DGAP-News: UNIWHEELS AG: 2015: Successful year for

DGAP-News: UNIWHEELS AG / Key word(s): Market Report UNIWHEELS AG: 2015: Successful year for UNIWHEELS AG (news with additional features) 15.12.2015 / 10:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015: Successful year for UNIWHEELS AG - The largest IPO on Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2015 - Company received EUR 62.7mln for increasing its production capacity by 25% - Momentum in car production business continues - October 2015 - the best month in Company's history in terms of sales volume - over 855 thousand wheels sold - Construction works in Stalowa Wola on time, start of production planned in August 2016 - Very good perspectives for 2016 Bad Dürkheim, 15th December: Germany-based alloy wheels manufacturer UNIWHEELS AG presented its annual review for 2015 and perspective for 2016. 2015 business summary and construction of new plant "2015 was a very successful and satisfying year for UNIWHEELS AG and was probably the best year we've had in the company's history. Business conditions in 2015 have been very favorable, growing car sales volumes allowed us to achieve record sales volumes to OEM business during the whole year and we achieved further improvements in productivity. October 2015 was the best month in UNIWHEELS history with over 855 thousand wheels sold. Despite capacity constraints we were able to increase productivity - and therefore wheel output - to meet growing demand from car manufacturers. - says Ralf Schmid, UNIWHEELS AG CEO. "The outlook remains very positive. We are looking forward to the launch of our new plant in Stalowa Wola in the summer 2016 to satisfy continued high customer demand" - he adds. In the first nine months of 2015 UNIWHEELS Group sold 5.7 million wheels, (in total an increase of 7% over the nine months of 2014). In October sales reached 855.3 thousand wheels (+12.6% y/y). - best sales in UNIWHEELS' history in terms of sales volume. And in November 744.4 thousand wheels (+11,5% y/y). were sold - the best November in the group's history. The new production plant in the production site of Stalowa Wola, Poland, will allow to increase the Group's capacity by approx. 2 million wheels by end of 2017 (up to approx. 10 mln wheels in total). Ramp up of operations is planned to start in spring and increased production is planned to commence in August 2016. Investment is financed mainly from IPO proceeds. Initial public offering in Warsaw and financial results In April UNIWHEELS AG successfully conducted an initial public offering on Warsaw Stock Exchange and debuted on May 8th, 2015 on the WSE main market. From the issue of new shares, the Company received the amount of approx. EUR 62.7 mln gross - proceeds are used to finance the construction of new production plant in Stalowa Wola. In total, the value of IPO reached EUR 125.4 mln and was the largest IPO conducted in the last two years in Poland. "After successful IPO - largest in Poland in the last two years - and after the debut in Warsaw we became a part of a professional capital market. Transformation into a public company enabled us further professionalization of our organization with expanded corporate functions, such as Compliance, Risk Management and Investor Relations. Company is beyond complying with all regulatory and reporting standards and is actively approaching the capital market with a high level of transparency and Investor Relations standards. Also we are very happy with a prompt inclusion of UNIWHEELS shares into sWIG80 index" - says Dr Karsten Obenaus, UNIWHEELS AG CFO. Revenues and profits of our company increased significantly this year, thanks to favorable product mix - with growing share of bigger and more complex surfaces wheels designed for renowned premium models and improved productivity. Healthy financials, an equity ratio of nearly 60% and very low net debt is a trusted basis for future expansion and fulfillment of our strategic goal to grow faster than the market" - adds Dr Obenaus. During nine months of 2015 UNIWHEELS generated EUR 320.2 million in revenues, an increase of 21.6% compared to 9M 2014. EBITDA increased to EUR 41.6 million (+32% yoy) and EBITDA margin improved to 13.0% (from 12.0% for 9M 2014). For the fiscal year 2015 UNIWHEELS expects a wheel sales growth of approximately 7 to 8 percent, a revenue growth of approximately 17 to 20 percent, an EBITDA growth of approximately 20 to 22 percent and a dividend payout ratio of 50 percent. Executive board with Chief Automotive Officer In June 2015 the executive board was enlarged to 3 members and Dr Thomas Buchholz was appointed as UNIWHEELS AG Chief Automotive Officer. He is responsible for the management of the Automotive Division. Dr. Buchholz has many years of international management experience in the automotive industry as well as with stock-listed companies. "In 2015 we were able to sustain our focus on premium cars producers as an OEM. We also do not feel any impact from Volkswagen case. Order book for the upcoming years is more than fully booked. At the same time we managed to broaden and diversify our customer base with new customers and achieved a growing share of Jaguar-Land Rover or BMW/Mini Groups in our portfolio. Our customer base consists of more than 20 brands of almost all major car producers. The latests SUV models by the most renown premium car producers will be equipped with our wheels" - says Dr Thomas Buchholz. Outlook for 2016 "We are very optimistic when it comes to 2016. Momentum in car production business continues. The demand from our customers - all major premium car manufacturers - remains high. According to LMC Automotive research, November sales in the Western European car market increased by 12.8 percent. Capacity constraints will last only until summer 2016. Construction works of new plant in Stalowa Wola are on schedule. Hall building is completed, and first elements for the new painting line - key investment part of new plant - are being installed. Start of production in the new plant in Stalowa Wola is planned for August with a production volume of 0.5 mln wheels in 2016 and from 2017 up to 2 mln wheels. This means that our capacity in Stalowa Wola plants will increase by one third. The new plant will not require additional overhead - therefore it will generate considerable economies of scale" - summarizes Ralf Schmid. About UNIWHEELS: The UNIWHEELS Group is one of the leading manufacturers of aluminum wheels for cars in Europe and is one of the few technology leaders worldwide in the aluminum wheel industry. UNIWHEELS is the third largest European supplier of OEM wheels for the automotive industry as well as the market-leading manufacturer of alloy wheels for the accessories market (AM) in Europe. Well-known Group brands include ATS, RIAL, ALUTEC and ANZIO. The Group currently has three production plants, two of which are in Poland (Stalowa Wola) and one in Germany (Werdohl). UNIWHEELS sees itself as one of the leading partners of the automotive industry for the optimum reduction of CO2 emissions by reducing the weight of alloy wheels. As well as weight-optimized construction methods, the following procedures are primarily used: Flow Forming, Lightforming, undercutting and forging. On May 8th, 2015 UNIWHEELS AG went public on Main Market of Warsaw Stock Exchange (IPO). The UNIWHEELS stock is floated under security identification number A13STW, ISIN DE000A13STW4 and ticker symbol UNW. For more information please contact: Oliver Madsen Head of Investor Relations E-Mail: o.madsen@de.uniwheels.com UNIWHEELS AG Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 10 67098 Bad Dürkheim Germany +++++ Additional features: Document: http://n.equitystory.com/c/fncls.ssp?u=FUIPKEXGFB Document title: 2015: Successful year for UNIWHEELS AG --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15.12.2015 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 423663 15.12.2015