ORBIS AG shareholders satisfied and confident: ORBIS with most successful financial year to date
![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 ORBIS AG (ISIN DE0005228779), a software and business consulting company based in Saarbrücken, Germany, was once again held not far from the company's headquarters on the Saarterrassen in the E-Werk Saarbrücken. Around 370 shareholders looked back on the most successful financial year to date. Due to the positive business performance and the solid balance sheet structure, a proposal was made to the Annual General Meeting to distribute an increased dividend of 16 cents per share compared to the previous year from the unappropriated profit of the past fiscal year 2018. The actions of the Management Board and Supervisory Board were approved by the meeting.
The shareholders' meeting again appointed RSM GmbH, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Georg-Glock-Straße 4, D- 40474 Düsseldorf, as auditors of the financial statements and consolidated financial statements for the 2019 financial year.
Furthermore, the shareholders' meeting resolved to create new Authorized Capital and to authorize the acquisition and use of treasury shares.
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 2018 to the Annual General Meeting:
Group sales grew by 25.5% year-on-year to €63,199 thousand (previous year: €50,357 thousand), while EBITDA increased by 44.3% to €4,582 thousand (previous year: €3,175 thousand).
Operating profit (EBIT) improved by 38.3% year-on-year to € 3,453 thousand in the reporting period (previous year: € 2,496 thousand).
Earnings before taxes (EBT) increased by 43.9 % to € 3,575 thousand (previous year: € 2,484 thousand).
ORBIS AG generated consolidated net income after taxes and minority interests of €2,185 thousand (previous year: €1,659 thousand), an increase of 31.7%.
Earnings thus increased by 28.4% to 25 cents per share (previous year: 20 cents per share).
Cash flow from operating activities is clearly positive at € 3,134 thousand.
Cash and cash equivalents amounted to € 12,133 thousand as of December 31, 2018.
The equity ratio as of December 31, 2018 was 59.7% (previous year: 58.1%), and the number of employees in the Group increased by 16.3% to 507 employees (previous year: 436 employees).
The CEO of ORBIS AG, Mr. Thomas Gard, emphasized in his remarks that in 2018, ORBIS had once again succeeded in reaching numerous customers and interested parties with its consulting services and products.
ORBIS has successfully positioned itself as a business process consulting company.
ORBIS relies on the solutions of its partners SAP and Microsoft, as well as on its own products.
The company's own products and solutions complemented and refined the processes of SAP and Microsoft.
Mr. Gard went on to explain that, with the expansion of the Executive Board in the SAP and Microsoft departments, ORBIS had aligned its corporate structure in a future-proof and sustainable manner.
The new member of the Management Board, Mr. Frank Schmelzer, who is responsible for SAP, then gave an outlook on the prospects for the SAP business area in 2019. The new SAP product line S/4HANA and C/4HANA in particular continue to offer ORBIS high market potential.
Michael Jung, the other new member of the Board of Management responsible for Microsoft, emphasized that the cloud strategy would be systematically continued. To this end, digitization expertise will be further intensified. ORBIS is actively supporting customers on their way from on-premise systems to the cloud.
In the outlook for 2019 for ORBIS as a whole, Mr. Gard emphasized that topics related to digitalization and Industry 4.0 played an important role for the companies.
The goal of ORBIS is to support customers as a partner for the digital transformation:
The focus of the consulting will be in particular on the core processes in customer engagement in the smart factory. Customer engagement encompasses all the processes that lead to the customer.
Mr. Gard made it clear that ORBIS was helping customers to automate processes with digitalization and thus to significantly optimize wage/unit costs.
Throughput times and downtimes would also be noticeably improved.
The know-how and solutions of ORBIS are an excellent basis for continuing the growth in the future. Continuous investments in innovations, know-how and the development of new employees are essential for this, but the situation on the IT labor market is still difficult.
Overall, there are great opportunities for ORBIS in the future, according to Mr. Gard.
The shareholders were very pleased with the successful business performance in 2018 and the good prospects of ORBIS for the future.
About ORBIS
ORBIS accompanies medium-sized companies as well as international corporations in the digitization of their business processes: from the joint development of the customer-specific Big Picture to the practical implementation in the project. The digitization and automation of business processes across the entire value chain ensure the competitiveness of our customers.
The in-depth process know-how and innovative strength of our 440 employees combined with the expertise gained from more than 30 years of successful, international project work in various industries make us a competent partner. We rely on the solutions and technologies of our partners SAP and Microsoft, whose portfolios are rounded off by ORBIS solutions. Our focus is on SAP S/4HANA, Customer Engagement and the realization of the Smart Factory. On the basis of smart cloud technologies such as machine learning, cognitive services or IoT, we promote the innovative power of our customers in the development of innovative products, services and business models.
Our expertise results from over 2,000 customer projects at more than 500 customers in the automotive supply industry, construction supply industry, electrical and electronics industry, mechanical and plant engineering, logistics, metal industry, consumer goods industry and trade. Long-standing customers include the ZF Group, Hörmann, Hager Group, Rittal, Kraftverkehr Nagel, ArcelorMittal, Montblanc, Bahlsen and Sonepar.
For further information, please visit orbis.de
or contact
Dr. Sabine Stürmer, Head of Investor Relations at ORBIS AG
Tel: +49 (0)681 99 24 605, E-Mail: sabine.stuermer@orbis.de