Berlin, 30 October 2014 – PSI Group attained 1.5 % lower sales of 127.2 million Euros (30 September 2013: 129.1 million Euros) in the first nine months of 2014. The EBIT improved to 4.6 million Euros (30 September 2013: 0.8 million Euros). This included the final encumbrances from old projects of 2 million Euros that were booked in the second and third quarters of 2014. The group net result also improved significantly to 2.0 million Euros (30 September 2013: –2.8 million Euros). New orders were, with 133 million Euros, 7 % below that of the previous year (30 September 2013: 143 million Euros), the order book volume on 30 September 2014 was, at 120 million Euros, 3 % below that of the previous year (30 September 2013: 124 million Euros). The cash flow from operating activities improved by 5.6 million Euros to 2.8 million Euros (30 September 2013: –2.8 million Euros), so that the liquid funds increased to 22.7 million Euros (30 September 2013: 21.5 million Euros).
Energy Management (gas, oil, electricity, heat) attained 6 % higher sales of 45.7 million Euros (30 September 2013: 43.1 million Euros) in the first nine months. The EBIT for the segment, which was negative in the previous year, improved to 2.6 million Euros (30 September 2013: –1 million Euros). The electrical energy business continued its upward trend with strong new orders and a significant improvement in the EBIT, the gas and oil business increased its sales and profits again. Energy trading systems invested about 1 million Euros in the migration and reimplementation of gas and electricity planning, trading and optimisation software on the group-wide platform and received an important new order for the new product for virtual power plants.
Sales in Production Management (raw materials, industry, logistics) in the first nine months were, with 60.7 million Euros, 4 % below the level of the previous year (30 September 2013: 63.3 million Euros). The EBIT improved, despite the booking of 2 million Euros in encumbrances from old projects, to 1.7 million Euros (30 September 2013: 0.3 million Euros). The automotive und mechanical engineering business (PSIPENTA) and the operational business in logistics contributed to a clearly positive result with the activities in Industry 4.0. In the metals industry, PSI witnessed strong demand for solutions for aluminium production, in mining the new control system is undergoing its initial operational testing at a major Chinese customer. PSI received an important licensing payment from another customer.
In Infrastructure Management (transportation and security) sales decreased to 20.7 million Euros (30 September 2013: 22.7 million Euros) as a result of lower sales of hardware. The EBIT for the segment decreased to 1.3 million Euros (30 September 2013: 2.4 million Euros) as a result of the lower contribution from Southeast Asia. In the last weeks, the segment had strong new orders from traditional and new customers in Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia so that a significantly higher EBIT is expected for the fourth quarter.
The number of employees in the group was reduced to 1,660 (30 September 2013: 1,701). The group continued to drive the basic development of the technology platform on the basis of efficient, global standards in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the new release of the technology platform will be completed. It particularly enables customers to change data dialogues even at runtime. The model-oriented programming has been adapted to a now available international standard (EMF/MOF). In view of the current geopolitical risks and the delayed awarding of contracts in the export business, the PSI management board does not wish to make any forecasts for the year 2014, but does expect new orders to be on the level of the previous year.
On the basis of its own software products, PSI AG develops and integrates complete solutions for energy management (gas, oil, electricity, heat, energy trading), production management (mining, metals, automotive, mechanical engineering, logistics) and infrastructure management for transport and safety. PSI was founded in 1969 and employs nearly 1,700 persons worldwide.
