Development of the key figures

The worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the performance of the voestalpine Group in the first quarter of the business year 2020/21. The resulting recession led to lower key figures year over year. Group revenue for the reporting period dropped by 28.1% to EUR 2,397.3 million (Q 1 2019/20: EUR 3,336.1 million). Delivery volumes declined across numerous customer segments. The Steel Division and the Metal Forming Division posted the greatest revenue losses, relatively speaking. Both divisions are highly dependent on the automotive sector, which was affected by production shutdowns that lasted several weeks. The revenue decline in the Metal Engineering Division was much smaller thanks to its stable performance in the rail technology customer segment.

However, the voestalpine Group succeeded in generating substantially positive EBITDA of EUR 157.8 million and barely negative EBIT of EUR –48.7 million despite the dramatic drop in revenue thanks to the rapid and consistent implementation of measures to improve earnings. To the extent available and suitable, the company also availed itself of support programs such as short time work. This approach made it possible to achieve effective flexibility of costs in those production units where lower capacity utilization over a limited time was foreseeable.

Given the circumstances, both EBITDA and EBIT are lower year over year. EBITDA dropped by slightly more than one half to EUR 157.8 million in the first quarter of the business year 2020/21, down from EUR 370.9 million in the previous year. While EBIT dropped to EUR –48.7 million in the reporting period, down from EUR 156.7 million in the previous year, there was a clearly positive trend at the end of the period.

Based on net financial income of EUR –25.7 million (previous year: EUR –32.3 million), the voestalpine Group posted profit before tax of EUR –74.4 million for the first quarter of the business year 2020/21 compared with EUR 124.4 million in the previous year. Slightly positive income tax led to profit after tax of EUR –69.7 million (previous year: EUR 90.4 million).

The gearing ratio (net financial debt as a percentage of equity) was 71.7% as of June 30, 2020, up from 58.1% as of June 30, 2019. While the increase in net financial debt as of June 30, 2020, to EUR 3,956.1 million was relatively small year over year (June 30, 2019: 3,896.5 million), equity fell sharply to EUR 5,517.1 million as of June 30, 2020, down from EUR 6,712.1 million as of June 30, 2019. Besides the negative earnings performance in the past business quarters, this development is due to the redemption of a hybrid bond as of October 31, 2019. It had been recognized in equity and was refinanced through borrowings. Compared with the annual reporting date, the gearing ratio rose but slightly from 67.2% to 71.7%.

As of June 30, 2020, the number of employees (full-time equivalent, FTE) in the voestalpine Group fell year over year by 7.3% to 47,894 (June 30, 2019: 51,670).

Net financial debt can be broken down as follows: