MBB SE, Nesemeier, Christof

The IPO of Aumann AG was certainly the biggest event in MBB's history in over 22 years, an enormous success for us. Why did we decide to do it? We have experienced the development of Aumann and saw that it was gaining more and more importance in our portfolio and overshadowing everything else. We considered what the right step would be for the future, and we believe that through the IPO, on the one hand, we have demonstrated this special quality and value, but we have also taken further structural steps that will move us forward. First of all, Aumann now has net cash of over 60 million euros to finance its growth on its own, and in the future, access to the capital market to perhaps take further steps if necessary to cushion this exorbitant growth in electromobility. That is one side of the coin. The other side is that MBB has also received a lot of fresh cash from the sale of shares. We now have nearly 180 million euros in the holding, and we will use that to buy further portfolio companies, expand our portfolio so that we have more balance. Our equity alone has grown by 140 million euros through this step, so that is also a very positive step. We still hold 53.6% of Aumann and want to actively accompany the development of this extraordinary company in the future. We are pleased to be able to be there as the majority shareholder.

First of all, we need to talk about Aumann again. This is the revolution of electromobility. The entire automotive industry worldwide is being turned upside down, in my opinion. This requires plant investments from which Aumann will essentially benefit. This is of course a unique situation, a unique opportunity that will not be found again in this form. But our other portfolio companies also have similar developments that may not be so prominent in everyday life but also offer these companies a very good development perspective. We had, for example, DTS. It achieved a sales increase of 25 percent last year alone. Why? The company is particularly active in IT security. They have become a partner of Palo Alto twice, and everyone knows what it means when corporate structures or public institutions are not secure. That is discussed in the press. We are the problem solver, we have the right means, and that is why DTS's development is underpinned by an extraordinary trend. Similar with CT Formpolster. There, a few years ago we decided to focus on the sale or production and processing of mattresses sold online. That has brought an incredible boost. There too, with the ongoing trend of mattresses moving from brick-and-mortar retail to the internet, they are the provider. Just last year, they opened a new hall with 20,000 square meters, and we expect further growth from that. Finally, Hanke must also be mentioned. Increasingly, the ecological material quality that this company represents is becoming clear. We have growing sales not only in the automotive industry but also increasingly in the rail transport industry, where we have won very nice large orders. I am firmly convinced that this company also has a very positive development ahead, underpinned by this trend.

We were able to increase our sales, our consolidated group sales, by 25 percent to nearly 100 million euros. We had no acquisitions last year, so it was purely organic growth, and that is of course very significant. We were able to increase the result from 3.8 million to over 5 million in Q1, an increase of 38 percent, and that is also a very, very good result. Naturally, Aumann has a large share of that, and Aumann itself grew by 30 percent to about half of the group sales of 50 million. But if you see that the whole group grows by 25 percent and Aumann by 30, then almost 20 million euros in sales remain for the other holdings, meaning they also grew very, very strongly, and we benefited greatly. I already mentioned the holdings: it was DTS, Hanke, and Technik that represent that.

We published a forecast for 2017. That means we expect consolidated sales of 390 million euros across the portfolio. Compared to 332 million that we achieved in 2016, that is again a very, very respectable increase. Furthermore, we said that we will achieve a net profit of 14.3 million euros, exactly the previous year's result. Why? Because we naturally have the sale of shares of Aumann in the consolidated results. In sales, it is fully consolidated, but in profit, we will see that. And you can see that despite the sale of a significant part, we can maintain the profit level and have excellent conditions to grow beyond that.

No, we will not change our strategy. We have had a very successful corporate development for over 22 years, especially in the last ten years, growing by over 20 percent in both sales and profit. This confirms us. Aumann is now a highlight, but one of many in the long company history. Therefore, we will stick to our knitting, do what we have done in the past. What changes is that our company has become larger, significantly larger, has significantly more financial possibilities, and accordingly, perhaps the one or other ticket we will target in the future will be somewhat larger than in the past.

First of all, our dividend policy is also unchanged since time immemorial. Since our stock market listing in 2006, we have maintained this policy, which states that when we have good years, we make a slight dividend increase, and we want to be able to pay the previous year's dividend in bad years. That has succeeded in all years since 2006. This year, we will increase the dividend from 59 to 61 cents. We have proposed that to the Annual General Meeting. There is another aspect: if we have extraordinary events, we pay the dividend once double. We will also propose that to the Annual General Meeting: once 61 cents normal and once 61 cents extra, as we did in 2010.

We had, I think it was three years ago, we once had the vision, with our visions, that we want to achieve 500 million euros in consolidated sales by 2020. Fortunately, this vision has developed over the years into a very conservative corporate planning. That means I am firmly convinced that we will achieve this conservative corporate planning and will be talking about over 500 million euros or more in consolidated sales in 2020. Furthermore, we plan to increasingly focus on perhaps one day becoming a member of the MDAX. That means we have good conditions, we have become larger, we have higher liquidity in the stock, and all that leads to us being able to imagine that. We have set that as a further goal. When I look at the development over the last 22 years and also look at the current situation, I personally have to say that not all years had the best starting conditions for the development of the company as we have today. We have great subsidiaries, we have sufficient financial resources, are completely independent, have a huge wealth of experience on board, and all that leads me to be firmly convinced that both the stock price and the original development of MBB will continue to be very positive in the future.