Heidelberg cheered by investor interest
The German press manufacturer shares received investor lift when 95% of the stakes in the mature convertible bond of 60-million Euros were converted into equity on the due date 30 June 2017.
12 Jul 2017 | 4222 Views | By Noel D'Cunha
This development saw Heidelberg’s debt decrease and the yearly cost of interest reduce by five-million Euros. Heidelberg reported increased profitability and equity ratio rise by almost 2.5%.
Heidelberg CFO Dirk Kaliebe, said, “We are very pleased to see the capital market’s confidence in the future of Heidelberg further strengthened. The increased share price and the conversion of the bond into equity are important indicators for us that we have been able to convince investors of our ‘Heidelberg goes digital’ strategy.”
Heidelberg attributed the capital market’s reward to its digitisation strategy. At the annual press conference on 8 June, Heidelberg introduced the Heid, digital transformation, technological leadership, and operational excellence.
Following its successful and sustainable return to the black, Heidelberg is planning a number of individual measures to achieve continuous growth culminating in Group sales of around EUR 3 billion by 2022. It is also planning to significantly increase profitability to an Ebitda of Euro 250- to 300-million and an after-tax profit of more than Euro 100-million.
“The remarkably high conversion percentage will greatly lower interest costs, thereby strengthening the company’s financial footing and giving Heidelberg additional latitude for accelerated implementation of its digitisation strategy,” explained Kaliebe. “We will continue to work on steadily reducing our financing costs in the future also.”
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