AHRENSBURG (dpa-AFX) - Image processing specialist Basler met its own expectations last year with a strong increase in sales and stable earnings before taxes. Sales climbed 27 percent year-on-year to 272 million euros in 2022, the SDax-listed company announced in Ahrensburg on Monday when presenting preliminary business figures. However, due to higher material costs and expenses for the planned expansion of the business, pre-tax profit remained at the previous year's level of just over 28 million euros. The pre-tax return on sales therefore decreased by 2.6 percentage points to 10.4 percent. According to Basler, this met the forecast of sales between 262 million euros and 270 million euros, which had been raised once in the course of last year. The target for the margin had been 10 percent to 12 percent./zb/stk