INGENICO Sales in 2004: Close to 20-Percent Growth

At constant exchange rates and on a pro forma basis, this amounts to annual growth of over 23 percent. Fourth-quarter sales came to €122 million (i.e. $161 million), marking a 20-percent increase over the €101.6 million posted in the fourth quarter of 2003. This positive outcome offset what was seen as a disappointing third quarter. INGENICO has achieved its strongest performance (at constant exchange rates) for any half year ever since the company was founded, with an estimated €218 million in (unaudited) consolidated sales for the second half of 2004. This represents growth of almost 12 percent over the published sales figures for H2 2003 (13.7 percent at constant exchange rates) and of more than 6 percent over the published sales figure for H1 2004 (7.2 percent at constant exchange rates). The good results in the second half reflect market uptake of our new, EMV-compliant product range, our Group’s enhanced manufacturing capacity and our steadily expanding service activity. Virtually all our sales regions contributed to this performance in H2 2004. Operating income for 2004 is likely to be somewhere between 3.5 and 4 percent of sales. This was a year marked by heavy expenditures on software applications and new market development, mounting competitive pressure and rationalization of our manufacturing capabilities through subcontracting – an area that we will be further optimizing in 2005.