 million Euro). This produced an EBIT margin of 9.5 percent of sales (previous year: 7.7 percent). A number of factors contributed to this result, including positive one-time effects from asset management of around 60 million Euro, resulting primarily from the sale of Linotype GmbH and the Research and Development Center in Heidelberg (“sale and lease back”). During the course of the year, this helped compensate most of the higher spending on R&D, investments in new generations of printing presses, more unfavorable exchange rates, and a decline in sales in China.