German banking technology vendor Wincor Nixdorf, one of the three top worldwide ATM’s producers, has decided not to offer a quantitative forecast for its 2011/2012 results, claiming the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis is making predictions pointless. The company, which is locally represented by Romsys, covers almost 20% share of the ATM’s installed Romanian market.

Looking ahead at the current fiscal year 2011/2012, the company anticipates a more difficult environment, especially in Western Europe, as a result of the deteriorating economic situation and the impact of the sovereign debt crisis. “At present, we can see that the prevailing uncertainty is affecting investment readiness, above all among European banks. Compensating for this development will not be easy, even with a good level of growth in the newly industrialized countries,” noted CEO Eckard Heidloff (photo), underlining the high proportion of the Group’s total net sales attributable to its European business.

Wincor Nixdorf argues that it is impossible to foresee how any positive developments over the next 12 months might counterbalance the problems and so it has decided not to offer a forecast for its own results.

“As it is not possible to foresee the extent to which more positive developments might help to stabilize or counterbalance the current uncertainty, Wincor Nixdorf does not intend to offer a quantitative forecast for fiscal 2011/2012”.

Net sales could be anywhere between a small decrease and an increase slightly above the level recorded the previous year and “given the nature of economies of scale and the make-up of the Group’s activities (regions and business streams), any adverse developments may have a disproportionately large impact on Ebita.”

In percentage terms the company expects a likely decline in net sales to trigger a double-figure downturn in earnings for the first quarter.

“In terms of net sales, it believes the likely result could lie anywhere between a small decrease and an increase slightly above the level recorded in 2010/2011. In line with this estimate of net sales for fiscal 2011/2012, it sees a sharp downturn or a modest year-on-year increase in EBITA as equally possible”.

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