BUSINESS FIGURES FOR JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER 2015
- Further growth in the Chinese market
- Target for sales in 2015 raised to € 3.6 - 3.7 billion
In the first nine months of 2015, order intake climbed by 39.7% to € 2,694.6 million. Of this, China and Europe (excluding Germany) each contributed 27%, while the Americas, where order intake was up 104%, accounted for 25%. 14% of new orders came from Germany. Ralf W. Dieter: “Dürr’s business is regionally very balanced. Once again, our strong presence in all main markets is paying off.”
The extraordinary effects within EBIT arising from the acquisition of HOMAG came to € 20.3 million, mainly related to accounting rules for purchase price allocation. HOMAG´s operating EBIT for the first nine months of 2015 came to € 45.1 million. Dürr CFO Ralph Heuwing: “The FOCUS optimization program implemented by HOMAG is making good progress and the company is performing in line with expectations.”
Orders on hand reached a high € 2.7 billion, providing the underpinnings for a large part of sales for 2016. All five of the Group’s divisions contributed to the top-line growth of 68% in the first nine months of 2015. At 34%, Paint and Final Assembly Systems expanded the most quickly. Service revenues (€ 652.2 million) grew by 57%, accounting for 24% of total sales.
With research and development expenditure rising by 111% to € 69.6 million, Dürr continued to pursue its innovation course. Likewise, capital spending more than doubled to € 61.8 million, the largest projects being the construction of new campuses in China and the United States as well as IT spending at HOMAG. Net finance expense widened from € 14.4 million to € 18.8 million, reflecting extraordinary effects of € 11.2 million arising from the domination and profit transfer agreement with HOMAG Group AG and its integration in the Dürr Group’s less expensive funding structure. In the third quarter, net finance expense contracted to € 1.6 million thanks to HOMAG’s reduced funding costs.
The cash flow from operating activities of € -2.8 million mirrors the accumulation of net working capital resulting from large business volumes in plant engineering and the normalization of prepayments received. The equity ratio, which had dropped due to an extraordinary effect arising from the domination and profit transfer agreement (September 30, 2015: 22.2%), should increase to 24 - 25% by the end of the year.
As of September 30, 2015, Dürr had 14,710 employees, including 7,948 (54% of the total) in Germany. The headcount was up 4% compared with the end of 2014 primarily as a result of new recruitments in China and North America.
OUTLOOK
Dürr has raised its target for sales revenues in 2015 to € 3.6 - 3.7 billion (previously € 3.4 - 3.5 billion). Moreover, it is able to provide more precise guidance on full-year order intake, which is now seen at € 3.4 - 3.5 billion (previously € 3.2 - 3.5 billion). Dürr anticipates an increase in EBIT in the double-digit millions. At this stage, the full-year EBIT margin for 2015 should be roughly in the middle of the target range of 7.0 - 7-5% (after extraordinary effects).
