After the end of the reporting period, the acquisition of the acquiring customer portfolio of Lufthansa AirPlus Servicekarten GmbH was completed on 31 July 2015. A contribution to the Group’s consolidated operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of around EUR 1.5 million is forecast for the twelve month period after closing. In addi- tion, integration costs of around EUR 0.7 million will be incurred.
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7. Report on opportunities and risk
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7.
REPORT ON OPPORTUNITIES AND RISK
For the Wirecard Group, the deliberate assumption of calculable risks and the consistent exploitation of the opportunities associated with these risks form the basis for its business practices as part of the scope of value-based corporate management. With these strategies in mind, the Wirecard Group has implemented a risk management system that lays the foundations for risk-oriented and earnings-oriented corporate governance.
In the interests of securing the Company’s success on a long-term and sustainable basis, it is thus indispensable to identify, analyse, assess and document critical trends and emerging risks at an early stage. Where it makes economic sense, the aim is to adopt corrective countermeasures. In principle, it is possible to limit, reduce, transfer or accept risks in order to optimise the Company’s risk position relative to its earnings. The implementation and effectiveness of any approved countermeasures are continuously reviewed.
In order to minimise the financial impact of any potential loss, Wirecard takes out insurance policies – insofar as they are available and economically justifiable. The Wirecard Group continuously monitors the level of cover that they provide.
Equally, it is a Company-wide policy to identify, evaluate and exploit opportunities in order to sustain growth trends and secure the Group’s earnings growth. Moreover, this analysis also reveals those risks that would result from a failure to exploit any opportunities that arise.
As no changes have occurred during the intervening period, please refer to the risk report con- tained in the 2014 annual report for more details. We note that no going concern risks currently relate to the Group.
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8.
OUTLOOK
The successful business performance in the first half of the year is a very positive indicator and sets the trend for the full 2015 fiscal year.
The key to Wirecard AG's success is supporting companies with outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payments. A global platform bundles international payment acceptances and methods together with risk management and added value services.
Wirecard benefits disproportionately from the dynamic growth of the European and Global e- commerce markets. Alongside a continuous growth in transaction volumes from existing cus- tomers, Wirecard is able to sustainably increase the value of its customer relationships along the value chain through cross-selling. The quality of newly acquired customers remains at a high level and two major trends can be seen: On the one hand, an increasing number of traditional B2B and B2C oriented companies have recognised the need for a global e-commerce strategy, while on the other hand, companies are increasingly outsourcing proprietary solutions for the processing of electronic payments.
The substitution of cash-based transactions with online-driven, real-time payment solutions offers great potential for growth. As a result of the integration of Internet technologies into all sales channels, whether online, mobile or bricks and mortar, there has been an increasingly strong changeover to software-based payment processing. Wirecard benefits disproportionately from this development thanks to its many years of experience as a supplier of Internet technology.
In order to complete is global network of service and technical facilities, Wirecard will also con- tinue to follow the successful strategy of organic growth combined with acquisitions.
The Management Board of Wirecard AG confirms its most recent forecast for the fiscal year issued in July 2015 that it expects to achieve an EBITDA of between EUR 220 million and EUR 232 million.
Aschheim (Munich), 17 August 2015
Wirecard AG
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9. Wirecard Stock
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9.
WIRECARD STOCK
At the beginning of the second quarter of 2015, the leading German DAX index reached a historic high of 12,375 points on 10 April 2015. However, it was not possible to sustain this initially very positive development and the DAX lost around 8.5 percent during the quarter and closed on 30 June with 10,945 points. The TecDAX also achieved a historic high of 1,737 points on 21 May 2015. Overall, the technology index experienced sideways movement with quarterly growth of around 1.7 percent and closed at 1,642 points. Shares in Wirecard AG closed at EUR 34.35 on the last trading day of the quarter, which was around 12.7 percent lower than at the beginning of the three-month reporting period. The 30 June 2015 thus also marked the quarterly low for the shares. Wirecard shares achieved a peak price of EUR 42.00 on 10 April.
Over the course of the quarter, a total of around 37 million Wirecard shares were traded on the electronic XETRA trading platform, which corresponds to an average trading volume of about 611 thousand shares per day.
Wirecard AG, indexed TecDAX, indexed 130%
120%
110%
100%
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN
2015
39.36 Euro
34.35 Euro
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