Financial key performance indicators

In the first nine months of the current business year, the Metal Forming Division experienced a development that was stable overall; however, the performance of the individual business segments differed as far as profits were concerned. At EUR 1,742.4 million, revenue has remained at precisely the same level as in the previous year (EUR 1,740.1 million), despite deconsolidation of the Flamco Group in the second quarter of 2014/15 and of the plastics business in the third quarter of 2014/15. This loss in revenue was mainly compensated by the Automotive Body Parts business segment—due to the positive performance of the automobile market in Europe and start-up of activities overseas—and the Warehouse & Rack Solutions business segment. In contrast, delivery volumes in the Tubes & Sections business segment have declined slightly as a result of the more challenging market conditions. The non-recurring effects described in the previous section had a positive impact on the earnings of the Metal Forming Division. In a year-to-year comparison, the operating result (EBITDA) rose by one third from EUR 194.4 million to EUR 259.3 million. Without taking the non-recurring effects into account, at EUR 192.8 million, EBITDA in the current business year is 0.8% lower than the figure for the first three quarters of 2013/14 (EUR 194.4 million); this means a largely stable EBITDA margin of 11.1% (previous year: 11.2%). Profit from operations (EBIT) also rose by around one third from EUR 126.8 million to EUR 167.6 million. Adjusted for the non-recurring effect, at EUR 122.4 million, EBIT is 3.5% weaker compared to the previous year. Based on the adjusted earnings, the EBIT margin of 7.0% is slightly lower than in the previous year (7.3%).

In a comparison of the third quarter with the immediately preceding quarter, the division’s revenue shows a slight decrease, due, on one hand, to the deconsolidation of the Flamco and the plastics Groups and, on the other, the result of slightly declining sales volumes of tubes and sections. As a result, the revenue in the third quarter of 2014/15 is EUR 561.6 million, 3.0% below the figure of the immediately preceding quarter (EUR 578.9 million). The non-recurring effects in the second quarter also impact the comparison of the second and third quarters. Thus, the decrease in the operating result (EBITDA) from EUR 129.9 million to EUR 60.5 million amounts to 53.4%; corrected by the non-recurring earnings contributions, compared to EBITDA of EUR 63.4 million in the second quarter, the adjusted figure corresponds to a reduction of 4.6%. Accordingly, the EBITDA margin also fell, going from 11.0% to 10.8%. At a minus of 56.0% (from EUR 85.3 million to EUR 37.5 million), profit from operations (EBIT) decreased by a similar range as the operating result. Without the non-recurring effects, in the second quarter, EBIT was at EUR 40.1 million; this means that the adjusted decline is only 6.5%. While the EBIT margin was at 6.9% in the immediately preceding quarter, in the third quarter, it fell slightly to 6.7%.

As of the end of the third quarter of 2014/15, the number of employees (FTE) in the Metal Forming Division was 9,885 or 8.3% below last year’s figure. Compared to the figure at the end of the last business year (11,416 FTE), headcount fell by 13.4%. The decline in the number of employees is primarily due to the divestments that were reported above.