New management team to lead APCOA into next growth era

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Stuttgart, 1 March 2016 – APCOA PARKING Group, Europe’s leading parking services provider, has appointed Philippe Op de Beeck (54) as its new Chief Executive Officer. Furthermore, Steffen Bätjer (46) joins the company as CFO as of 1 March 2016.

 

  • Philippe Op de Beeck joins as Chief Executive Officer on April 4
  • Steffen Bätjer joins as Chief Financial Officer on March 1
  • Ex-CEO Ralf Bender to support APCOA as Senior Advisor

Stuttgart, 1 March 2016 – APCOA PARKING Group, Europe’s leading parking services provider, has appointed Philippe Op de Beeck (54) as its new Chief Executive Officer. Furthermore, Steffen Bätjer (46) joins the company as CFO as of 1 March 2016. Mr. Op de Beeck joins APCOA on April 4 and brings 25 years of experience in a range of pan-European and global companies.

He joins from international catering company Compass Group, where the last three years he was Group Managing Director for Asia Pacific after two years in a similar role in Europe. Prior to this he was EMEA President at Gategroup, an airline services company, and Senior Vice President at automation manufacturer Swisslog. He has also held senior roles at Renault Credit International, Axus International, Hertz Rent a Car and Unilever. He has considerable experience in leading service business organisations, and a strong track record in driving profitable growth in contracting businesses, enhancing the full potential of the service offering for customers.

Mr. Bätjer joins APCOA from Techem, having spent over six years as CFO at the energy management solutions provider. Before his time at Techem, he held senior finance positions at WestLB and Universal Music, and started his career at management consultants McKinsey&Co. His experience in contract businesses, complemented by a strong commercial, strategic and analytical skill set is perfectly suited to help APCOA deliver its strategic growth plan.

Nick Buckles, Chairman of the advisory board of APCOA, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Philippe Op de Beeck and Steffen Bätjer to APCOA. Philippe has the proven capabilities required to drive exceptional business performance by creating strategic clarity, driving commercialisation and customer focus, while ensuring disciplined execution. Steffen brings a strong track record of delivering operational excellence and business transformations in contract businesses. We believe that their combined experience from leading service and contract business organisations will ensure that APCOA continues to be the European industry leader and deliver on our strategic targets.”

Philippe Op de Beeck said: “I am delighted to join APCOA as CEO and contribute my experience to grow and strengthen the company further. The business is well-positioned to capture new opportunities and I am confident that we have the team and resources to gain a greater foothold in our core European markets. I look forward to working with the APCOA team as we take the company to the next stage of development.”

Mr. Buckles added: “We thank outgoing CEO Ralf Bender and CFO Nicolas Reinhart for their important roles and their contributions to maintaining the stable platform and strong performance that APCOA has seen during the last year. We are grateful that Ralf will remain involved as a Senior Advisor to APCOA and that the company will continue to benefit from his experience. Nicolas will remain with the company until the end of March, ensuring a smooth handover to the new management team.”

Ralf Bender said: “After the successful recapitalization of APCOA in 2014 and the completion of the operational turnaround last year, I hand over a solid platform ready for further growth to Philippe Op de Beeck. Having navigated the company for the past five and a half years, I am now ready to approach new entrepreneurial challenges. At the same time, I am pleased to continue to support APCOA as a Senior Advisor going forward.”

Since its restructuring in 2014, APCOA has seen solid performance in revenues, profitability and cash flow. In 2015, EBITDA grew by about 7% to approx. EUR 59 million while EBIT rose by 20% to more than EUR 35 million. At the end of 2015, the company had a very healthy cash balance of more than EUR 50 million.

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APCOA Parking Group with positive business performance in the first nine months of 2015

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Stuttgart, 18 December 2015 – APCOA Parking Group, the leading car park management company in Europe, continues to post positive results through Q3 2015.

 

  • Group turnover climbs to 494.6 million euros (PY: 492.0 million euros)
  • EBITDA rises to 37.7 million euros (PY: 35.0 million euros)
  • EBIT increases to 15 million euros (PY: -7.2 million euros)
  • Cash flow from operating activities more than doubles to 22.7 million euros (PY: 9.6 million euros)
  • Strategy 2020 successfully launched
  • Efficiency program fuels margin growth
  • APCOA promotes the digitalization of parking


Stuttgart, 18 December 2015 – APCOA Parking Group, the leading car park management company in Europe, continues to post positive results through Q3 2015. During the first nine months of the 2015 financial year, the company achieved a consolidated European turnover of 494.6 million euros (PY: 492.0 million euros). As a service provider for third-party contractors, the group's parking services generated additional external revenues of 196.4 million euro, which are not included in the group's sales figures. The group's total turnover for the first three quarters of the financial year was 691.0 million euros (PY: 724.2 million euros).

The group's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased to 37.7 million euros (PY: 35.0 million euros) over the first nine months of the financial year, which represents an increase of 7.7% compared to the previous year. The company's EBITDA margin improved to 7.6% (PY: 7.1%). EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) reached 15.0 million euros (PY: -7.2 million euros). Cash flow from operating activities more than doubled over the last twelve months, rising to 22.7 million euros (PY: 9.6 million euros).

“The energy we have devoted to developing our business and to increasing our efficiency in recent months is paying off”, said Ralf Bender, CEO of APCOA PARKING Group. Coinciding with the end of its financial year, APCOA has launched its new strategy 2020 in order to accelerate the growth of the company. APCOA plans to achieve its ambitious targets by investing in digitalization, new business development as well as in acquisitions for external expansion. In addition, the company has initiated an efficiency program that has already contributed positive results.

Europe-wide increase in turnover 


APCOA has delivered growth in almost all of its markets across Europe. The strongest growth was posted in the Southern European region (Italy, Spain and Poland). Whereas turnover increased by an average of 6.3% to 39.0 million euros (PY: 36.7 million euros) compared to the previous year, EBITDA was up by 17.7% to 5.3 million euros (PY: 4.5 million euros). In the Central European region (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland), APCOA generated revenues totaling 169.6 million euros (PY: 162.8 million euros), representing growth of 4.1% to the previous year. EBITDA rose by 18.1% to 19.6 million euros (PY: 16.6 million euros). Turnover of 198.3 million euros in the Northern European region (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) was on a similar level as in the year before (PY: 200.1 million euros), although the region's EBITDA grew by 7.7% to 15.3 million euros (PY: 14.2 million euros). “The steps we have taken to improve space utilization within our car parking facilities, combined with our earnings enhancement program, have resulted in overall performance gains,” said Bender.

Parking space monitoring continues to grow 

 

The company was successful in acquiring new mandates for both parking management and parking space monitoring. In the first nine months of the year, APCOA won contracts for a total of 498 new sites across Europe. The Park & Control division showed particularly high levels of dynamics, generating new contracts at 70 different locations. “We are experiencing a substantial increase in demand within this sector,” observed Bender. “More and more retailing companies and private property owners want to make sure that their car parks are readily available for their customers, and not occupied by unauthorized parkers.”

Digitalization of parking facilities adds to customer experience and profitability



In PARKWAY, APCOA has presented a digital solution that enhances customers' parking experiences and increases the profitability of parking facilities. The new service concept is based on an online platform, with RFID chips that allow drivers contactless access to car parks. Payments are made electronically, via credit card or invoice. The platform is open to partnerships with other parking facility operators – whether public or private. “We aim to create an alliance of property owners, municipalities and car park operators in order to offer our customers the widest possible choice of parking spaces and the highest levels of convenience and comfort,” said Bender. The first pilot projects are already underway in Southern Germany. In Milan and Bologna in Italy, the so-called Telepass Service is being expanded. A transponder, already used by drivers to pay their motorway tolls, offers contactless and cashless access to participating car parks. The system is testament to the contribution APCOA is making to the digitalization of the industry, offering drivers quicker, easier and more convenient parking than ever before.

Outlook

 


Ralf Bender provides a positive assessment of the business over the first nine months of the financial year: “Our operative business and financial data are all developing well as the year progresses. We expect to achieve all of our revenue and profitability targets by the end of the year.”

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APCOA donates 10.000 Euro to action medeor e.V.

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Stuttgart, 30th November 2015 – The APCOA PARKING Group has donated a total of 10.000 Euro to action medeor e.V., Europe's largest medical aid organisation.

 

Rather than buying Christmas presents for its customers and employees, APCOA is supporting this charitable organisation, and its local partners, by ensuring the supply of medication and medical equipment to around 10,000 healthcare facilities in 140 countries all over the world.

In concrete terms, APCOA is financing action medeor's next delivery of medical aid to Northern Iraq. This will allow refugees in the region access to urgently needed medication and medical equipment. As a result of the hardships in the region, large numbers of people, and in particular children, suffer from health problems. The medication being delivered to health facilities in the region includes painkillers and antibiotics. Medical equipment is also being sent along with the medication.

“As a company, we recognise that we have a social responsibility. Our support of action medeor e.V. demonstrates that we are committed to fulfilling these responsibilities,” said Ralf Bender, CEO of APCOA PARKING Group. “This donation is our contribution to making sure that aid is delivered where it is most desperately needed. It will enable urgently needed medical care to reach the region's people in the midst of the current crisis situation.”

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APCOA Parking AT SHOPPING CENTER FORUM

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CENTRUM EXPO XXI WARSAW 16 /17.09.

Shopping Center Forum is the most important tenants meeting with developers as well as very unique opportunity for negotiation talks.

Shopping Center Forum is the most important tenants meeting with developers as well as very unique opportunity for negotiation talks, exchange of experiences, views, opinions, and sign of specific agreements lease. During this year edition of the SCF there were 346 representatives of tenants and 60 exhibitors. As every year, APCOA Parking took part in this prestigious event.

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All our car parks remain open for our customers! Contactless access and automated electronic payments are granted in most of our locations through our free app APCOA FLOW – no need to pull a ticket or to pay cash at the payment machine.