- Global economic environment very challenging: Europe in a moderate upward trend, but with major regional differences; dwindling momentum in North America; Brazil and Russia in a deep recession; lower growth in China due to massive structural changes; India begins economic catch-up process
- Cooling of economy and overcapacity in commodities (especially steel) in China results in a glut of cheap exports, which, in turn, causes global price pressure
- Deterioration of raw materials prices (including crude oil and iron ore) continues
- By concentrating on technologically sophisticated market segments, voestalpine experiences largely stable performance despite the precarious environment
- Positive non-recurring effects in annual results for 2015/16 due to first-time consolidation of companies belonging to the Metal Engineering Division, which had previously been consolidated at equity, as of the beginning of the business year 2015/16 (comparative period of the previous year also positively affected by non-recurring divestment proceeds)
- voestalpine Group posts relatively stable revenue with increases in all reporting categories; adjusted for non-recurring effects, figures slightly down in a year-to-year comparison
- At EUR 11,069 million, Group’s revenue virtually unchanged compared to the previous year’s figure of EUR 11,190 million (–1.1%)
- In a year-over-year comparison, EBITDA up by 3.5% from EUR 1,530 million to EUR 1,583 million; excluding non-recurring effects at EUR 1,446 million, just below the previous year’s figure of 1,468 million (–1.5%)
- EBIT improves marginally by 0.3% from EUR 886 million to EUR 889 million (excluding non-recurring effects, slight decline of 3.2% from EUR 841 million to EUR 814 million)
- EBITDA and EBIT margins (excluding non-recurring effects) virtually stable (EBITDA margin unchanged at 13.1%, EBIT margin decreases minimally from 7.5% to 7.4%)
- Profit before tax improves by 1.7% from EUR 739 million to EUR 751 million (excluding non-recurring effects, decline of 2.5% from EUR 694 million to EUR 677 million)
- Profit after tax up by 1.2%, going from EUR 595 million in the previous year to EUR 602 million (excluding non-recurring effects, a decrease of 7.7% from EUR 553 million to EUR 510 million)
- Positive free cash flow (before dividend) despite record investment expenditure of EUR 1.3 billion
- Equity up by 10.5% to EUR 5.7 billion with an increase of net financial debt of only 3.4% to EUR 3.1 billion; gearing ratio (net financial debt in percent of equity) down in a year-to-year comparison from 58.2% to 54.5%
- Dividend proposed to the Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting: EUR 1.05 per share, increase of EUR 0.05 compared to previous year (EUR 1.00 per share)
- Construction of the direct reduction plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA, for the production of high-quality HBI (hot briquetted iron/sponge iron) in its final phase
