Berlin, 19 March 2015 – The PSI Group attained approximately constant sales of 175.4 million Euros (2013: 176.3 million Euros) in financial year 2014. The new orders were, with 184 million Euros (2013: 185 million Euros), also about constant, the order book volume at the end of the year increased to 120 million Euros (2013: 118 million Euros). A lower volume of export licenses from the BRIC countries contrasted with a clear rebound in the energy business. The EBIT increased by 72 % to 7.2 million Euros (2013: 4.2 million Euros) despite greater expenses and write-offs in the post projects that have in the meantime been completed. The group net result increased by tenfold to 4.1 million Euros (2013: 0.4 million Euros), the earnings per share increased correspondingly to 0.26 Euro (2013: 0.02 Euro).
Despite the weak economic environment, Energy Management in 2014 was marked by the continued good development in the oil and gas business and by the improvement in electrical energy, where high product investments in recent years start to pay off. Sales in the segment increased by 5.2 % to 64.2 million Euros (2013: 61.0 million Euros). The EBIT improved to 4.0 million Euros (2013: 0.6 million Euros). The energy trading business re-implemented the gas management software and merged this with the power trading software that had previously been migrated to the group platform.
In Production Management sales decreased in 2014 by 5.4 % to 79.6 million Euros (2013: 84.1 million Euros). The segments’ EBIT increased from 1.4 million Euros in the previous year to 2.2 million Euros. The largest earnings contribution came from the metals industry business. PSI again used a weak steel market phase for the acquisition of a strong competitor (Broner Metals Solutions Ltd., Watford, United Kingdom). The mechanical engineering and automotive business increased its good result from the previous year and demonstrated international sales successes. The logistics business completed the very complex transport management pilot project at the Swiss Postal Service and did the final write-off on another old project that had been cancelled in 2013.
Infrastructure Management attained, with 31.6 million Euros in 2014, higher sales of 1 % (2013: 31.3 million Euros). The EBIT decreased to 2.2 million Euros (2013: 3.3 million Euros). The Asian PSI Incontrol provided a positive contribution to the result, although the business in Southeast Asia decreased significantly compared to the previous year due to the political problems in Thailand. The public transportation business displayed large new orders from regular customers in Germany and new customers in Switzerland. PSI Poland with growing sales from Eastern Europe again showed a good result.
With the completion of major projects, the cash flow from operating activities improved strongly to 24.1 million Euros (2013: –0.1 million Euros), cash at the end of the year increased despite the acquisition to 29.3 million Euros (31 December 2013: 21.8 million Euros). To further strengthen the company equity, the Management Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting with the approval of the Supervisory Board, to transfer the full result to the reserves and to start again with dividend payments in the next year.
PSI counters weak commodity prices, business climates and currencies in the BRIC countries with more exports to the United Kingdom, North America and Switzerland. For 2015 the management aims to increase the volume of new orders and the group sales in the mid-single-digit range and for an EBIT of 11 million Euros.
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 1,700 persons worldwide.