Record Vossloh Group earnings for 2003 / dividend increase to €1.30 proposed
Additional sales and EBIT growth plannedThe Vossloh Group reports on a highly successful fiscal 2003. Year-earlier sales of €744.5 million surged 23.5 percent to €919.8 million. Accompanying this commendable increase was an almost 30-percent EBIT advance from the prior-year €78.4 million to €101.7 million, the EBIT margin reaching 11.1 percent. Just as the year before, the 2003 EBIT includes gains from the disposal of the VAE Group as well as risk provisions.
Adjusted for one-off effects, the EBIT margin amounts to 9.6 percent (up from 8.6 percent. Besides the earnings contributed by the operations acquired in 2002, the remarkable growth was due to the partly surging EBIT at Vossloh Fastening Systems, Vossloh Locomotives, and Vossloh Information Technologies.
"At €55.0 million (up from €52.4 million), Vossloh Group earnings were at an all-time high—all the more remarkable since last year's tax load ratio shot up from 12.1 percent in 2002 to almost 35 percent," stressed Vossloh AG's CEO, Burkhard Schuchmann, at a press conference in Düsseldorf. Group earnings for 2003 were equivalent to an EpS of €3.87 (up from €3.85), an improvement despite an almost 5-percent higher number of shares included in the formula.
At €297.9 million, the Group's equity was almost 25 percent up over the year-earlier figure of €238.6 million. The equity ratio jumped from 25.2 to 32.3 percent at December 31, 2003. At now 29.2 percent, the return on equity (measured as ratio of EBT to equity), improved from the prior year's 26.7 percent. The return on capital employed (ROCE) mounted from 13.3 to 16.4 percent, also well above the Group's 15-percent benchmark.
Vossloh AG's Executive and Supervisory Boards will propose to the annual stockholders' meeting on June 3, 2004, to distribute a cash dividend of €1.30 (up by €0.10) per share. In terms of Vossloh's year-end stock price of €44.80, this is a yield of 2.9 percent. As in 2002, around 35 percent of net earnings is being paid out as dividend, a policy whereby Executive and Supervisory Boards reaffirm their commitment to dividend continuity.
At year-end 2003, the Vossloh Group had a workforce of 4,295, around 1.4 percent over the year-earlier headcount of 4,236. The gain was mainly attributable to the first-time consolidation in 2003 of Vossloh Skamo, Poland. Sales per capita showed a strong increase, rising a good 17 percent from around €178,000 in 2002 to €208,000. Most notably Vossloh Locomotives and Vossloh Information Technologies both generated appreciable sales growth with a virtually unchanged headcount.
For 2004, the Group has budgeted some 5-percent added sales to a good €960 million, EBIT to show another accelerated advance of 17.9 percent. Although the one-time gains of a net €13.5 million in 2003 will not recur, EBIT is budgeted to climb another 4.6 percent. The EBIT margin is again set for 11 percent in 2004. In terms of Group earnings, Vossloh has targeted a 3.5-percent addition to €56.9 million, notwithstanding an even heavier relative tax load growing from 34.6 to around 37.5 percent for 2004. Earnings per eligible share should then inch up from €3.87 to €3.90. Capital employed is predicted to mount 7.8 percent in 2004 from €618.1 million to €666.5 million and ROCE at just under 16 percent would again top the group benchmark of 15 percent.
"The signals are set to ongoing growth. Last year was a period of successful integration for the newly acquired subsidiaries and a marked improvement in operating business. The next steps are to both further consolidate and advance the Group through one or more acquisitions," emphasized Schuchmann.
Werdohl/Düsseldorf, March 24, 2004
For more information contact:
Christiane Konrad, Vossloh AG,
phone (+49-2392) 52-249