aap Implantate AG / aap's full year 2011 sales on product-level totalled EUR 29.2 million (+6%) and Q4 sales increased by 9% to EUR 8.2 million . Processed and transmitted by Thomson Reuters ONE. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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In the fourth quarter, sales were generated by the first major shipments of our innovative LOQTEQ® system to international customers. In addition, aap signed a bone cement development contract with a globally active orthopaedic company.

Due to two fundamental factors aap did not quite succeed in achieving its ambitious sales targets for the financial year 2011. For one, a major shipment of products from our cannulated screws segment to the United States was delayed in the fourth quarter. For another, developments in the orthopaedics segment did not live up to our expectations. Sales in this segment are on a par with the previous year.

2011 - Results and analysis

Overall sales in the financial year 2011 totalled EUR 29.2 million (previous year EUR 28.4 million), leading to 3% sales growth on the previous year. Product sales in the second half of 2011 were nearly 6% up on the first half at EUR 15.0 million.

aap's growth drivers in 2011 were its core business cement and cementing techniques as well as trauma. In Nijmegen the center of excellence for contract manufacturing also developed positively in 2011 and exceeded our expectations.

aap achieved the following further targets it had set itself in its management agenda for 2011. It boosted its business activities in the US market most successfully, increasing sales by over 30%. Contract manufacturing at the Nijmegen site also increased substantially: Over the past year Nijmegen has signed contracts with three new customers. The innovative LOQTEQ® product line was launched both nationally and internationally, generating national sales since the third quarter and its first international sales in the fourth quarter. The establishment of a uniform IT infrastructure across the group has been almost completed. Nearly all aap employees now work in an uniform IT environment.

2012 - Outlook

In the financial year 2012 aap will further optimize the areas customers, innovation, finance and organization, which are to be outlined in our 2012 Management Agenda. The Management Board anticipates sales growth at product level of 10% for 2012.

With a positive cash EBIT (EBIT excluding internally produced and capitalized assets and depreciation thereof) at product level, aap aims to finance its growth internally in 2012. The principles of profitable growth are also to be further applied in 2012 and the relative share of working capital as a proportion of sales is to be reduced. Another objective is to further improve aap's Freshness Index.

At the beginning of January, aap signed a letter of intend with the US sales specialist Bioscompass, Inc. on the sale of patent and related rights for the anti-adhesion product Adcon®. aap continues to be the product's manufacturer and supplier.

As part of its ongoing focus on the trauma and cement and cementing technique segments, aap is continuing to look into possibilities of additional product divestments.

aap plans to publish the full annual report for 2011 on March 30, 2012.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on current experience, estimates and projections of the management board and currently available information. They are not guarantees of future performance. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of aap to be materially different from those that may be expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include those discussed in aap's public reports. Forward-looking statements therefore speak only as of the date they are made. aap does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this release or to conform them to future events or developments.

 

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aap Implantate AG (ISIN DE0005066609)

- Prime Standard/Regulated Market - All German stock markets -

aap is a medical technology company that develops, manufactures and markets biomaterials and implants for the areas Ortho/Trauma/Spine. Its product portfolio includes bone cements, bone graft substitutes, antibiotic carriers, and implants for fracture healing and joint replacement. In addition to its Berlin HQ the Company has sites in Dieburg near Frankfurt am Main and Nijmegen in the Netherlands. aap Implantate AG stock has been listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since May 16, 2003.

For inquiries please contact:

aap Implantate AG, Marc Heydrich, Investor Relations, Lorenzweg 5, 12099 Berlin, Germany

Tel.: +49 30 7501 9-134, fax: +49 30 7501 9290, m.heydrich@aap.de

 For more details please visit www.aap.de:
http://www.aap.de/




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