Customers Place New Orders With Hoeft & Wessel

HANNOVER, Germany, August 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

- Business development in the first half of the year in line with expectations

The Hoeft & Wessel Group again recorded an increase in its order intake in the second quarter of the current financial year. The total volume of orders newly entered in the order books in the first six months of the year came to EUR 43.6 million, substantially up on the previous year (2011: EUR 32.8 million). These included orders for ticket vending machines from the Belgian state-owned railway SNCB, from a Polish partner for the industrial region of Upper Silesia and from the Danish national railway. Follow-up orders for on-board computers with ticket printers for line buses were ordered by a partner in South Africa. Two cities in the U.S. opted for car park terminals from the British subsidiary Metric. In the German retail sector, Rossmann and Rewe ordered additional mobile data capture terminals. The order portfolio saw a corresponding substantial rise in the first half of 2012, to EUR 49.3 million (31 December 2011: EUR 43.9 million).

In the first half of fiscal 2012, the manufacturer of ticketing and car park terminals as well as mobile terminals generated EUR 38.1 million in sales revenues, down by 12 per cent year-on-year in line with planning figures (2011: EUR 43.4 million). As a result of provisions and expenditure incurred within the scope of the reorientation, the operating result (EBIT), at -EUR 5.5 million, turned out substantially negative, as expected (2011: -EUR 1.3 million).

Following an unexpectedly poor business trend in 2011, in the year 2012 Hoeft & Wessel AG had launched a reorientation programme. With a substantial streamlining and a more effective organisational structure, the company is intensifying its customer orientation. Hoeft & Wessel is one of the leading suppliers of ticketing systems and mobile terminals in Europe. Moreover, together with the British subsidiary Metric, the group of companies is one of the world's biggest manufacturers of state-of-the-art car park terminals.

Michael Hoeft, CEO of Hoeft & Wessel AG: "We are well on our way towards achieving our reorientation with the objective of being able to take care of our customers even better and more extensively in future."

>> Link to the IR section with financial reports:

http://www.hoeft-wessel.com/en/investor-relations/financial-reports/

>> Press kit with photos:

http://www.presseportal.de/pm/12945/hoeft_wessel_ag/

The Company

The Hoeft & Wessel Group is the leading IT and engineering technology Group for ticketing, parking and mobile solutions in Germany and Great Britain. Established in 1978 by the two entrepreneurs who gave the company its name, the enterprise has developed into a group of companies with sales revenues of approx. EUR 80 million and a workforce of more than 400 employees. Its main locations are Hannover, Germany, and Swindon, UK, to the west of London.

Further inquiry note:
Arnd Fritzemeier

Tel.: +49-511-6102-300
E-Mail: PR@hoeft-wessel.com

Höft & Wessel AG
Rotenburger Str.  20
D-30659 Hannover
phone:  +49-511-6102-0
FAX:    +49-511-6102-411
mail:   ir@hoeft-wessel.com
WWW:    http://www.hoeft-wessel.com