25th May 2006 - Brembo Announces 1st 1/4 1006 Results

The Board of Directors of Brembo approves financial results at 31 March 2006.  Revenues increased over 1Q 2005, thanks to the positive contribution of all sectors.

In brief:

Consolidated revenues of the first quarter amount to € 201.5 million, up 14.2% over the same quarter last year.

All of the activity segments contributed to the sales increase; in particular, the motorcycle segment
registered record sales and increased by 15.4% to € 26.6 million. Good growth also for the racing
sector, up over 28%, passenger cars, +11.8%, and commercial vehicles, +10.9%.

From a geographic point of view, the areas which mainly contributed to the growth are: Brazil up 51.4% led by the sales of brake discs, and Nafta, up 49.2% mainly thanks to car applications. In Europe, Italy grew by 16.5% with the positive contribution of motorcycle, racing and commercial vehicles, Germany and the United Kingdom grew by 13.6% and 7.7%, respectively, mainly thanks to top-of-the-range cars and commercial vehicles. Revenues in France are suffering and are down 10.2%. Sales in Asia are also decreasing (-12.4%) due to the decline of volumes of some Japanese manufacturers.

Personnel charges in the first quarter amount to € 40.2 million, up 14.2% over the same period of last year. The incidence of these costs on sales remains unchanged at about 20%. Cost of goods sold and other operating costs amount to € 131.2 million, up 14.8%; their incidence on revenues is about 65.1% (compared to 64.8% in the first quarter last year). The increase of these costs is connected with the prosecution of the reorganization plan of Italian and Polish sites and with the strong increase of the aluminium cost, which will be mostly transferred onto selling prices during ext quarters.

EBITDA amounts to € 30 million, up 12% over 1Q 2005 and is 14.9% of revenues (15.2% in the same period last year).

Amortization and depreciation of the quarter are € 8.9 million, down 6.5% from € 9.5 million of previous year. The total depreciation of some tangible and intangible assets more than compensated the increase connected with the capitalization of development costs and to the new investments in progress.

EBIT amounts to € 21.1 million, up 22.2% over previous year and 10.5% of sales.

Net financial charges, € 2.7 million, are made up by negative foreign exchange differences for € 1.4 million (€ 0.6 million negative in the same quarter 2005) and financial charges for € 1.3 million (€ 1.6 million in 2005).

Taxes amount to € 7.3 million and include € 0.7 million for deferred taxes. Tax rate is 39.2%, compared to 38.4% of previous year.  Net profit is € 10.9 million, up 20.2% compared to the previous year. Net financial position at 31 March 2006 is € 222.3 million (€ 193.1 million at 31 December 2005). The increase is connected with the strong increase of revenues, to the prosecution of the investment programs and to the subscription of the share capital of the JV in India.  € 15.5 million investments were made in the quarter, of which € 6 million for the completion of the foundry in Poland, about € 2.5 million for the new production site at Mapello and about € 2.8 million for the capitalization of development costs.

Foreseeable evolution

The order portfolio for the next months seems to confirm a good performance of sales also for the next quarter. Up to now we do not have enough visibility on the second half-year to project the same growth level to the remaining part of the year.  The industrial plan for the rationalization of the disc production in Italy, started in 2005, will be slightly delayed due to the recovery of the disc market, which required to postponing the completion of the transfer. The international development programs in Poland, India and China continue as planned.

Source: Brembo Press Release