Sogefi Business Report FY2007

Business Highlights

Financial overview
(in million Euros) FY2007 FY2006 Rate of change(%) Factors
Overall
Consolidated Sales revenues 1,071.8 1,018.6 5.2 -
Filter division
Sales 548.2 527.2 4.0 -The Filtration business achieved a 4% increase in revenues compared with 2006, thanks to a positive trend in demand for original equipment (+10.2%), as well as growth in original equipment spares (+0.8%) and in the independent aftermarket (+1.2%).
The main contributor to these higher revenues was South America (+13.2%), while Europe made more modest progress (+2%).
Operating income 57.7 58.1 (0.7) -Consolidated operating profit of 57.7 million euros (10.5% of sales) suffered a modest reduction compared with 58.1 million euros (11% of sales) in 2006. The result in Europe has fallen by 2.2%, mainly because of a deterioration in the profitability of the Italian subsidiary, while in the Mercosur operating profit has improved by 15.3% thanks to the increase in sales.
Suspension Components and Precision Spring Division
Sales revenues 524.6 491.6 6.7 -The Suspension Components business in 2007 achieved significant growth in revenues, mainly thanks to the improvement in market shares in South America and in the European industrial vehicles market, as well as higher demand from French and Italian car manufacturers.
Operating income 58.8 51.2 14.8 -Despite the price hikes in steel and energy, consolidated operating profit improved on the previous year thanks to the increase in selling prices, coming in at 58.8 million euros (51.2 million euros in 2006). This is 11.2% of sales (10.4% in the previous year).

R&D

R&D Expenditure
(in million Euro) 2007 2006 2005
Total 21.6 22.0 22.7

Investment Activities

Capital Expenditure

(in million Euro) 2007 2006 2005
Total 35.8 39.7 36.0

-In particular, the Company benefited in terms of both sales and profitability from its strong presence in Mercosur, where investments were made during the year to expand production capacity and the product range, mainly for suspension components.