Preliminary business figures for 2020: Basler closes the financial year 2020 at the upper end of the forecast along with strong incoming orders

• Sales Euro 170.5 (2019: Euro 162.0 million, +5 %)
• Incoming orders Euro 181.6 million (2019: Euro 166.5 million, +9 %)
• EBITDA Euro 34.6 million (2019: Euro 30.0 million, +15 %)
• EBT Euro 20.4 million (2019: Euro 16.9 million, +21 %)
• EAT Euro 15.1 million (2019: Euro 12.9 million, +17 %)
• Free cash flow Euro 14.0 million (2019: Euro -9.7 million)

BASLER AG, the leading global manufacturer of industrial cameras and machine vision components, is releasing preliminary figures for fiscal year 2020 today.

In a declining market environment impaired by Covid-19, the Basler group achieved a sales growth of 5 % to Euro 170.5 million (previous year: Euro 162.0 million). Particularly incoming orders of Euro 181.6 million were considerably above the previous year’s figure of Euro 166.5 million. In contrast, the VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, German Engineering Federation) reported a sales decrease of 7 % for the German manufacturers of image processing components for the elapsed fiscal year 2020. According to VDMA, incoming orders in the industry decreased by 10 % in the same period of time.

The earnings before taxes increased overproportionately by 21 % to Euro 20.4 million (previous year: Euro 16.9 million). The pre-tax margin reached 12.0 % (previous year: 10.4 %). With these results, Basler achieves its increased forecast communicated to the capital market at the beginning of December at the upper end. According to this forecast, sales would be between Euro 169 million and Euro 171 million at an EBT margin of between 11 and 12 % for financial year 2020.

The free cash flow calculated as sum of the cash flows from operations and cash flow for investments reached a value of Euro 14.0 million (previous year: Euro -9.7 million).

These provisional figures are awaiting final approval by the auditors and the supervisory board. The definitive figures for fiscal year 2020 as well as the annual report for 2020 will be released on March 30, 2021.

The positive trend in incoming orders during the fourth quarter of 2020 continued in the first weeks of the current fiscal year. The forecast for the financial year 2021 will be released on March 30, 2020 together with the annual report.