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Place de cotation: EURONEXT
AMSTERDAM STOCK EXCHANGE
Blue Fox Enterprises N.V.
is a CAD/CAM supplier. Blue Fox supplies CAD/CAM/ERP solutions for the
international textile and apparel industry. In addition, Blue Fox distributes
CAD/CAM software for engineering solutions and supplies CAD/GIS solutions
for government institutions. Blue Fox also provides CAD services such as
recruitment and training courses.
Blue Fox has been listed
on the Official Market of the Euronext Amsterdam N.V. stock exchange since
21 May 1999 and has been a part of the NextEconomy segment since 1 January
2002
http://www.bluefox.nl/
Blue
Fox ensures additional financing and makes first step in turn around
Blue Fox announces the
agreement of a credit facility of EUR 4.6 million with Fortis Bank (Nederland)
N.V. With this credit facility, Blue Fox has ensured the additional funding
to finance its turn around.
At the publication of
the interim results on 28 August 2006, Blue Fox announced it was negotiating
additional financial room with its creditors. This additional financing
was necessary to bridge the period between the effectuation of the possible
sale of operating companies and the current insufficient cash flow. The
term of the additional credit facility runs until April 2007.
Currently Blue Fox is
working intensively on the turn around. The holding is being sized down,
and the Dordrecht office has been closed. Furthermore, Blue Fox has signed
an agreement for the sale of CADJobs to the current management of this
subsidiary. CadJobs, with three corporate employees, is specialist in secondment
of CAD specialists and was part of Blue Fox s Engineering and Geographic
Information Software
division.
HALF YEAR FIGURES 2006
Dordrecht, 28 August
2006
Highlights half year
figures 2006:
Net loss increased to
3.5 million (H1 2005: 0.9 million), mainly due to additional costmeasures
and provisions totalling 2.5 million
Sales increased tot 25.4
million from 24.6 million, particularly as a result of the relative increase
in retail sales (third party software).
Further far-reaching
reorganisation will lead to additional provisioning in second half 2006
Turn-around necessary,
current cash flow not sufficient to finance this operation Solvency decrease
to 21.8%, negotiations with banks for additional financing Strong market
positions and election as strategic partner for Microsoft constitute
platform for future growth
Key figures half year
2006
(x 1 mln unless stated
otherwise) H1 2006 H1 2005
Net sales 25.4 24.6
Gross margin 13.5 14.1
Operational result -
3.0 - 1.0
Pre-tax profit -3.2 -
1.1
Net profit -3.5 -0.9
Cashflow +1.8 +1.9
Earnings per share (
) - 0.99 -0.26
30 June 2006 31 Dec 2005
Solvency 21.8% 34.5%
Cees van Steijn, nominated
as Blue Fox new CEO, stated:
The cost reduction measures
implemented in 2005 proved inadequate. The lagging result development necessitates
further reorganisation and stringent measures. A far-reaching turn-around
and such operation cannot be financed from current cash flow. Operating
companies will inevitably be put up for sale. However, in the short time
I have been involved in Blue Fox, I have become convinced of the possibilities.
Some operating companies constitute an excellent platform for The CAD/CAM
business is high quality. We will have to make clear investment decisions
with the available cash. I expect to present and implement plans in the
near term.
The result development
and the extra provisions that will be made during the second half of 2006
illustrate that Blue Fox will be hitting a low this year. The number of
foreign sales offices will be decreased and the debt position will be reduced
by selling off operating companies. First of all, we have entered into
conversations with our financiers to enable this operation.
First half 2006
During the first half
year, it has become clear that the cost reductions we put in place in 2005
have proved inadequate. In spite of the earlier reorganisation, our current
cost level is still too high for the organisation's size.
Over the first half of
2006, Blue Fox realised a 3.2% increase in sales to a total of 25.4 million
(H12005: 24.6 million). This was achieved thanks to a 12% increase in the
sales of the Engineering andGIS software division, from 13.0 million to
14.5 million. However, at the same time, sales in the textile and apparel
software division showed a 7% decline, from 9.5 million in the fist half
of 2005 to
8.9 million in the first
half of 2006. The sales figures of the US based sales offices showed a
healthygrowth of 4%, while the sales of the EMEA offices in Europe decreased
by 12%. The latter was mainly due to the disappointing turnover of the
French sales office.
The positive effect of
the cost reductions achieved in the first half of 2006 was fully absorbed
by incidental costs and provisions charged to the result. The company s
net result dropped from minus 0.9 million in the first half of 2005 to
minus 3.5 million in the first half of this year. Of this loss, 2.5 million
was incurred due to incidental provisions; 0.7 million of this loss concerns
actual cash-out. |
