Stable sales during Leoni’s Q1

Consolidated sales from January to March came to EUR 959.0 million, down from EUR 969.1 million in the same period of the previous year. This involved consistently good sales to the automotive industry for the Asian and North American markets, whereas demand from carmakers in Europe as well as from other customer industries was down. Consolidated earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to EUR 38.5 million in the first three months of 2013 (previous year: EUR 94.2 million). Non-recurring positive items amounting to EUR 34.5 million boosted the comparable figure for the same period of the previous year. By contrast and as planned, the Company had to absorb substantial start-up costs and pre-production expenses for new wiring system orders, spending on IT projects as well as the effect of lower utilisation of capacity to produce cable for industrial applications at the beginning of 2013. On 31 March 2013, Leoni employed 59,884 people Group-wide; 491 more than at the turn of the year (31 December 2012: 59,393). In Germany, Leoni had 4,180 employees at the end of the period under report; up from 4,172 at the end of 2012. The Company still forecasts sales of about EUR 3.7 billion for the year as a whole (previous year: EUR 3.81 billion).