Shareholders of ORBIS AG are very pleased with the course of business at the Annual General Meeting:
![Exterior view of the main building of the ORBIS Exterior view of the main building of the ORBIS](/fileadmin/dateien/de/images/bilder/Presse/PI/Orbis_gebaeude.jpg)
The Annual General Meeting of the Saarbrücken-based software and business consulting company ORBIS AG (ISIN DE0005228779) was once again held not far from the company's headquarters on the Saarterrassen in the E-Werk Saarbrücken. Around 360 shareholders looked back on a successful 2016 financial year. ORBIS celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016. Due to the positive business performance and the solid balance sheet structure, a proposal was made to the Annual General Meeting to distribute a dividend of 12 ct per share, which is higher than in the previous year, from the net profit for the past 2016 financial year. The actions of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board were approved by the meeting.
The shareholders' meeting reappointed RSM Verhülsdonk GmbH, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft - Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Georg-Glock-Straße 4, D- 40474 Düsseldorf, as auditors of the financial statements and consolidated financial statements for the 2017 financial year.
All votes at the Annual General Meeting were passed almost unanimously in accordance with the proposals of the management.
CFO Stefan Mailänder explained the business development for 2016 to the Annual General Meeting, in which ORBIS recorded an increase in sales of 7.8% to EUR 46.0 million. Despite high investments in the product business, ORBIS can report EBIT of EUR 2.1 million (previous year: EUR 1.8 million).
DConsolidated net income for the financial year 2016 amounted to 1.5 million euros (previous year: 1.3 million euros). This corresponds to earnings per share of 18 ct (previous year: earnings per share of 15 ct).
Cash flow from operating activities is clearly positive at 4.7 million euros (previous year: 1.2 million euros).
Cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 11.0 million as of December 31, 2016 (previous year: EUR 7.8 million).
ORBIS AG's equity amounted to EUR 20.7 million as of December 31, 2016. This corresponds to an equity ratio of 58.3%.
The number of employees as of December 31, 2016 increased from 369 to 387.
Due to the ongoing difficult situation on the IT labor market, ORBIS AG currently expects sales growth and an improvement in the operating result in the single-digit percentage range for 2017 as a whole compared to the previous year, despite the already high order backlog.
In his remarks, Thomas Gard, Spokesman of the Management Board of ORBIS AG, emphasized that the company had once again succeeded in reaching numerous customers and interested parties with the consulting services and products offered by ORBIS in 2016.
Mr. Gard emphasizes that topics around digitalization and Industry 4.0 are increasingly playing an important role for companies. SAP and also Microsoft are positioning themselves in these topics with their technologies. SAP has launched the successor product to SAP R/3 - SAP S/4HANA. ORBIS can provide direct support for the expected changeover projects - whether migration or new implementation - at the customers. Regardless of the approach chosen, ORBIS solutions can already open up a path to the digital future for these customers. In the digital factory, the ERP software from SAP is the linchpin. With the ORBIS Multi-Process Suite developed in-house, ORBIS is in a position to allow the SAP system to communicate directly with plants, machines, sensors, dialogs, etc. The communication is bidirectional. The communication is bidirectional and takes place in real time. With this digitalization suite, ORBIS has developed solutions that support customer processes in production, logistics and service and integrate them into SAP processes. In this way, the processes can be automated. The big advantage is that customers can use their existing infrastructure without having to invest in new hardware.
In addition to production processes, sales and service processes are also relevant for digitization. ORBIS, in turn, has become one of Microsoft's most successful partners worldwide in recent years and is implementing the digital transformation of sales, marketing and service processes on the basis of Microsoft technology. Mr. Gard points out that ORBIS has dealt with these current market topics at an early stage; already today, ORBIS can competently support customers on their way to digitalization. Continuous investments in innovations and know-how are essential for this. This means great opportunities for ORBIS in the future, concludes Thomas Gard, Spokesman of the Management Board.
The shareholders were very pleased with the successful business performance in 2016 and the good prospects of ORBIS for the future.
About ORBIS
ORBIS is an internationally active software and business consulting company. With around 400 employees, ORBIS advises and supports international corporations and medium-sized companies - from IT strategy and system selection to business process optimization, system implementation and system integration. In doing so, ORBIS relies on the solutions of the market leaders SAP and Microsoft, with whom we have a close partnership. The core competencies include classic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), SAP S/4HANA, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Logistics (EWM/LES), Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Variant Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) On Premise and Cloud, Business Analytics (BI, EPM and Data Warehousing) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). As a reliable partner, ORBIS supports worldwide rollouts of ERP solutions and processes. Own solutions for Industry 4.0, BI, MES, product costing and variant management as well as add-ons based on SAP complete the service portfolio. On the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform, ORBIS offers mature proprietary industry solutions and best practices such as SAP integration. More than 1500 successfully implemented customer projects are proof of our many years of experience in the automotive supply industry, construction supply industry, electrical and electronics industry, mechanical and plant engineering, logistics, metal industry, consumer goods industry and trade as well as pharmaceuticals. Our long-standing customers include Bosch, Eberspächer, Edscha, Hager Group, Heineken Switzerland, Hörmann, hülsta, HYDAC INTERNATIONAL, Jungheinrich, KSB, KUKA Roboter, Magna, Melitta household products, Modine, Paul Hartmann, Pilz, Rittal, Schott, SCHUNK, Villeroy & Boch, WAGO Kontakttechnik and the ZF Group.
For further information, please contact: www.orbis.de
or
Dr. Sabine Stürmer, Head of Investor Relations at ORBIS AG
Tel: +49 (0)681 99 24 605, E-Mail: sabine.stuermer@orbis.de