Looking ahead at fiscal 2008/2009 and on the basis of the information available in November 2008, Wincor Nixdorf expects to be able to follow on from the very good performance of the previous year and to maintain a similarly buoyant level of business.

However, we cannot exclude the possibility that the crisis on the financial markets will have a significant and detrimental impact on finance and the real economy. Given this possibility of a temporary downturn in our business, we intend to prepare ourselves to respond quickly and appropriately to any worsening of the situation.

Assuming fiscal 2008/2009 develops in line with our expectations, our dividend proposal will again reflect the policy we announced on our IPO in 2004, with around 50% of profit for the period (Glossary)  being allocated for distribution. We see this as a key element of our corporate policy which is geared at reliance.

Our expectations of medium- to long-term growth of 6% in net sales and 8% in EBITA (Glossary)  remain in place despite the possibility of a short-term decline in business in the wake of the financial market crisis. This positive medium-term outlook is based on the view that industry trends will themselves continue to drive investment in retail banking and the retail industry regardless of the slowdown in the wider economy.

The degree to which this confident outlook asserts itself in fiscal 2009/2010 will depend primarily on the intensity and duration of the financial market crisis.

Our medium-term strategy is geared towards achieving profitable and predominantly organic growth. However, we do not exclude the possibility of further small-scale acquisitions, as long as they support our international expansion or our operations in the fields of Software, Professional Services (Glossary)  or IT System Management (Managed Services (Glossary) , Outsourcing (Glossary) ).

We are also determined to maintain our position as a leading innovator and, as a result, to grow at a faster rate than our competitors. We shall continue to produce best-in-class hardware, software and services (Glossary)  and use them to optimize our customers’ processes. In the future, too, our approach will be to gear all our activities completely towards our customers’ needs. We want them to be even more successful. After all, their success is the basis for our own.