SFS Group AG reported unaudited consolidated earnings results for the first half of 2016. For the period, the company consolidated sales of CHF 688.8 million in the first half of 2016. This corresponds to a year-on-year increase of 2.7%. Growth resulted from changes in the scope of consolidation and favorable currency movements. Excluding these positive effects, sales were practically unchanged from the previous year's figure. In absolute numbers, operating profit EBITA improved from CHF 70.4 million in the previous year to CHF 93.3 million, which corresponds to an increase of 32.6%. This pleasing growth is attributed to various factors and measures. The clearly above-average sales growth at business operations with high value added contributed to the good result, as did the constant renewal of portfolios with innovative products and the implementation of improvement projects. Consolidated net income for the period amounted to CHF 47.1 million, an increase of 48% from the prior-year figure.

For the full-year 2016, the company expects sales growth for the current to be at the lower end of the previously guided range of 2­4%. The main reason for this deviation is the aforementioned quicker-than-expected phase-out of trading products at the Electronics division. On the other hand, company expect the EBITA margin for the year as a whole to be at the upper end of the previously given range of 13-14%, which represents a considerable improvement over the 12.5% margin reported for the previous fiscal year (normalized EBITA).