SKIDATA Press Breakfast 2008

"Last year was the best financial year in the history of SKIDATA," CEO Charles Egli told a group of local jounalists at the SKIDATA Press Breakfast today. It is the second year in a row that SKIDATA can report record results.

Again, 2007 marked a year of healthy worldwide growth for SKIDATA, with new subsidiaries in Belgium and Spain, a joint venture in India, and the upgrade of the Japanese branch office to a fully established subsidiary.

Highlights in 2007 included successful airport projects in India (Bangalore and Hyderabad), North America (the airports in Edmonton and London in Ontario/Canada and Burbank in California), as well as in the Baltics, Russia, and South Africa.

As always, Charles Egli only reported on the released figures of Nagra Public Access, the Kudelski entity to which SKIDATA belongs (this is due to Swiss stock exchange regulations). The overall revenue of the Kudelski Group in 2007 was 563.5 mEUR, up 33.3% from 2006, with Nagra Public Access (NPA) accounting for around a quarter (136.5 mEUR), which translates to a growth of 15.8% against 2006. The NPA group EBIT rose by 46.3% to 15.7 mEUR.

Staff at SKIDATA is currently at 568, 293 of which are located in Austria, where SKIDATA has its headquarters. Qualified personnel, said Charles Egli, is currently hard to come by locally, which is why SKIDATA has recently opened a software development office with 15 employees in Klagenfurt in the Austrian province of Carinthia, in close co-operation with the local university and provincial government.

SKIDATA reported an R&D-to-revenue ratio of 13% (up 4% from 2006). Innovation plays a major role at SKIDATA, as CFO Michael Hofer pointed out, with a clear focus on user friendliness and value adding services for both operators and end users. Future plans call for a continued market expansion and worldwide growth, particularly outside Europe.