Continued positive development for Dürr in Q2

02-Aug-2012 - Germany

Dürr achieved further growth in sales revenues, incoming orders and earnings in the second quarter of 2012. As a result, the mechanical and plant engineering specialist closed the first half of the year well up on the already strong previous year. In addition to brisk demand from the emerging markets, Dürr particularly benefited from orders received from the automobile industry in America and Europe. At € 725 million, incoming orders in the second quarter exceeded the same period of the previous year by 13% and were up 7% on the first quarter of 2012. Overall, incoming orders grew by 17% to € 1,404 million in the first half of 2012, thus remaining ahead of sales revenues, which climbed by 49% to € 1,163 million. EBIT in the first half of the year more than doubled, coming to € 72.3 million (H1 2011: € 33.9 million), equivalent to 6.2% of sales. In the second quarter, Dürr generated EBIT of € 42.7 million, translating into an EBIT margin of 7.1%. “We are well on the way towards comfortably achieving our full-year target margin of 6.5 to 7% in 2012,” said CEO Ralf W. Dieter. Since mid-2011, order backlog has widened by 37% to € 2,387 million, thus ensuring full capacity utilization until well into next year.

Ralf W. Dieter: “The first half of the year - and particularly the second quarter - exceeded our expectations. Contrary to the general trend, we continued to expand not only in plant engineering but also in mechanical engineering business. We owe this to the continued strong demand from the automobile industry´s growth markets. However, we are observing macroeconomic trends attentively and are prepared in the event that the eurozone crisis exerts greater pressure on the global economy.”

All four of the Group’s divisions contributed to the increase in incoming orders and sales revenues in the first half of the year. The greatest growth in orders was recorded by Paint and Assembly Systems with major paint shop contracts received from China, the United States, Germany, Spain and France.

In the first half of the year, Dürr achieved earnings after tax of € 44.0 million (H1 2011: € 16.0 million). Selling and general administrative expenses rose by 20% and thus a good deal more slowly than sales revenues. Dürr increased R&D spending on new products and services by 19%. Capital expenditure was raised by one third and channeled into plant extensions in Germany and the emerging markets, among other things. Net finance expense somewhat widened from € 10.1 million to € 12.8 million, one of the reasons for this being the borrowing costs in connection with the acquisition of the Bietigheim-Bissingen facility in 2011.

Earnings after tax caused equity to rise to € 386.6 million as of June 30, 2012 (June 30, 2011: € 323.2 million). The equity ratio contracted slightly to 22.1% due to the sharp increase in total assets caused by the large volume of business. The increase in business tied down a greater volume of cash, resulting in an operating cash flow of € -64.6 million. Dürr is expecting substantially larger payment receipts in the second half of the year, which should generate a clearly positive cash flow for the year as a whole. As a result the net financial status, which stood at € -48.3 million as of June 30, 2012 should return to positive territory.

Dürr has enlarged its workforce by 14% to 7,314 employees since mid-2011. The headcount grew twice as quickly in the emerging markets, where one third of the Group’s employees are now based. In Germany, 205 new jobs were created.

Outlook

On the strength of its good performance in the first half of the year, Dürr raised its full-year outlook for 2012 in June. Thus, the sales revenue forecast was increased from at least € 2.0 billion to around € 2.3 billion. Incoming orders of some € 2.5 billion are now expected, up from the previous forecast of at least € 2.0 billion. The target corridor for the full-year EBIT margin for 2012 has been lifted to between 6.5 and 7% (previously 5.5 - 6%). Dürr is confident of achieving these targets in the absence of any material deterioration in macroeconomic conditions. Employee numbers are likely to slightly exceed 7,500 at the end of the year.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/139053/continued-positive-development-for-duerr-in-q2.html