2010 Annual Shareholders' Meeting
DOUGLAS Group remains on track:
- Sales up 1.4 percent after five months
- Sales and earnings forecast confirmed
Hagen, March 24, 2010 – This year's Annual Shareholders' Meeting of DOUGLAS HOLDING AG has been underway in the Hagen City Hall since 10:30 a.m. this morning. In his address, President and CEO Dr. Henning Kreke, will also be referring to the current business performance.
In the first five months of the 2009/10 fiscal year (October 1, 2009 - February 28, 2010), the DOUGLAS Group's net sales climbed 1.4 percent to some 1.6 billion Euro. Like-for-like sales – which reflect only those stores that operated during the reporting and comparable prior periods – were just 0.9 percent behind the previous year. Excluding the sales of the Online book retailer, buch.de internetstores AG, that has been fully consolidated since December 1, 2009, the DOUGLAS Group would have registered a marginal sales minus of 0.6 percent for the first five months (like-for-like: -1.4 percent).
Dr. Henning Kreke commented as follows: "With the current sales and earnings performance, we have established a solid platform for the rest of the current financial year. The sales and earnings forecasts issued in the 2008/09 Annual Report for the 2009/10 fiscal year are still valid. We assume that a sales gain of between 0 and 2 percent will be generated. Our anticipations for earnings before taxes lie between 120 and 130 million Euro."
The reporting at the Annual General Meeting also comprises the past 2008/09 fiscal year, during which the Group's sales increased by 2.3 percent to 3.2 billion Euro and earnings before taxes and before costs for the store network streamlining reached 128 million Euro. Consequently, the DOUGLAS Group slightly surpassed its sales increase projection of plus 2 percent and, at the same time, reached the upper range of the earnings target of between 120 and 130 million Euro before one-off effects.
Furthermore, the Executive and Supervisory Boards are recommending today that the Annual Shareholders' Meeting approve a dividend in the unchanged amount of 1.10 Euro per dividend-bearing share.
