Barco reveals EBITDA margin expansion on high sales growth

Barco, a global technology provider that develops networked visualization solutions for the entertainment, enterprise and healthcare markets, recently announced its EBITDA results for the six and twelve month periods ended 31 December 2016. The results highlighted Barco’s robust growth during the aforementioned period and validated its strategy to advance technological initiatives, grow channel network, and lower product costs.

Fiscal year 2016 financial highlights

- Incoming orders at 1081.2 million euro (+ 3.6%)

- Sales at 1102.3 million euro (+ 7.0%)

- Gross profit margin at 34.4% (+ 1.6 ppts)

- EBITDA of 88.0 million euro (+ 13.9 million euro) or 8.0% of sales (+ 0.8 ppts)

- EBIT <1> of 36.6 million euro (+34.9 million euro) or 3.3% of sales (+3.2 ppts)

- Net income of 11.0 million euro

- Free cash flow of 57.4 million euro

- Net financial cash position of 286.6 million euro

- Proposal to increase the dividend to 1.90 euro per share from 1.75 euro

Commenting on the successful year, Jan De Witte, CEO, Barco, said, “Barco delivered solid sales growth and improved profitability for 2016. Initiatives to lower product costs and a favourable product mix led to a gain in gross profit margin versus 2015 and a year-over-year increase in EBITDA margin, even with significant investments in growth initiatives during the year.”

Known for its visualization technologies, particularly in the projection and display markets, Barco has recently sharpened its focus on networking and collaboration technologies. The company also invested heavily in growth initiatives in 2016.

Barco has been observing a robust growth trajectory in India, thanks in large part due to its innovative technologies. Having earned a reputation of being a hi-tech Multinational corporation with a significant local footprint and a name in operational excellence, Barco has established its market dominance in India and has several prominent clients across multiple industries leveraging its state-of-the-art technologies. With more and more companies in the enterprise, healthcare, and entertainment sectors increasingly opting for innovative visualization technologies, Barco India looks forward to build on a successful 2016 and deliver continued growth in sales and profitability in 2017.

Sharing the outlook for 2017, Jan De Witte concluded, “For 2017, our goal is to continue generating sales and profitability growth through further leveraging our technology, software and services. We will continue to drive gross margin accretion initiatives and make choices across business activities, while continuing to invest in innovation.”