Order income and sales increase in the third quarter - higher manufacturing costs impact on result - Free Cashflow higher year on year despite higher investment expenditure -- operating margin for the entire year expected in the middle single-digit percentage range

Roding, 08 November 2012. Overall, the Mühlbauer technology group successfully managed to counter the difficult market environment resulting from the European financial and debt crisis and the decline of growth in newly industrializing and developing countries, and to step up its order income against the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Sales also climbed in the quarter under review - as expected - and the company is still assuming it will achieve a year-on-year increase in sales for the entire year.

Sales. In the past quarter, the technology group achieved sales of EUR 65,0 million, thus recording a plus of EUR 11.6 million or 21.9% against the corresponding quarter of the previous year (PY: EUR 53.4 million). This rise is due to increases in all three business areas. While Cards & TECURITY® recorded a slight upturn by EUR 1.7 million or 5.2%, from EUR 31.6 million in Q3 2011 to EUR 33.3 million in the third quarter of this year, Semiconductor Related Products reported a significant sales increase: In the past quarter the company posted sales of EUR 24.8 million, which corresponds to a EUR 8.7 million or a 54.3% rise against the same quarter of the previous year (PY: EUR 16.1 million). The reason for this tremendous increase was first and foremost the semiconductor backend business, which almost achieved a seven-fold increase in sales against Q3 2011, thanks in particular to the constant high demand for smartphones and tablet PCs. At EUR 6.9 million (PY: EUR 5.7 million), Precision Parts & Systems also achieved a sales rise and grew EUR 1.2 million or 21.0% year-on-year.

Earnings development. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in respect of the quarter under review, dropped by EUR 1.7 million against Q3 2011, to EUR 3.0 million (PY: EUR 4.7 million). This development is the result of a further rise of cost-of-production ratio to the current 78.6%, after 63.3% year-on-year. The significant rise of costs of goods sold is due in particular to higher investment-related depreciations and value adjustments on inventory assets. The latter is the result of the sustained bad news in respect of the global economy and the intensification of competition from price-aggressive providers, in particular from Asia. Based on the sales of EUR 65.0 million achieved in the period under review, the operating result corresponds to an EBIT margin of 4.5% - after 8.9% year-on-year. During the reporting period, the share of profit applicable to each share totals EUR 0.21, after EUR 0.23 year-on-year.

Cashflow. Despite a comparatively higher investment expenditure by EUR 1,9 million, at EUR 6.7 million, the adjusted free cashflow was EUR 13.0 million higher year-on-year (PY: minus EUR 6.3 million) as a result of the EUR 11.1 million lower working capital (PY: minus EUR 2.3 million).

Order income and order backlog. In Q3 2012, at EUR 61.1 million, the consolidated order income of the Mühlbauer Group was EUR 4.7 million or 8.3% higher year-on-year (PY: EUR 56.4 million).  Cause of this increase was the company's core business area Cards & TECURITY®, which also compensated for the decline in Semiconductor Related Products - caused by an investment stop on the semiconductor market and a hesitant attitude on the RFID market.  Despite the economic insecurity caused by the European debt crisis, Precision Parts & Systems proved stable and the year-on-year values were in fact slightly exceeded.

On 30 September 2012, at EUR 212.7 million, the consolidated backlog of the globally active technology group was EUR 1.1 million or 0.5% under last year's value (EUR 213.8 million).

Outlook. The management is increasingly exercising caution and further raising its risk provisions, due to the continuous bad news in respect of the global economy and the intensification of competition from price-aggressive providers, in particular from Asia. Against this background, the company is expecting to achieve an operating margin for the entire year that is in the middle single-digit percentage range and thus at the bottom end of the bandwidth forecast so far.  Even though experts do not believe that the global economy is likely to improve significantly in the next financial year, Mühlbauer still considers itself well positioned medium to long-term, due to its worldwide unique solution orientation. The company will therefore reinforce its attempts to benefit strongly from this.

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As an independent partner, Mühlbauer is already involved in more than 300 ID projects and supports numerous governments and public authorities worldwide, accepting full responsibility for the introduction of innovative ID documents. As a developer and manufacturer of the complete range of hardware and software systems in-house, customers benefit particularly from the technological and market expertise of the solution provider for the recording of personal and biometric data, the production and personalization of individual ID documents such as ID cards and ePassports, through to fully automatic access controls, which is gained over a period of thirty years.

Contact:

MÜHLBAUER HOLDING AG & CO. KGaA

Benedikt Geißler

Corporate Communications

Josef-Mühlbauer-Platz 1

D-93426 Roding, Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 9461-952-1653

Fax: +49 (0) 9461-952-8520

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