Buoyant GfK Aims for MR's Top Three

One year after the acquisition of NOP World, GfK held its AGM today and reported healthy business growth in the first quarter of 2006. Dividend payments increased once again and revenue rose sharply as have orders for 2006 to date.

Sales rose by close to 55% and adjusted operating income was up 51%. (NB partly because 2005 figures do not, obviously, include NOP.)

CEO Professor Dr. Klaus L. Wübbenhorst said the board was very happy with progress of the integration. 'Having adapted the management, IT and financial reporting structures, we are now concentrating on the transfer of knowledge between the operating companies. Initial synergies have already been realized.'

Shareholders unanimously adopted the resolutions proposed at the meeting by the supervisory board and management board. These include the approval of a dividend of EUR0.33 per share for the financial year 2005, the extension of the share buy back programme and the election of new directors.

Since its IPO in 1999, GfK has increased dividend payments every year. During this time, the amount distributed has climbed 241%, rising from EUR 3.4 million to EUR 11.6 million.

The share buy back programme was also extended until December 28, 2007 and authorised capital was created to service the 2004 stock option programme. The merger between GfK and its wholly owned subsidiary GPI Kommunikationsforschung Gesellschaft für Pharma-Informations-Systeme mbH was also approved.

In addition, the chief executive of AS Watson Health & Beauty Europe, Jürgen Schreiber, was newly elected to the Supervisory Board of GfK, replacing Werner Spinner. The four remaining board members were all re-elected.

Prof Wübbenhorst went on to say: 'The presentation of our new 5 Star Initiative multi-year strategy has allowed us to shift the focus to the next five years, with target sales of EUR 1.5 billion and a margin of 13 to 15%. Together with the newly acquired companies, we intend to meet these targets and rise to a position among the top 3 in future.'

GfK says the positive outlook for the current financial year has been further bolstered by the high number of orders received. By the end of May, approx. 67% of the target sales for this year had already been invoiced or booked as orders on hand or orders received. GfK expects that sales will reach at least EUR 1.1 billion and that the margin (adjusted operating income on sales) will rise to at least 13% in 2006.

The company 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.

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