- 17% increase in order intake, underpinned by growth in all divisions
- Book-to-bill ratio of 1.3
- Sales in line with previous year (adjusted for exchange-rate effects)
- Earnings after tax more than doubled; EBIT up 24%
The high order intake in the first quarter was underpinned by growth in all five divisions. The greatest gains were recorded by the robot-divison Application Technology, which posted a 27.5% increase in orders. Acquired in 2014, the HOMAG Group (wood processing systems) continued to perform well, exceeding the record order intake achieved in the first quarter of 2015 by 6.4%.
Adjusted for exchange-rate effects, consolidated sales revenues matched the previous year in the first quarter of 2016. The book-to-bill ratio climbed to a strong 1.3. Dürr’s service business continued on its growth trajectory, with revenues rising by 7.9% to € 230.7 million and accounting for 28% of the Group’s top line.
The EBIT of € 58.7 million includes lower extraordinary expenses in connection with purchase price allocation for HOMAG (€ 2.2 million; Q1 2015: € 11.5 million) and also the income (€ 5.1 million) from the sale of a real estate asset in the United States.
Capital spending and research and development (R&D) expenses rose by 13% each in the first quarter of 2016. “Industry 4.0” was a main focus of R&D activity. Net finance expense contracted from € 11.5 million to € 3.0 million, likewise reflecting lower extraordinary expenses arising from the domination and profit transfer agreement with HOMAG. At the same time, interest expense dropped as HOMAG replaced an external facility with Dürr’s less expensive group funding.
At a negative € 2.5 million, cash flow from operating activities reflects the fact that a further part of the unusually high prepayments which Dürr had received from customers was used for order execution as planned. The equity ratio widened to 25.4%. As of March 31, 2015, it had temporarily dropped to 20.9% as a result of an extraordinary effect arising from the HOMAG acquisition. Cash and cash equivalents stood at € 420 million at the end of March 2016. Dürr received proceeds of a further € 300 million from the issue of a bonded loan in April. Says Ralph Heuwing, CFO: “Our balance sheet is rock solid. We have sufficient funds to continue investing in Dürr’s growth - including via acquisitions.”
Employee numbers climbed by 5.4% over the end of March 2015 to 14,985. The increase came to 8.3% in the emerging markets (4,471 employees). Dürr has 8,071 employees in Germany.
OUTLOOK
Dürr projects full-year sales revenues of € 3.4 - 3.6 billion in 2016. This marks a moderate decline over the previous year, in which sales revenues were unusually high due to the delayed execution of business which had originally been planned for 2014. Order intake is expected to come to € 3.3 to 3.6 billion. Accordingly, orders on hand should be largely unchanged over the end of 2015 (€ 2.47 billion) and come to around € 2.2 - 2.6 billion. At this stage, EBIT in 2016 should more or less match the record level achieved in 2015, resulting in an EBIT margin of between 7.0 and 7.5% again. Concludes Ralf W. Dieter: “After an upbeat first quarter, we reaffirm our forecast for 2016. At this stage, we are confident of reaching the upper end of our target ranges.”
