Basler closes restructuring year in line with forecast, dividend payment for 2023 suspended 

Publication of inside information pursuant to Article 17 of Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR)

Preliminary business figures for 2023: Basler closes restructuring year in line with forecast, dividend payment for 2023 suspended  

•    Sales Euro 203.1 million (2022: Euro 272.2 million, -25 %) 
•    Incoming orders Euro 166.9 million (2022: Euro 248.4 million, -33 %) 
•    EBITDA Euro 1.7 million (2022: Euro 45.8 million, -96 %) 
•    EBITDA before restructuring expenses Euro 8.5 million  
•    EBT Euro -20.2 million (2022: Euro 28.3 million, >-100 %) 
•    EBT before restructuring expenses Euro –8.0 million 
•    Earnings after tax Euro -13.8 million (2022: Euro 21.4 million, >-100 %) 
•    Free cash flow Euro -9.2 million (2022: Euro -31.8 million) 

 Ahrensburg, March 5, 2024 – Basler AG, a leading supplier of image processing solutions for computer vision applications, is today publishing preliminary business figures for financial year 2023. 

The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the chip crisis, as well as increased geopolitical tensions, posed significant challenges for the Basler Group in 2023. The exceptional boom of the previous two years, with a cumulative sales growth of more than 50 %, turned out to be premature, and customer ordering behavior to be exaggerated due to the chip shortage. Already at the beginning of the year, due to weak incoming orders, a high number of cancellations from Asia and shrinking order backlogs, as well as negative macroeconomic developments, it became apparent that it would be a difficult year. The management responded with a strict cost-cutting program in the first quarter. When it became clear that the markets in Asia and North America would not recover as expected in the second half of the year, a restructuring program was initiated in the middle of the year. 

After a decade and a half of uninterrupted profitable growth, incoming orders of the Basler Group decreased by 33 % to Euro 166.9 million (previous year: Euro 248.4 million) compared to the previous year, sales fell by 25 % to Euro 203.1 million (previous year: Euro 272.2 million) resulting in a pre-tax loss of Euro -20.2 million (previous year: Euro 28.3 million). One-time restructuring charges amounted to Euro 12.2 million and accounted for a significant portion of the pre-tax loss.

With these results, Basler closes the financial year in line with the forecast revised in the middle of the year and specified in November, which envisaged sales of between Euro 200 million and Euro 205 million with a pre-tax loss of between Euro 18 million and Euro 20 million for the 2023 financial year.

Free cash flow, the sum of cash flow from operating activities and cash flow from investments, amounted to Euro -9.2 million (previous year: Euro -31.8 million). This was burdened in particular by the high costs of the organization with declining sales and the one-time special payments from the restructuring as well as the high level of investment due to the installation of the new building and the S/4 Hana project at the beginning of the year.

The measures of the restructuring program launched in mid-2023 were successfully implemented as planned by the end of 2023 and will, from today's perspective, reduce the Group's profit threshold to below Euro 200 million in sales revenues in 2024.

The ongoing weak level of incoming orders and continued high customer inventory levels in the first weeks of the fiscal year 2024 make the management cautious about the first quarter, despite increasingly positive feedback from customers. As a result, the management will continue its strict cost management for the time being.

Against the backdrop of the large loss and the drastic measures in the fiscal year 2023, as well as to protect liquidity and further restore the company's resilience in an uncertain overall economic market situation, the management board of Basler AG decided at its meeting today to propose to the annual general meeting to suspend the payment of a dividend for the fiscal year 2023 and to carry forward the entire balance sheet profit to new account. The company's fundamental dividend policy remains unchanged.

Further background information on the 2023 results, the forecast for the 2024 financial year and a medium-term outlook will follow with the publication of the final figures and the annual report on March 28, 2024.

Basler AG is an international leader and experienced expert in computer vision. The company offers a broad coordinated portfolio of vision hardware and software. In addition, it enables customers to solve their vision application issues by developing customer-specific products or solutions. Founded in 1988, the Basler Group employs more than 1,000 people at its headquarters in Ahrensburg, Germany, as well as other sales and development locations throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. 
 

Basler AG, Hardy Mehl (CFO/COO), An der Strusbek 60 – 62, 22926 Ahrensburg, Tel. +49 (0)4102-463101, ir/baslerweb.com, www.baslerweb.com, ISIN DE 0005102008