Vossloh confirms 12-month earnings forecast for 2004
Slight rise in sales for the first three quarters /Like-for-like, sharp increase in EBITDespite the ongoing spending reluctance on the part of a number of state and municipal customers of key significance to the rail industry, the Vossloh Group has in 3Q/2004 raised sales compared with 3Q/2003. At €642.7 million revenues were slightly up over the year-earlier €634.5 million.
The Group’s 3Q EBIT of €67.5 million compares with €72.1 million a year ago. The 3Q/2003 EBIT was, however, inflated by €14.5 million of tax-free gains from the disposal of the VAE stake net after provisions for risks. Adjusted for these one-off factors, the 9-month EBIT 2004 rose by €9.9 million or 17.2 percent in a year-on-year comparison. The analogously adjusted EBIT margin climbed from 9.1 to 10.5 percent in the same period. The decrease in group earnings from €43.3 million to €37.5 million, too, is solely attributable to the one-time gains posted a year ago.
Annualized 3Q ROCE (EBIT returned on capital employed) edged down from 15.8 percent to 13.3 percent for the period under review. Using a like-for-like EBIT (adjusted for the prior year's one-off gains), however, would mean an 0.6 percentage points higher ROCE. Order backlog grew, too, and as of September 30, 2004, was at €954.0 million 2.9 percent above the year-earlier level of €927.2 million.
Due to the higher equity ratio, up from 30.9 percent at September 30, 2003, to 31.6 percent a year later, net leverage (i.e., the ratio of net financial debt to total equity) inched up in a year-on-year comparison by a mere two percentage points, from 72.7 percent in 2003 to now 74.7.
As of September 30, 2004, the Vossloh Group employed a workforce of 4,310, up by 15 compared with December 31, 2003.
The situation by divisions
At €372.0 million, Rail Infrastructure 9-month sales matched the year-earlier volume while EBIT at €66.4 million fell just short of the 3Q/2003 €67.5 million. The same applies to the EBIT margin which at 17.9 percent slipped a slight 0.2 percentage points from the year-earlier figure.
At €227.9 million, Motive Power sales exceeded the year-earlier €224.1 million. The division's EBIT of €7.4 million was a great improvement over the 3Q/2003 negative €0.9 million, with the EBIT margin showing a commensurate sharp turnaround from a red 0.4 percent to a black 3.2 percent.
Sales by Information Technologies reached €42.6 million, some 8 percent higher than the 3Q/2003 €39.3 million. The lower EBIT of €2.4 million (down from €2.7 million) was chiefly the result of billing delays.
Confident outlook
“Despite the present spending reluctance on the part of several state and municipal customers of key significance to the rail industry, business so far has proven satisfactory and we are confident of achieving our targeted earnings. For all of 2004, we continue to predict sales to total €920 million,” emphasized Vossloh AG CEO Burkhard Schuchmann.
Annual EBIT is still forecasted at €106 million “and would hence, despite the absence in 2004 of any one-off gains, improve by a remarkable 5 percent,” he added.
Group earnings for 2004 should reach €56.9 million, equivalent to earnings of €3.90 per share. At around 16 percent, ROCE should once more top the Group's 15-percent benchmark.
Werdohl, October 26, 2004
For more information contact:
Christiane Konrad, Vossloh AG, phone: (+49-2392) 52-249.
The full 3Q/2004 report is available at www.vossloh.com