BERLIN: PSI Group increased new orders by 4% to the new record value of EUR 97 million in the first quarter of the year ended March 31, 2019. The volume of orders on 31 March 2019 was therefore, at EUR 184 million, 6% above the figure for the previous year.[the_ad id=”31605″]Group sales improved by just about 14% to EUR 52.0 million thanks primarily to organic growth in the production segment and the takeover in the energy segment. The EBIT increased by 6% to EUR 3.0 million, the group EBIT improved by 4% to EUR 2.0 million.
Energy management (energy grids, energy trading, public transportation) attained 13 % higher sales of EUR 25.3 million and a constant EBIT of EUR 1.1 million in the first quarter. The Smart Grid division of BTC AG in Germany, which was taken over on 1 January 2019, has 143 employees and an incoming order volume of EUR 5.2 million, of which EUR 3.2 million are annual maintenance extensions, external sales of EUR 1.6 million and a burden of EUR -1.1 million due to underutilization.
This special charge was offset by better results with PSI control systems for gas and electricity networks. The underutilized, highly qualified employees were assigned to PSI control customer projects and will make an increasing productive contribution after familiarization from March to July.
The business with the acquired PRINS control system is expected to generate annual sales of EUR 5 to 6 million with losses of up to 20%, especially from the convergence development Release 8. If necessary, the management will make further adjustments in the second half of the year. In the gas network business PSI increased order intake, sales and earnings due to the new upgrade subscription business and the recovery of the Russian business.
At EUR 26.7 million, sales in production management (raw materials, metals, industry, logistics) in the first three months were about 15% over the figure for the previous year. In the metals business, which has been experiencing uncertainty among European customers about customs duties and emissions since summer 2018, PSI received a major order from the Chinese steel manufacturer HBIS Laoting Steel.
The Logistics business is enjoying another leap in incoming orders and sales based on the products migrated to the group platform. In the further course of the year significantly better results are expected from better economies of scale.
In automotive and industry PSI further increased incoming orders, sales and earnings with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Production Order Management (POM) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) migrated to the group platform.
In the coming quarters PSI expects a further increase in the high-margin license, maintenance, upgrade and cloud business as well as a continuation of the positive order trend. For 2019, the PSI Executive Board continues to expect sales growth of 10% to EUR 220 million and an increase in the EBIT to EUR 17 million.