The Board approves third quarter results

The board of directors of Ansaldo STS (STS.MI), headed by Alessandro Pansa, has approved the consolidated results to 30 September 2008, which showed an improvement compared to the same period last year.

The board also approved the adoption of a new Organisational, Management and Control Model, adapting it to the new regulations recently introduced regarding the responsibility of companies pursuant to legislative decree 231/01.

In the first nine months of 2008, the Ansaldo STS group registered a net profit of EUR 50 million, up 36.2%, or EUR 13.3 million, on the figure of EUR 36.7 million in the same period of 2007.

Value of production for the first nine months of 2008 was EUR 775.7 million, an increase of 16.4% on the figure of EUR 666.3 million for the same period of 2007.

The order backlog rose by 4.7%, from EUR 2,852.3 million to EUR 2,987.6 million at 30 September 2008.

New orders totalled EUR 808.7 million, compared to EUR 1,151.9 million in the same period of 2007, which benefited from the exceptional order worth EUR 426 million acquired in the third quarter of that year relating to the Naples metro line 6. EBIT also grew, from EUR 62.9 million to EUR 79.4 million, an increase of 26.2%.

The group’s EBIT margin also rose, from 9.4% to 10.2%.

At 30 September 2008, the group had a positive cash position of EUR 175.7 million, compared to EUR 184.5 million at the end of 2007 and EUR 163.7 million at 30 September 2007 (+7.3%).