Financial key performance indicators

Despite weakness in the oil and gas sector and recessionary developments in Brazil, the High Performance Metals Division succeeded in consistently improving its financial performance indicators in the business year 2016/17. A reason for this development is that the division profits from strong global economic growth in the automotive industry, as well as, in regional terms, favorable market conditions in Asia, and because it has managed to increase delivery volumes, above all for premium products. Against this backdrop, the division improved its revenue by 1.8%, from EUR 2,650.9 million in 2015/16 to EUR 2,697.9 million in the past business year. As in past years, in 2016/17 the key internal focus lay in implementing cost and efficiency optimization programs in order to increase both the operating result (EBITDA) and profit from operations (EBIT). This led to an 8.5% rise in EBITDA, from EUR 364.1 million in the previous year (margin: 13.7%) to EUR 395.2 million (margin: 14.6%) in 2016/17. EBIT improved in the same period by 11.2%, from EUR 227.2 million (margin: 8.6%) to EUR 252.7 million (margin: 9.4%).

In a direct comparison between the third and fourth quarters of 2016/17, the High Performance Metals Division achieved significant revenue growth of 16.3% which is primarily the result of greater delivery volumes, although partly due to a rise in prices. The increased delivery volumes were the result both of the usual seasonal effects as well as an improved economic environment at the start of 2017. The division demonstrated an even more significant increase in earnings performance, with a 21.6% rise in the operating result (EBITDA), from EUR 91.0 million to EUR 110.7 million, and even a 30.4% improvement in profit from operations (EBIT), from EUR 56.9 million to EUR 74.2 million. As a result the EBITDA margin rose from 14.1% to 14.8%, and the EBIT margin from 8.8% to 9.9%.

As of March 31, 2017, the High Performance Metals Division had 13,733 employees (FTE). This is an increase of 2.0% compared to the same reporting date in the past business year (13,470 FTE) and is primarily the consequence of continued expansion in the Value Added Services business segment.