Annual Report

Annual Report 2011

Fiscal 2011 was a challenging year for the Giesecke & Devrient Group. At over 1.6 billion euros, net sales drew close to the high levels achieved in previous years. The slight decline was due in part to the anticipated return to more normal conditions in the international banknote market, but mainly to a significant drop in sales of payment cards after our exceptional success in 2010, when chip cards were introduced in many core countries. In addition to weaker sales, significantly higher raw materials prices – particularly for cotton – also impacted earnings. Nonetheless, earnings in 2011 exceeded our cost of capital and we thus once again generated enterprise value for G&D.

Innovation drive

Our spending on research and development is an essential precondition for leveraging the Group’s long-term growth opportunities around the world. With increasing digitization, our markets – especially the IT and telecommunications arenas – face a major surge of innovation, which we are actively helping to shape in key areas relating to the security of transactions and digital identities. The associated evolution of G&D from a supplier of card-based products to a solutions provider for secure products, software, and trusted services continues. Simultaneously, we are underpinning our role as a leading global player in the banknote market with ongoing innovation and productivity programs

Shaping change

Our long-term strategy of generating waves of innovation for new markets while maintaining leadership in our core segments sees us continuing our company’s enduring success story – Giesecke & Devrient celebrates its 160th anniversary in 2012. For five generations now, we have played a leading role in driving developments in our markets, transferring our expertise in security technology and the trust in our brand to new business segments with the aid of clear visions and targeted innovation initiatives. Examples include automated banknote processing, electronic payment, and telecommunications. We remain committed to this corporate strategy of shaping new markets. Accordingly, this annual report is all about "shaping change".