Vossloh’s quarterly performance satisfies its own high hopes
- Q1/2007 EBIT up 44.8 percent
- Both divisions reporting sales and earnings growth
- Prospects revised to account for new US subsidiary Pohl
The Q1/2006 figures have been adjusted as required by IFRS to allow for the sale in January 2007 of the Information Technologies division, the latter being carried since September 2006 as discontinued operation.
Rail Infrastructure: sales and EBIT up by 9 percent
Both Vossloh divisions contributed to the added Q1 sales and earnings. Rail Infrastructure generated sales of €147.7 million, up by 9.2 percent from €135.2 million a year earlier. The Switch Systems business unit played a major role in this increase while sales by Infrastructure Services, also a member of this division, were expectedly short of the year-earlier volume.
Rail Infrastructure’s EBIT mounted from €15.5 million to €16.9 million, the 9-percent advance roughly matching the division’s incremental sales.
Motive Power&Components: sales and earnings surging
The Motive Power&Components division’s Q1 sales soared 40.8 percent from €85.2 million to €120 million thanks to the locomotive business whose two production locations, Kiel and Valencia, raised their revenues appreciably. A lesser gain but likewise double digit, was reported by the Electrical Systems business unit.
The higher sales also propelled this division’s EBIT which at €7.5 million, was more than double the year-earlier €3.5 million.
Commented Vossloh AG’s CEO, Gerhard Eschenröder, satisfied with the Q1 performance: “During these three months we not only reached further strategic milestones with the access into the US market for switch systems and the sale of the IT division, we also progressed in our operations by taking another step toward our targeted EBIT margin of 10 percent.”
Prospects revised to account for new US subsidiary Pohl
With the announcement of the quarterly figures, the Vossloh Group is also revising its 2007 budget to include the expected contribution from the US subsidiary Pohl Corp., included in the Group and fully consolidated since April 1, 2007. Including this newcomer, the Group is now budgeting for 2007 sales of €1,120 million and an EBIT of €112 million. Besides Pohl’s input it is also overall improved business that accounts for this budget revision. As to 2008 and on the basis of the current budget including the 12-month consolidation of Pohl Corp., Vossloh is expecting sales of around €1.2 billion and an EBIT margin of 10+ percent.
Not included in these forecasts are the sales and earnings generated by the second US acquiree, Cleveland Track Material, Inc. This transaction is expected to be closed in the next few weeks.
Werdohl, 26.4.2007
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