LINZ (dpa-AFX) - The Austrian technology group Kontron has achieved a leap in sales following the takeover of the German electronics company Katek. The former S&T AG also increased profits strongly in its day-to-day business. However, Kontron Group CEO Hannes Niederhauser does not believe that the company has reached its goal yet: "We still have to realize many synergies and reduce costs", he wrote in the quarterly report published in Linz on Friday. As a result, trading in the Kontron share was volatile.

The manager also said that further measures were necessary in order to raise the operating profit margin (EBITDA margin) to more than ten percent. "In 2024, the focus will be on integrating Katek and increasing profitability," he continued. He plans to increase his stake in Katek in the first half of the year before the company is delisted.

After an increase of up to six percent, the shares in the SDax slipped to minus four percent at times. Most recently, the shares were still marginally up. Since the turn of the year, the Kontron share has thus lost around eleven percent in value. In the past, the stock market had reacted to the acquisition of Katek with skepticism and share price losses. Niederhauser argued that the new company had a lot of synergy potential with little overlap with Kontron. Existing software could be integrated into Katek products.

Katek was consolidated for the first time in March, with a turnover of 54 million euros. Overall, Kontron's first-quarter revenue climbed by almost 36 percent year-on-year to a good EUR 356 million, as the company also announced. However, Jefferies analyst Martin Comtesse described the development in an initial reaction as a "slower start to the new year".

Adjusted for takeover costs and one-off effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) climbed by almost a third to EUR 39.2 million. On the bottom line, however, Kontron earned EUR 16.3 million, slightly less than in the same quarter of the previous year.

The Management Board confirmed the targets of an increase in sales from EUR 1.2 billion to at least EUR 1.9 billion in the current year and an increase in profits by a third to around EUR 100 million. The operating result (EBITDA) is expected to increase by around 50 percent to 190 million euros./ngu/lew/jha/