ALSO Group Increases Net Profit by 14 Percent in the 1st Half Year

EMMEN, SWITZERLAND--(Marketwired - July 26, 2016) - ALSO Group concludes the first six month of 2016 with Group net profit of 27.8 million euros and thus increases its results by around 14 percent compared to the previous-year period. Profit before taxes (EBT) jumped up by around 12 percent to 40.3 million euros. Net sales rose by roughly 3 percent to 3 771 million euros.

"We are very pleased with our performance in the first six month of 2016. We have again been able to increase profit significantly stronger than net sales, although we decisively invested in our business. We have developed our business in Poland and the Benelux and we will keep on expanding our activities," said Gustavo Möller-Hergt, CEO of ALSO Holding AG (SIX:ALSN).

Central Europe market segment

While net sales softened by 2 percent to 2 304 million euros Central Europe market segment showed a considerably stronger EBT margin of 1.5 percent compared to 2015 (0.9 percent). This is amongst others due to successful measurements which ALSO Switzerland and ALSO France conducted to stabilise profit. In addition business in Germany succeeded remarkably above average.

Previous-year period results for market segments have been revised since ALSO International B.V. as well as ALSO Nederland B.V. (Benelux) have newly been allocated to the Northern/Eastern Europe market segment and are no longer part of Central Europe market segment.

Northern/Eastern Europe market segment

In the Northern/Eastern Europe market segment net sales increased by 11 percent to 1 467 million euros while the EBT margin dropped to 0.4 percent from 1.2 percent in the first half year 2015. This decrease is especially due to initial investments in business expansion in Poland and the Benelux as well as investment in a warehouse in Finland which will reduce costs.

International expansion

International expansion remains central pillar of ALSO's growth strategy. During the last six months ALSO opened up markets in Slovenia and Belgium. ALSO Polska, founded in 2015, is as expected still in its development phase. Pirkkala, Finland recently witnessed the opening of ALSO's latest and state of the art logistics center.

In addition to that, business development was taken forward by new strategic partnerships and cooperations. Microsoft is being supported by ALSO in building its business area "Workplace as a Service". Together with Logicom ALSO brings cloud-based software services to its customers in Southern Europe and the Middle East.

Outlook on 2016

ALSO is well under way to increase Group net profit for the whole year of 2016 compared to 2015.

Direct link: http://www.also.com/goto/20160726en

Direct link to the Interim Report 2016: http://www.also.com/goto/20160726enir

ALSO Holding AG (Emmen/Switzerland) brings providers and buyers of the ICT industry together. The company offers services at all levels of the ICT value chain from a single source. In the European B2B marketplace, ALSO bundles logistics services, financial services, supply services, solution services, digital services, and IT services together into individual service packages. ALSO's portfolio contains more than 160 000 articles from some 350 vendors. The Group has around 3 600 employees throughout Europe. In fiscal year 2015 (closing on December 31), the company generated net sales of 7.8 billion euros. The majority shareholder of ALSO Holding AG is the Droege Group, Düsseldorf, Germany. Further information is available at www.also.com.

Droege Group

(Major shareholder)

Droege Group (founded in 1988) is an independent consulting and investment company under full family ownership. The company acts as a specialist for tailor-made restructuring programs aiming to enhance corporate value. Droege Group combines its corporate family-run structure and capital strength into a family-equity business model. The group carries out direct investments with own equity in corporate subsidiaries and medium-sized companies in "special situations". The motto of "The Art of Implementation" has made the group a pioneer of hands-on implementation-oriented corporate development. Droege Group demonstrates its implementation excellence daily within its own portfolio. The entrepreneurially platforms of the Droege Group are aligned to current megatrends (mobility, prevention, digitalization, demography, etc.). Enthusiasm for quality, innovation and speed determines our actions. In this way Droege Group has successfully gained a position in domestic and international markets and operates with over 120 companies in 30 countries. In 2015 the sales volume of Droege Group was 9.2 billion euros.

More information: http://www.droege-group.com

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current assumptions and forecasts of the ALSO management. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could lead to material differences between the forward-looking statements made here and the actual development, in particular the results, financial situation, and performance of our Group. The Group accepts no responsibility for updating these forward-looking statements or adapting them to future events or developments.