Vossloh: starting off well into fiscal 2003
Sales up by a good 22 percent, EBIT more than doubled, full-year forecasts endorsedDespite the lingering economic scenario of doom and gloom, the Vossloh Group had a good start into the current fiscal year 2003. Q1 sales rose like-for-like by more than 22 percent, from €135.1 million to €165.5 million, EBIT during the same period more than quadrupled over the corresponding year-earlier €7.3 million to €29.5 million. This latter includes the gain of €14.5 million from the sale on January 2, 2003, of the final third of the VAE stake, net after risk provisions. Adjusted for this amount, EBIT surged by almost €8.0 million to €15.0 million. Hence, added sales of a good 22 percent have yielded more than twice the EBIT derived from operating activities.
The adjusted EBIT margin for Q1/2003 of 9.1 percent contrasts with 5.4 percent for Q1/2002, an improvement chiefly due to mounting margins in Rail Infrastructure and Information Technologies.
Since the capital gain from the disposal of the VAE stake is tax-exempt, the income tax load ratio slumped from just under 41 percent a year ago to around 19 in the quarter under review. Earnings before minority interests/net income totaled €21.3 million (up from €2.7 million for Q1/2002).
Group earnings in Q1/2003 surged from €1.9 million a year ago to €21.1 million, equivalent to an EpS of €1.54 (up from €0.14).
At March 31, 2003, the Vossloh Group's total assets added up to €943.8 million, almost unchanged versus the €947.2 million of Dec. 31, 2002. An equity comparison between the two dates shows a rise of €20.5 million to €259.1 million. Hence, the equity ratio showed a clear improvement from 25.2 to 27.4 percent.
Compared with the year-earlier quarter, annualized ROCE advanced by 14.7 percentage points to 20.6 percent. Excluding the gain from the disposal of the VAE stake, ROCE has still jumped 4.6 percentage points to 10.5 percent.
New corporate structure
The Vossloh Group which since last year has been squarely focused on transport technology business, has been reconfigured to include three divisions: Rail Infrastructure, Motive Power, and Information Technologies. Rail Infrastructure comprising its Vossloh Switch Systems, Vossloh Fastening Systems, and Vossloh Infrastructure Services subdivisions, generated Q1/2003 sales of €117.8 million, 14.9 percent up over the year-earlier €102.6 million. Vossloh Fastening Systems topped its year-earlier sales of €27.8 million by almost 20 percent to reach €33.3 million. Vossloh Cogifer SA with its subsidiaries, which together make up the Vossloh Switch Systems subdivision, achieved sales of €49.3 million, 13 percent over the like-for-like year-earlier amount. Q1/2003 sales by the Vossloh Infrastructure Services subdivision reached €37.2 million. In all, this division's EBIT showed a sharp improvement of more than 60 percent, from €13.2 million to €21.5 million.
Sales by the Motive Power division totaled €37.5 million, easily in excess of the year-earlier €27.1 million. Of this amount, around €20.0 million was contributed by the Kiepe Group (Vossloh Electrical Systems) acquired in the fourth quarter of 2002. With sales of €16.4 million, the Vossloh Locomotives subdivision failed to match the year-earlier €26.5 million and hence, its Q1/2003 EBIT was still a red €3.0 million (down from an equally red €2.9 million).
The Information Technologies division's sales of €10.3 million were also almost double the like-for-like year-earlier €5.3 million while EBIT climbed as budgeted from a negative €0.6 million to a positive €0.2 million.
At March 31, 2003, the Vossloh Group had a workforce of 4,168, which is 1.7 percent higher than a year before (4,099).
Pronounced increases promised for 2003
The sound progress made during the first three months of 2003, endorses the predictions for 2003 as such. Vossloh is still expecting Group sales in 2003 to climb by more than 16 percent to a good €870 million (up from €744.5 million). EBIT is set to rise from €78.4 million by more than 20 percent to just under €95 million. These figures include gains meanwhile booked from the disposal of investments (net after risk provisions) of €14.5 million (up from €14.4 million). The EBIT margin in 2003 is budgeted to increase slightly from 10.5 to 10.9 percent, Group earnings at €52 million will be in the region of the high prior-year figure. ROCE at over 15 percent will be easily above the year-earlier 13.3 percent.
The full quarterly report, which has been now extended and for the first time reviewed by the statutory auditors, is now downloadable at the newly designed Vossloh website under www.vossloh.com
Werdohl, April 23, 2003
For queries contact:
Werner Andree, Vossloh AG, phone (+49-2392) 52407