While net sales in both our Banking (Glossary)  and Retail (Glossary)  segments will depend on the impact of the financial market crisis on these industries, Wincor Nixdorf is increasingly benefiting from the demand for high-end hardware and software in areas such as process automation.

Turning to Our Business Streams.

Our view is that there will be a continued high level of growth in the Hardware business, driven by increased demand for our high-end systems, which we hope to make even more attractive by incorporating new developments.

We aim to expand our Software/Services (Glossary)  business, too. In the Software area, we will be relying, above all, on further improvements to our Retail Banking Solution (Glossary)  Suite and the extension of our TP Application Suite (Glossary)  for use by retail groups.

We see considerable potential for exploiting synergies in both segments in relation to consulting (Glossary)  and integration services. With regard to maintenance and IT systems operation, we intend to expand our business by offering a range of attractive new services to banks and retailers. We are also planning to further extend our Outsourcing (Glossary)  business.