GfK Results Confirm 6.5% Organic Growth
February 28 2006
GfK's preliminary results, published today, confirm the company's upbeat forecast from a week ago and reveal what the group calls 'a year of extraordinary success'. Total sales of 935.4m euros, up 39%, include 198.0m euros for NOP World companies and 737.4m euros for the rest of the group. Organic growth was 6.5%.
EBIT including income from participations and highlighted items increased by over 41% to 128.6m euros, and the dividend is set to rise by 10% to 0.33 euros.
The company reported 'consistently high growth rates in all five business divisions', as follows:
- In the CUSTOM RESEARCH division, sales were up by 65.6% to 417.5m euros, of which 58.5% is attributable to acquisitions and 6.4% to organic growth.
- The RETAIL AND TECHNOLOGY division showed growth of 11.3% (organic 7.5%), with sales of 208.2m euros.
- In the CONSUMER TRACKING division, sales rose 6.5% to 100.6m euros (0.4 exchange rate gains, 6.2 organic growth). Growth was due, in particular, to the expansion of the ConsumerScan panel in Germany to include a total of 20,000 households.
- The MEDIA division saw sales rise by 53.2% to 95.4m euros (46.3% acquisitions, 6.7% organic growth and 0.3% currency effects). Strong organic growth stems in part from the contract for the supply of 4,000 GfK meters for measuring TV ratings in India.
- Sales in the HEALTHCARE division rose 56.3% to 106.4m euros (4.7% organic, 0.4% currency, the rest acquisitions).
- The OTHER division includes GfK Group Services, GfK Methoden- und Produktentwicklung (GfK method and product development) and GfK Data Services, Germany. This division recorded sales of 7.3m euros.
Growth by region- Germany - sales up 7.3% to 253.6m euros, with 6% of this attributable to organic growth.
- Western And Southern Europe - up 19.4% to 257.5m euros (acquisitions 10.8%, organic 8.6%).
- Northern Europe - sales up 129.6% to 127.6m euros, exclusively due to acquisitions..6%.
- Central And Eastern Europe - the strongest growth of all regions in organic terms with 23.5%. Total growth 32.4% to sales of 53.0m euros.
- Asia and The Pacific - sales of 38.8m euros, roughly the same as the previous year. GfK says 'a portion of the contracts that were previously awarded directly to the Asian subsidiaries have been commissioned by GfK in Germany since 2005 and accordingly are also invoiced by GfK in Germany.'
- America - growth of 141.7% was the highest growth rate of all the regions, achieving sales of 204.9m euros, almost entirely due to acquisitions in the region.
In 2005, GfK employed 7,502 full-time employees, 35.4% more than in 2004 (5,539). Following the acquisition of NOP World, GfK's staff complement increased by 1,552.
OutlookGfK anticipates total sales in excess of 1.1 billion euros for the financial year 2006. Based on the new scope of consolidation which applies since the beginning of the year, this equates to growth of around 18%. The company expects to once again outperform average sector growth in 2006, which experts are estimating at around 5%.
The Group is online at
www.gfk.com .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
