LaCie: Fiscal Year 2011 Results

LaCia SAS released the financial results for its fiscal year ending June 30, 2011

Key topics of the year:

• The reorganisation of sales activities by channel is effective.
• SAP has been in place in Europe and Hong Kong since January 2011. SAP went live in Americas in July 2011.
• In February 2011, LaCie announced the LaCie Little Big Disk featuring the new Thunderbolt technology, developed by Intel and brought to market with collaboration from Apple. Designed to store large audio and video files, the LaCie Little Big Disk will bring a new level of performance to creative workflows with fast data transfer, complete system backup in minutes, and faster content editing.
• In June 2011, LaCie announced the implementation of hybrid storage technology by combining local and secure online storage – LaCie CloudBox. When you store data on the CloudBox, it is also automatically backed up in the Cloud – ensuring data is always safe, secure and accessible.

Operating profit up by more than 30%
LaCie reported revenue of €267 million for the twelve months period ended June 30, 2011 (IFRS). This compares to revenue of €286 million in the year-ago period, representing a 7% decrease with forex (-9% without forex). Europe accounts for 53% of the revenue, versus 32% for Americas and 14% for AsiaPac.  

• Gross margin reached 22.3%, compared to 20% in FY10.
• Distribution costs amounted to 2.5% of the revenue, compared to 2.7% in FY10.
• SG&A expenses were stable in value. In connection with the drawback in sales, they reached 11.9% of the revenue this semester compared to 11.1% in FY10.
• The R&D expenses amounted to €3.9million ie 1.5% of the revenue.
• The operating income reached 6.9% of the revenue compared to 4.9% in FY10. This includes a 5% reward bonus for the worldwide staff.
• 442 staff were employed in average in FY11 (vs 448 in FY10).
• Taxes amounted to €7.5 million. Unrecognized deferred tax assets amount to €4.3 million. Notwithstanding this entry, the tax rate would have landed at 27%.
• The net income reached €10.6 million (4% of the revenue) compared to 3.7% in FY10.
• PPS amounts to €0.30.

"We worked very hard for this first close on SAP. Changing our ERP paid an heavy toll on our organization this year", stated Philippe Spruch, CEO. "Our sales slowed down in January through June 2011 but our operating profit remains sturdy: we delivered 7.3% in the first semester, and 6.9% for the full year."

Cash position

• Net cash is €52.5million.
• The working capital represented 11.2% of the revenue, vs 14.% as of June 2010. The increase in inventory was more than balanced by the increase in accounts payable.
• Investments are mainly related to SAP and new R&D projects..
• Financing flow is mainly bank loans repayments along with the € 10.1 million dividend payment which took place in January 2011.
• A €0.33 dividend per share will be submitted to the Annual Meeting scheduled on December 14, 2011

2012 outlook
The current economy impairs LaCie from benefiting from a satisfying visibility. LaCie will keeping monitoring its differentiated sales channels and work on streamlining its inventory. By the end of the new fiscal year, LaCie will make an extensive market proposition virtualizing hardware and cloud storage.

Read also (in French)
LaCie: Résultats de l’année fiscale 2010/2011
Les ventes chutent de 7%, et de 14% pour le dernier trimestre.