Westag & Getalit AG announced consolidated earnings results for the year 2018. For the year, the company reported consolidated sales revenues of EUR 233.2 million as compared to EUR 234.4 million a year ago. In spite of the generally positive environment in the construction sector, total revenues were adversely affected by weaker domestic business. Necessary repair work on the power plant and the resulting downtime also had an adverse effect on domestic revenues. Export revenues showed a positive trend in both divisions. They were up by 6.0% on 2017 and totalled EUR 57.9 million in the fiscal year 2018 (previous year: EUR 54.6 million). As a result, the export share increased from 23.3% to 24.8%. The Group's earnings in 2018 were primarily affected by increased material and freight costs and personnel expenses. To offset these cost increases and to stabilise the profit contributions, the company announced price increases for its own products for 2019 already at the end of the third quarter of 2018. One-time effects additionally weighed on the result in the fiscal year 2018. Consolidated net profit moved in line with earnings before taxes and reached EUR 4.5 million as compared to EUR 6.5 million a year ago. Earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.87 per preference share as compared to EUR 1.25 a year ago and to EUR 0.81 per ordinary share as compared to EUR 1.19 a year ago.

The company provided sales revenue guidance for the year 2019. For 2019, management projects a high single-digit percentage increase in sales revenues and a noticeable improvement in earnings before taxes and, consequently, in consolidated net profit. In spite of the moderate revenue trend at the beginning of the year, the Management Board remains optimistic that these projections will be met. Besides the measures mentioned above, this expectation is also based on continued good construction activity.