Deliver Your News to the World

LB Icon Leads Industry With Record Sales Growth And Operating Profits


WEBWIRE

LB Icon AB (publ.) report for the period January 1 – December 31, 2005

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands / STOCKHOLM, Sweden – February 14, 2006. LB Icon AB (Euronext Amsterdam, OMX Stockholm: ICON) (“LB Icon” or the “Company”), the internationally active full service company in Digital Marketing and Technology, today reported its fourth quarter and year-end results.

Highlights for the year are as follows:
- Net sales for 2005 boosted by 48% over 2004, organic growth of 10%.
- Multinational full service business model and market positions further strengthened through targeted acquisitions and expanded service offering.
- EBIT improved to EUR 8.9 million, a healthy 9.1% of sales.
- Sales per employee (annualized) up 20% to K EUR 130.
- Subsidiary Wheel mentioned as the #1 interactive agency in the UK by New Media Age.


Robert Pickering, CEO OF LB Icon on business performance and outlook:

”We ended the year with the strongest quarter in terms of revenue growth and profitability in our recent history. Both our organic and overall growth for the year 2005 makes LB Icon the market leader. During the year we have shown that we can manage our growth, 48% in 2005, topping our 25% growth in 2004. No other European digital marketing & communications company has managed such a broad based European and US operation.

Our European and US network and our blue chip international client base ideally position LB Icon to continue our market leading pace. We expect demand to increase in 2006, we see other strategic acquisitions on the horizon and we continue to believe that focusing on our clients, delivering high quality solutions and improving our operating effectiveness will be key to our continued strong growth. The balance sheet is solid and our share currency is a valuable commodity, which facilitates our acquisition opportunities. Operationally, LB Icon is ready to make 2006 a record year in which we expect to increase our overall organic growth rate and further expand our service offering.

In this latest quarter, we experienced an even stronger demand from our clients. Our revenues in Q4 were higher than expected but also reflect increased volume in sales of media buying and the use of other third parties and contractors. Typically, the margins we realize from these services are lower than our internal rates but we managed to improve our overall operating margins for the year. This improvement is a result of higher productivity and better pricing both of which will continue into 2006.

Our overall organic growth rate for 2005 of just over 10% does not give justice to the exceptional growth in our key countries. For the year 2005 compared to 2004, our revenues grew by over 12% in Germany and Spain, over 25% in the Netherlands and over 40% in the US. We expect our overall organic growth rate to increase in 2006 and we will carefully look for other acquisition opportunities in key markets and to expand our service offering.

In summary, while we are proud of what we have accomplished in 2005, we expect our challenges to improve our performance to be as difficult. We expect strong competition in our markets. We also know that we still must improve our operating efficiency and quality if we are to achieve higher margins.”



WebWireID9549





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.