Once again, in fiscal 2006/2007, Wincor Nixdorf was able to exceed the already encouraging result from the previous year. Profit for the period was up 33% to €109 million (2005/2006: €82 million).

A number of factors contributed to this success. Net sales rose by 10% to €2,145 million (2005/2006: €1,948 million). This increase was primarily attributable to the Banking (Glossary)  segment, where growth in revenue outpaced that of the Retail (Glossary)  segment. Around 80% of net sales were generated in Europe (including Germany).

Despite higher purchasing prices, there was a small rise in the gross margin on net sales to 27.6% (2005/2006: 27.5%), principally as a result of the economies of scale linked to the growth in revenue.

During the year under review, the Group invested 11% more than the previous year in research and development. Total spending was €97 million (2005/2006: €87 million), thus maintaining a constant R&D ratio of 4.5%.

We achieved a further reduction in the selling, general and administration expenses ratio through our ProImprove profitability program. From 14.7% in fiscal 2005/2006, the figure was reduced by 0.3 percentage points to 14.4% in the year under review. In total, selling, general and administration expenses, including other operating income and expenses, amounted to €308 million (2005/2006: €287 million).

EBITDA was up €30 million to €233 million (2005/2006: €203 million). This represents an increase of 15%. The EBITDA (Glossary)  margin rose correspondingly from 10.4% in fiscal 2005/2006 to 10.9% during the year under review.

In particular, EBITA before amortization of product know-how was improved by 16% to €186 million (2005/2006: €161 million), while the EBITA margin rose by 0.4 percentage points to 8.7% (2005/2006: 8.3%).