The Manitou BF Board of Directors met today to approve the 2016 half-year financial statements. Michel Denis, President & Chief Executive Officer stated: "Sales revenues increasing by 5% in Q2 compared to 2015 permitted us to close the first half of the year with a 3% increase of sales at constant exchange rates. Southern Europe, which includes France, drove our good performance while the North American region was still strongly decreasing. From a market point of view, we achieved strong growth in the construction sector, especially business with rental companies and dealers boosted by the impact of the Macron law in France. Conversely the agricultural business suffered from the worldwide drop in milk prices and other commodities.

This first half of the year should be one more milestone for the improvement of our profitability with a 110 basis points increase of our recurring operating income. This good beginning of the year combined with a stronger order book puts us ahead of our planned roadmap. This is most welcome in an environment where the agricultural business shows no sign of improvement in the short-term, where markets are exposed to the impact of Brexit and in which the seasonality of production rates might not be as favourable as in H1.

This situation permits us to confirm sales growth prospects of around 2% in 2016 with an improved recurring operating income of approximately 50 basis points compared to December 2015."