On the due date of 30 June 2017, investors in a mature convertible bond of 60 million euros converted almost 95 percent of their stake into Heidelberg shares.
This sees the company’s debts continue to decrease and the yearly costs of interest reduced by around five million euros. At the same time, profitability is increased and the equity ratio rises by almost 2.5 percent.
“We are very pleased to see the capital market’s confidence in the future of Heidelberg further strengthened. The increased share price and the conversion of the bond into equity are important indicators for us that we have been able to convince investors of our ‘Heidelberg goes digital’ strategy” emphasizes Heidelberg CFO Dirk Kaliebe.
Heidelberg had introduced the strategy’s three pillars, digital transformation, technological leadership, and operational excellence, at its Annual Press Conference on 8 June. Following its successful and sustainable return to the black, Heidelberg is planning a number of individual measures to achieve continuous growth culminating in Group sales of around EUR 3 billion by 2022. It is also planning to significantly increase profitability to an EBITDA of EUR 250 to 300 million and an after-tax profit of more than EUR 100 million.
“The remarkably high conversion percentage will greatly lower interest costs, thereby strengthening the company’s financial footing and giving Heidelberg additional latitude for accelerated implementation of its digitization strategy,” explains Kaliebe. “We will continue to work on steadily reducing our financing costs in the future also.”
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