03.28.16
The Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) financial statements for 2015 underline the press manufacturer’s successful group realignment within the past two years. At €1,025.1 million, group revenue met its target of more than €1 billion. The decrease in revenue compared to 2014 (€1.1 billion) was the result of the security press business and lower sales in the Digital & Web segment due to the realignment.
“We made good progress with our strategic goal of increasing revenue in growth markets packaging and digital printing and thus reduce our dependency on the cyclical security business and media-driven publication printing,” said CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann. “Packaging now makes up some 70% of group revenue with new presses, followed by security printing at around 20%. Media exposure now only totals around 10%.”
Group order intake increased sharply year-on year (€956.9 million) with a plus of 23.6% to €1,182.7 million. At €574.9 million order backlog at the end of 2015 was €157.6 million higher than the prior year due to a double-digit percentage rise in new orders across all segments. This ensures a solid level of capacity utilization until the industry’s leading trade show, Drupa, at the end of May 2016.
Restructuring production and the Digital & Web segment led to cost savings which are expected to have an even greater impact in 2016. Despite wage increases and additional costs to cushion peaks in capacity utilization, EBIT rose significantly to €35.9 million compared to €13.3 million the year before. At €65 million earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were also up clearly on the prior-year figure of €41.9 million.
With group earnings before taxes of €29.7 million (2014: €5.5 million) at 2.9% the EBT margin surpassed the company’s forecast of up to 2% of sales. Contrary to previous concerns, the group’s Sheetfed segment generated higher revenue in the fourth quarter without any major additional costs and its segment profit thus exceeded expectations. KBA posted a net group profit of €26.9 million in 2015 (2014: €0.3 million) after tax. Earnings per share were up accordingly from €0.03 to €1.62.
KBA’s sheetfed segment performed particularly well. At €561.7 million revenue in the group’s largest business unit was up 6.9% year-on-year thanks to growth in the packaging market. Following a prior-year loss, this segment’s profit of €25.5 million is considerable. The growing service business contributed to this increase. A 55.8% rise in order backlog year-on-year to €282.8 million towards the end of the year ensured good capacity utilization.
The company’s significantly scaled back Digital & Web segment achieved the turnaround in the fourth quarter of 2015 with EBIT of €1.3 million. Despite low annual revenue of €98.4 million, the segment result improved from –€13.3 million in 2014 to –€10.9 million in the transition year 2015. Digital & Web is expected to generate higher sales and a profit by the end of 2016 given the 22.7% rise in order intake to €117.8 million. KBA anticipates the alliance with HP in the corrugated packaging sector and its own RotaJET press series to make a growing contribution to its digital printing business.
The 29.8% rise in order intake in the Special segment to €477.7 million (2014: €367.9 million) was primarily the result of a climb in new orders for security presses and coding equipment. In spite of higher sales in flexo and metal decorating, at €422.9 million revenue in this segment for the entire year was below the figure for 2014 (€474.5 million) due to lower security press sales. Segment profit thus sank from €57 million to €27.7 million year-on-year.
The export level stood at 85% following domestic sales of €153.3 million. The proportion of group revenue generated in the rest of Europe sank from 35.5% the year before to 29.4%. In contrast, the share of the group total attributable to North America climbed from 10.7% to 14%. Despite weaker growth in China, Asia and the Pacific’s contribution rose from 23.9% to 32.7%. Weak currencies and unstable political issues acted as a brake on investment in Latin America and Africa. The proportion of revenue fell from 13.5% to 8.9% of the total.
Despite higher earnings and the rise in customer prepayments from €129.7m to €141.7m, cash flows from operating activities of –€15.3 million were clearly below the strong prior-year figure of €43.2 million. Payments amounting to some €40 million as part of the restructuring were a decisive contributory factor.
“We made good progress with our strategic goal of increasing revenue in growth markets packaging and digital printing and thus reduce our dependency on the cyclical security business and media-driven publication printing,” said CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann. “Packaging now makes up some 70% of group revenue with new presses, followed by security printing at around 20%. Media exposure now only totals around 10%.”
Group order intake increased sharply year-on year (€956.9 million) with a plus of 23.6% to €1,182.7 million. At €574.9 million order backlog at the end of 2015 was €157.6 million higher than the prior year due to a double-digit percentage rise in new orders across all segments. This ensures a solid level of capacity utilization until the industry’s leading trade show, Drupa, at the end of May 2016.
Restructuring production and the Digital & Web segment led to cost savings which are expected to have an even greater impact in 2016. Despite wage increases and additional costs to cushion peaks in capacity utilization, EBIT rose significantly to €35.9 million compared to €13.3 million the year before. At €65 million earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were also up clearly on the prior-year figure of €41.9 million.
With group earnings before taxes of €29.7 million (2014: €5.5 million) at 2.9% the EBT margin surpassed the company’s forecast of up to 2% of sales. Contrary to previous concerns, the group’s Sheetfed segment generated higher revenue in the fourth quarter without any major additional costs and its segment profit thus exceeded expectations. KBA posted a net group profit of €26.9 million in 2015 (2014: €0.3 million) after tax. Earnings per share were up accordingly from €0.03 to €1.62.
KBA’s sheetfed segment performed particularly well. At €561.7 million revenue in the group’s largest business unit was up 6.9% year-on-year thanks to growth in the packaging market. Following a prior-year loss, this segment’s profit of €25.5 million is considerable. The growing service business contributed to this increase. A 55.8% rise in order backlog year-on-year to €282.8 million towards the end of the year ensured good capacity utilization.
The company’s significantly scaled back Digital & Web segment achieved the turnaround in the fourth quarter of 2015 with EBIT of €1.3 million. Despite low annual revenue of €98.4 million, the segment result improved from –€13.3 million in 2014 to –€10.9 million in the transition year 2015. Digital & Web is expected to generate higher sales and a profit by the end of 2016 given the 22.7% rise in order intake to €117.8 million. KBA anticipates the alliance with HP in the corrugated packaging sector and its own RotaJET press series to make a growing contribution to its digital printing business.
The 29.8% rise in order intake in the Special segment to €477.7 million (2014: €367.9 million) was primarily the result of a climb in new orders for security presses and coding equipment. In spite of higher sales in flexo and metal decorating, at €422.9 million revenue in this segment for the entire year was below the figure for 2014 (€474.5 million) due to lower security press sales. Segment profit thus sank from €57 million to €27.7 million year-on-year.
The export level stood at 85% following domestic sales of €153.3 million. The proportion of group revenue generated in the rest of Europe sank from 35.5% the year before to 29.4%. In contrast, the share of the group total attributable to North America climbed from 10.7% to 14%. Despite weaker growth in China, Asia and the Pacific’s contribution rose from 23.9% to 32.7%. Weak currencies and unstable political issues acted as a brake on investment in Latin America and Africa. The proportion of revenue fell from 13.5% to 8.9% of the total.
Despite higher earnings and the rise in customer prepayments from €129.7m to €141.7m, cash flows from operating activities of –€15.3 million were clearly below the strong prior-year figure of €43.2 million. Payments amounting to some €40 million as part of the restructuring were a decisive contributory factor.