EANS-News: Delticom publishes preliminary figures for FY 2011

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Financial Figures/Balance Sheet

Hanover (euro adhoc) - 19 January 2012 - For Delticom (German
Securities Code (WKN) 514680, ISIN DE0005146807, stock market symbol
DEX), Europe's leading online tyre dealer, 2011 was again a
successful year. According to today's preliminary figures, revenues
in the fiscal year increased by 14.4% to EUR 480.0 million and EBIT
by 9.6% to EUR 52.2 million. Earnings per share grew 8.4% to EUR
2.99.

Q411: Successful quarter despite mild winter

The harsh 2010 winter had resulted in a superior business performance
for the European tyre trade. Last season, though, the business was
hurt by very mild winter weather conditions. At present, industry
experts believe that winter tyre sales have dropped substantially
below prior-year levels.

After taking the new warehouse into operations in Q211, Delticom
stocked up ahead of the season. As a result, the company was able to
offer attractive prices to its customers throughout the fourth
quarter. Despite the very strong base, Delticom sold more tyres than
in Q410. Quarterly revenues increased by 12.1% to EUR 182.3 million
(Q410: EUR 162.6 million).

While the 2010 winter had seen massive price hikes driven by
market-wide scarcities, Q411 prices developed in a more orderly
fashion, as expected. Consequently, gross margin (trade margin ex
other operating expenses) retracted to a less inflated 28.4% (Q410:
30.6%). The Q411 EBIT margin came in at 13.2% (Q410: 15.2%).

Fiscal year 2011

Revenues

Over the course of the year, selling prices developed favourably, the
mix was stable and volumes were fairly satisfactory. All in all,
Delticom was able to generate revenues of EUR 480.0 million, a plus
of 14.4% from prior-year's EUR 419.6 million. Revenues in the
E-Commerce division were up year-on-year by 12.9%, from EUR 403.7
million to EUR 455.6 million. The revenues of the Wholesale division
lifted by 53.4% to EUR 24.4 million, after prior-year revenues of EUR
15.9 million.

Gross margin

The cost of goods sold increased in the reporting period by 16.3%,
from EUR 300.1 million in 2010 to EUR 349.1 million. Delticom
generated 2011 a greater share of revenues with own inventories,
compared to the previous years. In an environment of rising
purchasing prices, the company was therefore able to cushion the
hikes by early purchasing to a good extent. Thanks to the increased
volume Delticom also benefited from economies of scale in the
procurement function. Still, the full-year gross margin came down
from 28.5% to 27.3%, primarily due to the closing winter quarter.

Personnel expenses

Thanks to the highly efficient operating workflows, the company has
been able to keep staff levels low in 2011 despite increasing
transaction volumes. In the reporting period on average 116 staff
members were employed at Delticom (previous year: 101). Personnel
expenses amounted to EUR 7.2 million (previous year: EUR 6.8
million). Compared to the prior-year period, the personnel expenses
ratio (staff expenditures as percentage of revenues) came down
slightly from 1.6% to 1.5%.

Other operating expenses

Overall the other operating expenses totalled EUR 77.7 million in the
past financial year, an increase of 11.8% over the prior-year value
of EUR 69.5 million.

Among the other operating expenses, transportation costs is the
largest line item. It grew in line with the increase in business
volume, from EUR 34.5 million by +8.5% to EUR 37.5 million. The share
of transportation costs against revenues declined from 8.2% in 2010
to 7.8% in 2011. The reason for this was the significant price effect
in the revenues for the last financial year. In addition, economies
of scale arising from the centralised warehouse infrastructure helped
to further drive down costs.

In the reporting period, costs for advertising totalled EUR 9.9
million, after EUR 9.0 million in 2010. This represents a marketing
expense ratio (marketing expenses as a percentage of revenues) of
2.1%, flat year-on-year.

Depreciation

In line with our gradual warehouse capacity expansion and the
parallel investments into warehousing infrastructure, depreciation
rose by 62.3% from EUR 1.3 million in 2010 to EUR 2.1 million. The
low absolute level of depreciation underlines the low capital
intensity of Delticom's business.

Earnings performance

EBIT improved from EUR 47.6 million by 9.6% to EUR 52.2 million. Due
to the extraordinarily margin-strong closing quarter 2010, the
management had expected a deterioration of year-on-year profitability
for 2011. In the end, the EBIT margin showed only minor decline from
11.3% to 10.9%. The continually low Euro money market rates led to
flat financial income of EUR 0.1 million. This was balanced by almost
the same amount of financial expenses arising from provisions as well
as interest costs for the short-term utilisation of credit lines.

The expenditure for income taxes was EUR 16.8 million (previous year:
EUR 15.1 million). The tax rate was 32.2% (2010: 31.6%). Consolidated
net income for 2011 grew from EUR 32.6 million to EUR 35.4 million.
This corresponds to earnings per share (EPS) of EUR 2.99 (undiluted,
2010: EUR 2.76), a step-up of 8.4%.

Working capital

From an exceptionally low prior-year base of EUR 52.2 million which
was affected by market-wide shortages, inventories in 2011 increased
to EUR 106.5 million. As of 31.12.2011 this equates to 64.0% of the
total assets of EUR 166.5 million. The company is well positioned for
the upcoming summer business. Accounts payable grew at lower rate of
29.0% year-on-year, from EUR 53.6 million to EUR 69.1 million.
Delticom management intends to continue its policy to pay off a
significant part of the liabilities ahead of schedule. Taken together
with accounts receivable of EUR 10.1 million (31.12.2010: EUR 10.9
million), the net working capital amounted to EUR 43.6 million at
year-end (31.12.2010: EUR 1.8 million).

Cash flow and liquidity position

Due to more funds being tied up in working capital, the operating
cash flow from ordinary business activities was EUR -9.6 million
(2010: EUR 51.7 million). In 2011 Delticom made investments of EUR
8.4 million into property, plant and equipment, most of it into the
infrastructure of the new warehouse, which was taken into operations
in Q2. With a year-end liquidity of EUR 22.2 million (31.12.2010: EUR
67.8 million) and access to currently unused credit lines, the
company has enough funds to grow the business in the months ahead.

Outlook

Over the preceding months, economists have gradually revised growth
estimates for Europe. The general expectation is that austerity
measures and rising unemployment is going to depress consumer
sentiment further. Industry experts believe that the European tyre
trade will not remain unaffected.

Independent of those short-term developments, the share of online
sales in the tyre market continues to be comparatively low. More and
more drivers are turning to the Internet in search of lower-priced
alternatives. Delticom as the leading online tyre dealer will be able
to capitalise on this trend. Even for a scenario where market and
weather do not improve over 2011, Delticom management regards a
revenue growth of 10% as achievable. Assuming margins at prior-year
levels, earnings should grow in line with revenues.

The full report for the fiscal year 2011 will be published on 22
March 2012 within the "Investor Relations" section of the website
www.delti.com. ________________________________________

Company profile:

Delticom, Europe's leading online tyre retailer, was founded in
Hanover in 1999. With more than 100 online shops in 41 countries, the
company offers its private and business customers an unequalled
assortment of excellently priced car tyres, motorcycle tyres, bicycle
tyres, truck tyres, bus tyres, special tyres, rims, complete wheels
(pre-mounted tyres on rims), selected replacement car parts and
accessories, motor oil and batteries. The independent website
reifentest.com contains impartial information about tyre tests and
helps the customers choose from more than 100 tyre brands and more
than 25,000 tyre models. Delticom delivers either directly to the
customer's home address, or to one of more than 30,000 service
partners - affiliated garages which take delivery of tyres and then
install these on the customer's vehicle. Delticom's Wholesale
division also sells tyres to wholesalers domestically and abroad.

On the Internet at: www.delti.com

Selected online shops: www.reifendirekt.de, www.123pneus.fr,
www.mytyres.co.uk, www.reifendirekt.ch

Further inquiry note:
Delticom AG Investor Relations
Melanie Gereke
Brühlstraße 11
30169 Hannover
Tel.: +49 (0)511-936 34-8903
Fax: +49 (0)89-208081147
e-mail: melanie.gereke@delti.com

end of announcement euro adhoc
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company: Delticom AG
Brühlstraße 11
D-30169 Hannover
phone: +49 (0)511 93634 8903
FAX: +49 (0)511 336116 55
mail: info@delti.com
WWW: http://www.delti.com
sector: Electronic Commerce
ISIN: DE0005146807
indexes: SDAX, CDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
stockmarkets: free trade: Berlin, München, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, regulated
dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt
language: English