Financial key performance indicators of the voestalpine Group*

The slight decline in the financial key performance indicators in the first three quarters of 2016/17 compared to the first nine months of the previous year is primarily due to the investment slump in the oil and gas sector over the course of the 2016 calendar year. Against this backdrop, the revenue in the first three quarters of 2016/17 fell by 3.3% from EUR 8,380.4 million to EUR 8,101.2 million compared to the previous year. In relative terms, the Steel and Metal Engineering Divisions, which are the divisions most heavily exposed to the energy segment in the voestalpine Group, had to absorb the highest revenue losses while the Metal Forming Division was able to increase its revenues, mainly due to its international expansion strategy in the automotive sector. This situation is reflected in the company’s result. While the operating result (EBITDA) and profit from operations (EBIT) benefited from the non-recurring consolidation changes in the Metal Engineering Division last year, the adjusted earnings from the division–meaning without these effects of consolidation–dropped considerably in the year-on-year comparison due to the weak energy sector. Although the remaining three divisions showed growth in the EBITDA, the adjusted EBITDA of the voestalpine Group fell in the year-on-year comparison—albeit marginally— by 0.8% from EUR 1,069.7 million in the first three quarters of 2015/16 to EUR 1,061.1 million in the first nine months of the current business year. In contrast, based on the reported figures, the EBITDA dropped by 12.1% from EUR 1,207.3 million to EUR 1,061.1 million due to the above-mentioned positive non-recurring effects of the previous year. In the current business year, the start-up losses recorded by the direct reduction plant in Texas, USA, as well as the reduced performance of blast furnace 5 in the Steel Division impacted the operating result in the first quarter of 2016/17 as a result of fine-tuning the coal injection system. Even more marked was the decline in profit from operations (EBIT) as a result of the depreciation basis increase, especially due to finalizing major investment projects in the Steel Division. Adjusted for non-recurring effects, EBIT dropped by 8.5% from EUR 608.0 million to EUR 556.1 million in a year-on-year comparison. EBIT published in accordance with IFRS—including all non-recurring effects—plunged by 25.0% from EUR 727.0 million to EUR 545.0 million.

The increase in net working capital during the course of the current business year, which resulted primarily from the considerable rise in raw material prices, was the primary reason for the increase in net financial debt from EUR 3,194.8 million posted on reporting date December 31, 2015 to EUR 3,545.8 million posted on reporting date December 31, 2016, and therefore also for the rise in the gearing ratio from 57.0% to 61.2% during the same period.

Net financial debt can be broken down as follows: