KBA Grows in Packaging, Digital Printing Markets in 1H 2017

After a good start to the year in which Koenig & Bauer celebrates its 200th anniversary, the group is able to report favorable business performance in the second quarter of 2017.
 
“The successful trade shows Print China in Beijing, interpack in Düsseldorf and METPACK in Essen contributed to a substantial year-on-year increase in order intake in packaging solutions for cardboard, metal decorating, marking and coding and glass and hollow container printing. Despite this growth and the expansion of service business, the order intake of €601.9 million was slightly down on the previous year’s figure of €618.8 million, which had been spurred by major security press orders,” explained CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann. With group revenue dropping slightly to €538.9 million compared with the previous year due to more deliveries in H2, the order backlog remained high at €620.5 million. 
 
EBIT came to €16.3 million. “The previous year’s figure of €20.7 million had been influenced by a strong catch-up effect in Q2 (€4.9 million) from the execution of a large security press project and higher revenue,” said CFO Dr Mathias Dähn. The group net profit of €15.2 million (2016: €17.2 million) is equivalent to proportionate earnings per share of €0.93 (2016: €1.05). 
 
“In addition to the continued expansion of service business, profitable growth will be particularly driven by our existing and new solutions for printing, finishing and postpress processing of packaging as well as our industrial digital printing applications,” explained Dr. Dähn. Bolza-Schünemann mentioned the strong customer interest in the newly developed CS MetalCan solution for printing two-piece beverage cans. Sales launch is to commence in 2018 following the completion of intensive field testing. 
 
Order intake in the Sheetfed segment grew by 12.2% to €326.3 million due to increased service business and more orders for medium-format presses. Revenue rose by 5.5% from €291.7 million in the previous year to €307.8 million. The additional revenue with better margins and lower costs resulted in a substantial increase in segment profit to €12.1 million (2016: €8.6 million). 
 
Solid order intake of €85.7 million was achieved in the Digital & Web segment. With revenue declining to €68.3 million (2016: €75.5 million), the order backlog rose from €92.3 million to €93.6 million. The EBIT of –€ 2.8 million (2016: –€2.7 million) came under pressure from KBA-Flexotecnica, which contributed a figure of –€3.1 million. Optimisation efforts at the Italian subsidiary target to speed up the growth course in the future market of flexible packaging.
 
Despite the growth in orders for packaging printing solutions, new business in the Special segment dropped to €216.3 million, down from €269.5 million in the previous year, in which major security press contracts had been received. At €189.2 million, segment revenue fell short of the previous year (€222.9 million) due to more deliveries in H2. EBIT came to €14.6 million, translating into a gratifying margin of 7.7%. The previous year’s figure of €22.1 million had been influenced by a high catch-up effect of €4.9 million from a large security press project. 
 
The order backlog of €620.5 million at the end of the first half, expanding service business, steady demand in the packaging markets and promising customer projects in security and digital printing, the management board expects revenue growth to accelerate with a positive effect on earnings in the further course of the year. In the absence of any material deterioration in global economic and political conditions impacting its international business, group management expects to achieve organic growth of up to €1.25 billion in group revenue and an EBIT margin of approximately 6% in 2017.