With sales of 148 million euro and EBITDA at 9.7 million euro (or 6.6 percent) for the quarter, Barco's results materialized roughly in line with expectations. Eric Van Zele, Barco's president and CEO, referred to some rather mixed market conditions to comment on the company's third quarter performance. On the one hand, results were favorably impacted by continued strong performance in the medical imaging division and unprecedented demand for digital cinema projectors, while on the other hand, Barco continued to suffer from severe softness in the events and out-of-home media markets, particularly in Europe and North America. Other Barco divisions performed more or less in line with expectations.

Barco's third quarter order intake of 153 million euro was 15.3 percent lower than in the prior year but nevertheless up 9 percent from the previous quarter. Incoming orders for digital cinema projectors nearly tripled in the quarter, not counting the effect of any longer term frame agreements. Also the Medical Imaging division booked a very good order intake (+23 percent quarter-on-quarter). On the other hand, orders declined sharply (by more than 40 percent) in the events segment of the Media & Entertainment division and were also somewhat weaker than expected in the traffic & surveillance segment (-20 percent quarter-on-quarter) of the Security & Monitoring division. Year-on-year Barco's order book remained level and stood at 342.4 million euro at the end of 3Q 2009.

From a regional perspective, orders in the APAC region grew by 21.3 percent quarter-on-quarter while incoming orders in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) declined by 19.6 percent quarter-on-quarter. In the Americas order intake declined by 28.9 percent.

To read the entire Barco Financial Statement, go to:  http://www.barco.com/corporate/pressrelease/2414/