Net financial income/expenses

There was an improvement in the balance of financial income and financial expenses, leading to net financial expenses of €219.8 million (2012: €238.2 million). Nevertheless, the decrease did not fully reflect the vastly improved funding structure and funding conditions. Non-recurring items in connection with the repayment and refinancing of financial debt had a negative impact on net financial income. The repayment of debt as part of the IPO did not lead to an increase in net financial income until the middle of the year. Following repayment in full of the acquisition finance and the early repayment of the floating-rate portion of the 2011/2018 corporate bond (floating rate note, €175.0 million), capitalised borrowing costs of €24.5 million were recognised as an expense. Other finance costs of €18.3 million were attributable to the ending of interest-rate hedges related to the acquisition finance, which was repaid after the IPO. The required remeasurement of the options recognised in connection with the 30.0 per cent equity investment in Linde Hydraulics resulted in additional financial expenses of €14.7 million in the reporting year. Adjusted for these three negative one-off items, net financial expenses amounted to €162.4 million, equating to a significant year-on-year improvement of €75.8 million.

Income taxes

Income taxes of €149.5 million in 2012 contrasted with a far lower tax burden of €15.9 million in the reporting year. The tax rate was therefore 10.3 per cent (2012: 48.1 per cent). Current tax expenses fell to €59.0 million in the reporting year (2012: €122.1 million). The higher prior-year figure was mainly due to the effect of taxable profit from the sale of the hydraulics business. There was also deferred tax income of €43.1 million, compared with deferred tax expenses of €27.4 million in 2012. The main reason for this was the profit-and-loss transfer agreement concluded between KION Material Handling GmbH and Linde Material Handling GmbH in April 2013. In connection with this agreement, deferred tax assets with deferred tax income totalling €41.8 million were recognised on loss carryforwards that it had previously not been possible to utilise. Measurement of the deferred taxes as at the reporting date led to net additional deferred tax income of €1.3 million as a result of other items. Net income after taxes came to €138.4 million (2012: €161.4 million). This represents diluted and basic earnings per share of €1.69 (2012: €2.52). Average pro-forma earnings per share in 2013, based on 98.9 million no-par-value shares, amounted to €1.40.

Appropriation of profit

The Executive Board and Supervisory Board of KION GROUP AG will propose a dividend of €0.35 per share to the Annual General Meeting on 19 May 2014. As there are 98,700,000 dividend-bearing shares, this equates to a total dividend payout of €34.5 million. A total of 25 per cent of the net income accruing to the KION Group shareholders will therefore be distributed in dividends.