German IT company Wincor Nixdorf says there are precious few signs of an imminent recovery in retail banking markets as it reports another quarter of depressed net sales and profits.
Net sales for the group, which supplies IT equipment for the branch operations of banks and retailers, fell in the first three months to €607 million (previous year: €646 million). Ebita was also lower at €49 million (€56 million). The Ebita margin fell accordingly to 8.1% (8.7%), while profit for the period declined six per cent to €33 million (€35 million).
Looking ahead at the rest of the fiscal year, Wincor Nixdorf president and CEO Eckard Heidloff points to the continued impact of the economic and financial crisis and the prospect of a further decline in the company's net sales and operating profit.
"In the short term at least we expect the worldwide environment to remain challenging. Developments in the market and in our business are still difficult to predict," he says.
Going further, he says it is not possible to identify any consistent trends in the IT solutions business for retail banks and retailers. Although capital expenditure on new systems to replace older IT infrastructure is being put back, he observes, most firms continue to spend on streamlining measures, rather than innovation and growth.
"We anticipate that the fundamental trends within our field of business will remain unchanged," says Heidloff. "However, at the moment it is not possible to predict when this will be translated into renewed growth."
Against this challenging backdrop, the company expects to report an equivalent decline in turnover for the full year to that experienced in 2009, with net sales falling by three per cent and a 31% slide in Ebita.