Ringmetall reaffirms the outlook for the 2019 financial year after a generally positive third quarter

- Group revenues increase by 7.2 percent to EUR 92.0 million due to acquisitions
- Gross profit margin improves due to declining steel prices
- EBITDA declines slightly as expected, despite positive effects from acquisitions and IFRS 16
- Consolidation of the hitherto highly volatile order intake facilitates cost reduction measures at the end of the third quarter

Munich, 7 November 2019 - Ringmetall AG (ISIN: DE0006001902), a leading international specialist in the packaging industry, has come through the third quarter of 2019 well, given the challenges of an economically tense environment. The Management Board regards the declining volatility of the order situation and the concomitant stabilization of demand at the end of the third quarter as positive, although this is not yet back to the previous year's level.

As a result of the acquisition of Nittel on 1 January 2019 and the first-time consolidation of Tesseraux as of 1 July 2019, Group revenues increased by 7.2 percent to EUR 92.0 million (9M 2018: EUR 85.8 million). Adjusted for these acquisitions, consolidated sales were 6.2 percent down on the previous year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) declined slightly to EUR 8.1 million (9M 2018: EUR 8.3 million). Effects from the first-time application of the IRFS 16 accounting standard, which amounted to around EUR 1.2 million in the first nine months, had a positive effect here. Earnings before income taxes and interest (EBIT), which at EUR 4.6 million was 28.7 percent down on the previous year (9M 2018: EUR 6.5 million), were significantly weaker.

The key performance indicators for the first nine months of 2019 are as follows:

"In recent quarters, above all, the high volatility of our order intake has made business hard for us. The fluctuations from week to week were so intense that we were unable to counteract adequately with production-side efficiency measures in order to adjust our personnel costs to the lower sales level", explains Christoph Petri, Spokesman of the Management Board of Ringmetall AG. "The stabilization of sales, which we have been observing since about September, now allows us to plan better, which should be reflected in higher profitability in the fourth quarter."

In the Industrial Packaging division, revenues increased by 10.4 percent to EUR 83.3 million due to acquisitions (9M 2018: EUR 75.4 million). The revenues development here was by 15.2 percentage points or EUR 11.5 million affected from acquisition effects, to -0.2 percentage points or EUR -0.2 million from effects of steel price development and to -4.6 percentage points or -3.5 million. EUR from the organic development of the business unit. Overall, the development of the inliner business was significantly less cyclical and thus outperformed the drum closure business. The first-time consolidated subsidiary Tesseraux developed in accordance with internal budget planning in the third quarter. The EBITDA of the Industrial Packaging division totaled EUR 9.2 million, up 3.6 percent on the previous year.

Once again, revenues in the Industrial Handling business unit declined after a major customer and manufacturer of industrial trucks postponed the product launch of its new generation of vehicles into 2020. However, business with internally developed products continued to grow despite the generally economically challenging environment. Overall, revenues in the division fell by 16.1 percent to EUR 8.7 million (9M 2019: EUR 10.4 million), while EBITDA fell by around a quarter to EUR 0.8 million (9M 2019: EUR 1.1 million).

Looking at revenues in terms of regional development, there is a rather evenly distributed worldwide subdued economic momentum. However, the Turkish market, which is affected by locally prevailing recessionary tendencies in addition to the global economic trends, is still developing significantly more negatively than the average. However, the share of total group revenues of this market is low in the meantime due to the decline of the Turkish lira.

Against the background of the current business development, the Management Board reaffirms the outlook for the current financial year. Provided the currently prevailing economic environment remains unchanged until the end of the year, the Management Board expects Group revenues and EBITDA for the full year 2019 to be in the upper half of the guidance range.

Details of the business development in the third quarter of 2019 will be discussed by the Management Board today at 11:30 CET in a conference call for analysts, institutional investors and journalists. The registration for this is done via E-Mail via Mrs. Anja Brabec (brabec@ringmetall.de). Further information on the Ringmetall Group and its affiliated subsidiaries can be found at www.ringmetall.de.

Contact:
Ingo Middelmenne
Investor Relations
Ringmetall AG
Phone: +49 (0 )89 45 220 98 12
Mobile: +49 (0 )174 90 911 90
Email: middelmenne@ringmetall.de

About Ringmetall group
Ringmetall is a leading international specialist in the packaging industry. The Industrial Packaging business offers highly secure closures and inliners for industrial drums for the chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and food processing industries. The Industrial Handling business unit develops application-optimized vehicle components for the handling and transport of packaging units. In addition to the Group headquarters in Munich, Ringmetall has worldwide production and sales offices in Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands, China and the USA. Worldwide Ringmetall generates more than EUR 120 million in revenues.