Copenhagen, 29 November 2007 – Today, t he holding company and owner of ISS A/S announced its financial results for the first nine months of 2007 .  

The 9M revenue was DKK 47.0 billion, a 16% increase relative to the first nine months of 2006. Operating profit before other items increased 20% to DKK 2.8 billion against DKK 2.3 billion in the same period of 2006.   

The operating margin was up from 5.7% in 9M 2006 to 5.9% in 9M 2007, while organic growth rose by one percentage point during the period to 6%.   

CEO Jørgen Lindegaard had the following comments to the 3 ^rd quarter results:  

“ISS continues to deliver strong and stable revenue growth. The growth is based on both acquisitions and organic growth, which was very impressive in most markets. In fact, organic growth was exceptionally strong in Central and Eastern Europe (16%) and in Asia (18%) and in the Americas (13%). At the same time, we are experiencing steadily growing profitability in almost all our markets,” said Jørgen Lindegaard.  

“Furthermore, our company is continuing to expand our activities through acquisitions. During the 3 ^rd quarter alone we bought 17 new companies all over the world. These acquisitions are an important part of achieving our goal of securing critical mass in our existing service offering and to increase our activities in the growth regions,” Jørgen Lindegaard added.  

The operating margin increased in all regions, except Asia where it was unchanged. The greatest increase occurred in Central and Eastern Europe where the margin grew to 7.6% during the first 9 months of 2007 from 6.4% in the same period of 2006. In Asia the margin remained unchanged at 6.2% In the Pacific region the margin increased from 6.0% to 6.5%, primarily driven by improved operations in Australia . In the Americas , the operating margin increased to 5.5% during the first 9 months of 2007 compared with 4.4% in 9M 2006. All countries of the region contributed to the increase but Brazil provided the largest contribution.   

The profit before tax and impairment/amortization of intangibles for the first 9 months of 2007 was DKK 325 million compared with DKK 488 million during the same period of 2006. The profit was affected by financial onetime expenses in connection with the repayment of existing loans, including an accounting loss of DKK 318 million, and expenses for establishing new loans. The refinancing was done in order to optimize the company’s financial structure and reduce future financial expenses, and to raise additional capital for new acquisitions and to support investments in organic growth.   

Financial highlights and key ratios of the holding company, which owns ISS A/S, for January – September 2007:

 

Amounts in DKK million* Revenue Operating profit** Profit before tax and impairment/amortisation of intangibles   Operating margin Organic growth

Q1-Q3 2007 46,991 2,796  325   5.9 % 6 %

Q1-Q3 2006 40,655 2,334 488   5.7 % 5 %

Change + 16 % + 20 %

*   Except percentages
** Before other items

• Since 1 January 2007, ISS has made 63 acquisitions, adding USA as the 50th name on the list of ISS countries.
• During 2007 to date, the number of ISS employees rose from 391,000 to more than 435,000 worldwide. 
   

The holding company, which owns ISS, is named FS Funding A/S.

A general meeting will be held on   November 30 ^th 2007 with the purpose of changing FS Funding A/S’ company name to ISS Holding A/S.   

 

For further information, please contact:

Group CEO Jørgen Lindegaard Tel. +45 38 17 00 00

Group CFO Jeff Gravenhorst
Tel. +45 38 17 62 66

 

About the ISS Group

The ISS Group is one of the world’s leading Facility Services Groups. The ISS Group’s annual revenues exceeded DKK 55 billion in 2006 and ISS now has more than 435,000 employees in 50 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Australia .