Ecovision shows increased result and continues to strenghten its Nordic market position
22 Oct, 2002 15:54 CET
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Ecovision shows increased result and continues to strenghten its Nordic
market position
The Starweb and Stardesk acquisitions in Finland are being successfully
integrated and contribute to the increased sales and result of the
Ecovision group.
·During the period the turnover amounted to
SEK 47,1 Million (44,9)
·Profit after financial items in the period was
SEK 8,4 Million (8,1)
·At the end of the second quarter this year, Ecovision acquired
the Stardesk and Starweb services from the Finnish Sanoma group. These
activities are being successfully integrated and contribute to the
increased sales and result of the Ecovision group.
·The association with the Fininfo group vields information cost
reductions already having an impact this third quarter of 2002.
·Earnings per share amounted to SEK 4,13 (4,13).
Business Areas
The Ecovision Group's activities are divided into three Business areas:
·Ecovision ProTrader is a complete financial real time system.
Information from primary sources is processed by Ecovision and then
disseminated via satellite, the Internet and networks.
·Ecovision Internet develops and operates web- services for
banks, stockbrokers and the media.
'The Ticker News Agency produces real time News to the financial markets.
2002 2001 Change
Jan-Sept Jan-Sept
Turnover, Million SEK 47,1 44,9 +4,9%
Operating profit, Million SEK 8,1 7,1 +14,1%
Operating margin, % 17,2 15,8 -
Profit after financial items, 8,4 8,1 +3,7%
Million SEK
Earnings per share, SEK 4,13 4,13 -
Equity per share, SEK 25,72 22,00 +16,9%
Turnover and results
During the period, Ecovision's turnover amounted to SEK 47,1 Million
(44,9).
The earnings after financial items increased with 3,4% to SEK 8,4
Million (8,1).
Important events during the third quarter
Ecovision has in the end of the second quarter acquired the Stardesk and
Starweb services from the Finnish Sanoma Group.
Starweb is Finland's leading Internet based real-time financial
information service for banks, brokers and corporate customers. Stardesk
is a version of the satellite based Ecovision ProTrader used by Finnish
financial professionals.
Our business operations in Finland are progressing very well, and will
contribute to increased sales and earnings for the Ecovision Group. The
operations in Finland also strengthen the position of Ecovision in the
Nordic Countries as Ecovision is the sole distributor of Startel News,
the leading Finnish news service to the financial market.
Association with the French company Fininfo started in this quarter.
Fininfo SA holds 51% of the shares of Ecovision AB since July this year.
As Ecovision is now part of the Fininfo Group it has become possible for
us to cut costs relating to stock exchange fees and other sources of
information. This has already had partial effect in the third quarter.
In addition to this there are several on-going projects between Fininfo
and Ecovision aimed at taking advantage of each other's products and
information content in order to create new business opportunities on our
respective markets.
Fininfo is a leading provider of financial information to the
professional financial community in Europe. Fininfo operates in France,
Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Morocco. In 2001 Fininfo's
sales amounted to 119.4 Million Euros and it's net income to 11.6
Million Euros. The Fininfo Group has approximately 1,000 employees, and
it is quoted at the Second Marché of the Euronext Paris stock exchange.
Fininfo is a strong and growth-oriented industrial shareholder to
Ecovision. This will create synergy effects and lead to cost savings in
the field of information content, and also provide Ecovision with new
business opportunities in the Nordic countries as well as in the rest of
Europe.
Market Development
The development on the stock markets has been continuously weak during
the third quarter. The long-term downturn in the stock exchanges of the
world has made investors and traders to adopt a cautious attitude to
new investments. This has lead to a decreasing number of users in the
market. However there still is an underlying demand and interest in
qualified information systems such as Ecovision ProTrader and Ecovision
Solution as well as in market moving News from Ticker News Agency.
Ecovision is currently putting substantial resources into developing
and deepening the relationships with potential large customers such as
banks and stockbroker firms.
Several Nordic banks are presently involved in large-scale procurement
of information systems. In our judgement Ecovision has good prospects of
securing several of these deals and thus increasing our market share in
the Nordic Countries.
The earnings trend of the ShareCompany B.V. in the Netherlands, where
Ecovision AB holds a minority post amounting to 35.6% of the shares, has
been stabilized. ShareCompany will, however, report a loss for the whole
fiscal year 2002.
The Financial Position
Ecovision has a solid financial position. The Solidity ratio was 61,4 %
on September 30 (61,4). The liquid assets amounted to SEK 34,3 Million
(31,3).
The Company has no interest bearing debts.
The Parent Company Ecovision AB
The Turnover was SEK 37,1 Million (40,0). Profit after financial items
amounted to SEK 7,3 Million (7,2).
Personnel
The total number of employees was 38 (38).
Investments
The main part of Ecovision's investments concerns system and software
development. All costs are directly expensed to each year's results i.e.
no program development costs are capitalized.
Investments in computer equipment and inventories amounted to SEK 2,8
Million (2,7).
Gothenburg. 22 October 2002
Ecovision AB (publ)
Paul Östling
Managing Director
The Annual financial statements 2002 will be reported as follows:
-Press release on the annual earnings figures for 2002 on 11 February
2003
Ecovision's auditors have not examined this report.
For further information. please contact:
Paul Östling. Managing Director.
Telephone +46 31 683450.
e-mail:
Homepage: www.ecovision.se