The optician chain Fielmann wants to update its business outlook following the recent acquisitions.

"As soon as the closing date of the US acquisition has been set, we will update our forecast for the full year," the listed family business announced on Thursday. Approval from the authorities is expected in the coming weeks. The acquired US optician SVS Vision will contribute to the Fielmann Group's sales immediately after the contracts come into force, but its share of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) will still be low due to the acquisition costs of several million euros. From next year onwards, SVS will then contribute significantly more to earnings over the course of the year.

A few weeks ago, Fielmann announced a significant increase in sales. With growth of 13.6 percent to 971 million euros, the final figures for the first half of the year show that sales were a tad higher than the 966 million euros announced in July. The operating result jumped by more than a fifth to 208 million euros thanks to the cost-cutting measures. The Hamburg-based company therefore believes it is on course to achieve its growth target of seven to ten percent for the year as a whole. EBITDA is expected to increase within a broad range of between nine and 21 percent.

(Report by Jan C. Schwartz, edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)