Raport anual

Ladies and Gentlemen,

2012 was a good year for TÜV SÜD. We recorded further profitable growth and maintained our position in a difficult global economic environment.

At more than € 1.8 billion, revenue reached a new record level, exceeding the prior-year figure by 8.5%. All regions and segments of the TÜV SÜD Group contributed to the positive development. Our international business once again experienced particularly high growth. Roughly three quarters of the additional revenue stemmed from our regions outside of Germany. TÜV SÜD now generates almost 38% of its revenue in an international market environment – roughly 3% more than in the prior year. We are thus getting steadily closer to our strategic interim objective of generating at least 40% of revenue outside the domestic market of Germany in the medium term.

Growth only creates lasting value when it is also profitable. Although one-off effects in 2011 had a positive influence on the development of earnings, we still succeeded in raising EBIT slightly by 0.7% in the past fiscal year. Adjusted for these one-off effects, our EBIT is 9.2% higher in the reporting year than the adjusted prior-year figure. The adjusted EBIT margin is 9.0%, which is 0.1 percentage points more than the adjusted prior-year figure. This is further proof that TÜV SÜD is a stable company and continues to be on a good path.

The past years have shown this: thanks to our extensive service portfolio and our increasing internationalization, we can develop well even in tough economic times. With internal measures to raise efficiency, for example our TÜV SÜD FIT 2012+ program, we are putting our company in an even better position to master future challenges.

We are investing consistently in our future: at € 71.5 million, our investment volume exceeded the prior-year figure by 11.4%. We are expanding existing test laboratories, increasing capacities and expertise in future markets and purchasing selected companies that are a good strategic fit.

TÜV SÜD was once again a jobs motor, employing 18,758 people worldwide at the end of 2012, which is roughly 1,600 more than in the prior year. For the third time in a row, TÜV SÜD thus created in excess of 1,500 new jobs in one year.

Graduates and experienced professionals alike increasingly regard our company as a highly attractive employer. A varied range of tasks, excellent career opportunities in an international environment, extensive measures for combining work life and family life and – last but not least – appropriate remuneration help us to be among the frontrunners in the competition for high potentials. Our good ratings in various employer rankings testify to TÜV SÜD’s attractiveness on a regular basis.

The success of our company is founded on the knowledge, experience and dedication of our employees worldwide. As the Board of Management of TÜV SÜD, we would like to expressly thank all employees for their work in 2012.

When we realigned our company strategically in 2009 and 2010, we set ourselves ambitious goals by 2014. Many of these goals, for example stronger international growth or a long-term increase in business value, are within reach. In 2012, we rolled forward our successful strategy into the year 2020 and adjusted it to the changing market conditions.

Growth, internationalization and a continuous rise in business value are still the goals that we pursue. We want to continue to grow at a high level and at the same time become more efficient.

Our activities will focus even more on value added for customers. We have initiated the first steps for this with the newly created Global Customer Operations. Even more than before, we want to support our customers as partners with services throughout the entire value added chain. We offer solutions for the challenges of our customers – before these challenges become problems. In this way, we promote strategic collaboration, increase customer satisfaction and create added value – right in keeping with the core of our brand.

In order to further develop our service portfolio to meet our customers’ needs going forward, we operate intensive and targeted innovation management. The range of our innovative topics is every bit as varied as our business: from electromobility to renewable energy, embedded systems and security for information technology to the challenges for large cities, for example in the areas of mobility, construction and water supply.

More growth, more efficiency and in particular more added value for our customers – TÜV SÜD will continue to pursue these goals in the coming years. We will do everything to meet the objectives of our Strategy 2020. The market offers us every opportunity to do just that.

Munich, April 12, 2013

The Board of Management of TÜV SÜD AG