Brunel increased EBIT with 55% in first half of 2007

Amsterdam, 17 August 2007 -  Net turnover increased in first six months with 13%, organic growth  15%. Ebit increased with 55% to € 22.1 million, group net income increased to € 15,1 million.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights 1st half 2007:

Over the first six months of 2007, Brunel International realised a turnover of € 274 million; up 13% compared to the same period in 2006. Adjusted for divestments, acquisitions and exchange rate variations turnover increased with 15%.

 

Gross profit increased with 20%, from € 54 million to € 65 million. Gross margin further improved from 22.3% to 23.7%. EBIT amounted to € 22.1 million, being 8.1% of turnover (first 6 months of 2006: 5.9%). The company achieved a group net income of € 15.1 million.

 

Brunel's core activities are project management, secondment and consultancy. The company performs these activities through the flexible deployment of highly skilled specialists in the fields of Engineering, Oil & Gas, Aerospace, Automotive, Rail, ICT, Finance, Legal and Insurance & Banking. Brunel offers its core activities globally from its own international network of 87 branch offices in 26 countries. Brunel Netherlands, Brunel Germany and Brunel Energy are the company's largest business divisions. In the first half of this year these divisions accounted for respectively 25%, 22% and 50% of the global net turnover.

 

Jan Arie van Barneveld, CEO of Brunel International: "Growth particularly in Germany and The Netherlands has been very good and stronger than the market. The only dissonance was the disappointing result from our competence centers in Germany. However, the sound profits of Dutch and German secondment activities could easily compensate this incidental disappointment. Also our Energy division keeps on developing in upward direction.

The overall semi annual results are a continuation of the successful trend of our company in the last 4 years. We believe that our ability to grow is based upon our own improvement of strength and quality, rather than depending on macro-economic circumstances".

 

Traditionally Brunel International holds on to a strong balance sheet. The net cash position grew from € 25 million as per 2006 year-end to € 38.5 million mid 2007. Solvency remained high with a ratio over 60% while the capitalised goodwill is relatively insignificant. Trade and other receivables expressed in relation to the turnover decreased.

 

The average workforce of Brunel International increased with 20% from 5,819 during the first 6 months of 2006 to 6,997 over the first half of 2007. The number of fee-earners and service organisation employees rose by 21% and 17% respectively.

 

 

Brunel Netherlands recorded a net turnover of € 68 million, a 23% growth compared to the first half of last year. Excluded for the divestment of Technosoft mid 2006, the increase in turnover reached 27%. The gross profit was lifted by 38% from € 19.2 million in H1 2006 to € 26.5 million over the first six months of this year. Virtually all business lines contributed to these positive developments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dutch market for temporary specialist staffing is continuing to grow. At the moment the demand for flexible specialist labor is high while we see a slight decrease in the inflow of available professionals. Nevertheless Brunel Netherlands expects to continue high growth percentages.

 

 

In 2007 Brunel Germany achieved a turnover of € 59.5 million, a growth of 26%.  

The German EBIT of € 4.1 million is disappointing because of the results from the competence centers. Due to not anticipated cancellations and delays of projects from predominantly 1 major client, the competence centers incurred losses of roughly € 2 million. This had an incidental nature and measures have been taken. No impact is expected for the 2nd half of the year. On the contrary the secondment activities developed very well with a growth rate of 27% and an EBIT percentage of more than 10%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The German market for technical project management and engineering secondment is still strongly growing and we expect this to continue in the foreseeable future not only due to the economic upswing but also because of the structural flexwork trend. The 2007 results are forecasted to surpass the results of 2006.

 

 

Brunel Energy increased its net turnover with 6% to € 135 million. If foreign exchange effects had been taken into account, the growth would have been 9%. Gross margins are increasing, from 11.1% in the 2nd half of 2006 to 11.8% in the first half year 2007. A major driver is a more critical attitude towards the profitability of new projects and assignments. Gross profit was up 9%, from € 14.6 million to € 15.9 million.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In its market segment Brunel Energy is the leading supplier for technical expertise and capacity. Worldwide demand for energy continues to increase. The division had commercial successes with new and existing clients, leading to the higher turnover. Due to the nature of the business revenues as well as gross margins are more volatile than in the other Brunel divisions. We expect further improvement of the EBIT margin in the foreseeable future to a level exceeding 5%.

 

 

Other regions contributed to the global results in the first half year. Brunel Belgium and Brunel Canada generated a mutual turnover of € 11.9 million and a gross profit of € 3.6 million resulting in an EBIT of € 0.8 million (1st half 2006: € 0.6 million).

 

The Brunel International Board of Directors expects turnover and profit figures to grow in all main regions in the second half of 2007. The profitability (EBIT margin) of Germany and Energy will further improve.

For the full year we expect to achieve an EBIT of € 49 million. Net turnover is forecasted to grow significantly compared to previous year.

 

 

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For further information:

Jan Arie van Barneveld                       CEO Brunel International                                        tel.: +31(0)20 312 50 00