EANS-Adhoc: BENE AG / Bene provides first assessment of the 2010/11 results

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Company Information

06.04.2011

Vienna/Waidhofen an der Ybbs, 6 April 2011. The Bene Group, a listed
company on the Vienna Stock Exchange, announced at an institutional
investor´s meeting today their initial assessments of the results of
the financial year 2010/11, which ended on 31 January 2011.

The company stated that turnover in the prior financial year may have
decreased slightly by approximately 5% (2009/10: EUR 179.3 million).
While turnover fell in the first half of the year by 19.5% to EUR
77.1 million (first half of 2009/10: EUR 95.8 million), it increased
significantly in the second half of 2010/11, outdoing the prior
half-year´s results by more than 10%. At the same time, the Bene
Group has significantly increased the share of high-margin products
in the annual turnover over the course of the year, thereby improving
the gross margin, as well as saving additional targeted costs and
increasing the organisation´s overall efficiency. Despite the lower
sales figure for financial year 2010/11, the Austrian office
furniture manufacturer anticipates a positive EBITDA that will far
exceed comparable figures for the previous year (2009/10: EUR -5.2
million). According to preliminary figures, the Bene Group has also
improved its EBIT, although this figure will still remain in the
negative. This must be viewed in the context of the cyclical nature
of the office furniture industry, which traditionally reacts with an
approximately two-quarter delay to economic developments in the
individual markets.

Due to a clearly positive operative cash flow, the Bene Group expects
to return to the path of growth over the course of the financial
year. With the moderate improvement of the global economic climate in
2010, the Bene Group was able to introduce a positive trend in the
quarterly results during the course of the 2010/11 financial year.
Bene Group management therefore anticipates a bottoming out in the
relevant markets and time-delayed positive effects on the business,
leading them to expect significant improvement in turnover for
financial year 2011/12.

The final results for financial year 2010/11 will be published in
accordance with the financial calendar on 19 May 2011.

About Bene. Bene is convinced that there is a clear connection
between the design of office and work environments, company culture
and the success of a company. Bene´s concepts, products and services
turn this philosophy into reality. Development, design and production
as well as consulting and sales are united under one roof. With 83
sites in 33 countries and 1,248 employees worldwide, Bene offers its
customers regional access to all of its services. In the business
year 2009/10, consolidated sales of the Bene Group amounted to EUR
179.3 million. Bene is the market leader in Austria and number five
in Europe.

end of announcement euro adhoc
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ots Originaltext: BENE AG
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Further inquiry note:

Investor Relations:
Martina Vomela
Schwarzwiesenstraße 3
A-3340 Waidhofen/Ybbs
IR Hotline: +43-7442-500-3100
ir@bene.com

Branche: Furnishings & Furniture
ISIN: AT00000BENE6
WKN:
Index: ATX Prime
Börsen: Wien / official market