Following the proposal of HOMAG Group AG’s management board, the supervisory board passed a resolution at its meeting on December 16, 2010 to implement measures to restructure the group. Accordingly, the smaller entities of FRIZ Kaschiertechnik GmbH, Weinsberg, and TORWEGGE Holzbearbeitungssysteme GmbH, Löhne, are to be linked to larger entities within the HOMAG Group in order to secure the continued, sustainable expansion of the market position and global market leadership.
The products of the two group entities FRIZ and TORWEGGE are of great strategic relevance for the HOMAG Group, supplementing its product portfolio in important areas. Technology from FRIZ and TORWEGGE consequently play an important role in the HOMAG Group’s core strategy, which entails offering industrial and workshop customers a complete range of products along their process chains.
The restructuring measures will be implemented in several steps, improving EBITDA by more than EUR 1.5 million per annum in the medium term. As announced, however, these measures will already lead to extraordinary expenses in the fourth quarter. These will arise primarily from site relocations and moderate adjustments to headcount. Despite these additional extraordinary expenses of up to EUR 2 million incurred in 2010, there is no change to the forecast of a positive net profit for the full year 2010. The much closer cooperation (shared services) and the medium-term plans to merge the companies are expected to ensure long-term success in the relevant product segments.
Furthermore, there is currently a concept under review on how to strengthen and increase the competitiveness of another group company’s range of products. HOMAG’s CEO, Rolf Knoll, is convinced that “the measures already introduced and those currently being reviewed will continue to safeguard the group’s strategic success in the medium and long term, enabling us to further expand our market position as global market leader.”
Disclaimers
This press release contains certain statements relating to the future. Future-oriented statements are all those statements that do not pertain to historical facts and events or expressions pertaining to the future such as “believes”, “estimates”, “assumes”, “forecasts”, “intend”, “may”, “will”, “should” or similar expressions. Such future-oriented statements are subject to risks and uncertainty since they relate to future events and are based on current assumptions of the company, which may not occur in the future or may not occur in the anticipated form. The company points out that such future-oriented statements do not guarantee the future; actual results including the financial position and the profitability of the HOMAG Group as well as the development of economic and regulatory framework conditions may deviate significantly (and prove unfavorable) from what is expressly or implicitly assumed or described in these statements. Even if the actual results of the HOMAG Group including the financial position and profitability as well as the economic and regulatory framework conditions should coincide with the future-oriented statements in this press release, it cannot be guaranteed that the same will hold true in the future.