Marcolin approves its quarterly results

The Board of Directors of Marcolin has approved the quarterly report of the Marcolin Group at 30 September 2003.Consolidated sales in the first nine months of the year amount to Euro 114,253 thousand, a decrease of 6.8% on the same period of last year; assuming constant exchange rates, the Group's sales would have been broadly unchanged. In fact, the reduction in consolidated sales is mostly due to performance in the United States and certain other non-European countries, partly as a result of the continued difficulties on the economic front and the adverse movement in exchange rates. The dollar, in particular, has depreciated by an average of 16.5% against the euro year-on-year.

The geographical breakdown of sales nonetheless reports a robust performance on the domestic market (+20.4%) and in the rest of Europe (+9.3%) - especially in Spain, Germany and Portugal - partly thanks to the success of the Dolce & Gabbana Eyewear and Roberto Cavalli Eyewear lines. Sales in the sport sector have also done well, improving by 4.3% on the nine months ended September 2002.

Consolidated Ebitda for the first nine months amounts to Euro 7,974 thousand, corresponding to around 7% of sales; looking at this figure more closely, Ebitda for the US subsidiary is some Euro 5,274 thousand lower, while that of the other Group companies has stayed broadly in line with the first nine months of 2002.

The pre-tax result is negative for Euro 2,230 thousand, reflecting the lower amount of sales, the growing pressure on prices and the higher volume of discontinued product sales, in keeping with the plan to streamline the brand portfolio.

Work continues on reorganizing the US subsidiary with the goal of regaining margins by cutting overheads and focusing on higher-margin products. These actions are expected to bear fruit from the start of 2004.

The expected improvement in the Group's fourth-quarter results will not be sufficient to make up for the results reported up until 30 September 2003.