KION shares

In the second quarter, KION shares bucked the downward trend on German and European stock markets and continued to climb, closing at €42.97 on 30 June 2015. This represented an increase of 35.4 per cent compared with the 2014 year-end closing price of €31.74. The shares therefore performed significantly better than the MDAX, which went up by 15.9 per cent. They outperformed the DAX (up by 11.6 per cent) to an even greater extent. Having fallen to their low for the year so far of €30.64 on 14 January 2015, the shares reached a record high of €44.15 on 26 June 2015. Besides the encouraging results for the first quarter, another contributing factor to this increase was the inclusion of KION shares in the STOXX Europe 600, a move that was completed on 22 June 2015. As at 30 June 2015, market capitalisation stood at €4.2 billion, of which €2.6 billion was accounted for by shares in free float. The average daily Xetra trading volume during the first half of the year was 205.2 thousand shares or €7.9 million. > DIAGRAM 01

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Following the placement by Superlift Holding S.à r.l. (Superlift Holding), through which The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Goldman Sachs) and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR) held their shares in KION, of its remaining KION shares in the first quarter, there were no major changes to the shareholder structure in the second quarter. Weichai Power Co. Ltd. continued to hold a stake of 38.3 per cent in KION as at 30 June 2015; the free float was unchanged at 61.5 per cent. KION GROUP AG itself still holds 0.2 per cent in order to service its employee share programme. > DIAGRAM 02

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At the Annual General Meeting of KION GROUP AG on 12 May 2015, at which those in attendance represented 80.4 per cent of the share capital, all motions put forward were accepted by a large majority, including the resolution to distribute a dividend of €0.55 per share. The total dividend payout of €54.3 million was equivalent to a dividend payout rate of approximately 31 per cent of net income. Over the coming years, the plan is to gradually increase this dividend payout rate to around 35 per cent. Other items on the meeting’s agenda were the election of two Supervisory Board members and a control agreement between the KION Group and its subsidiary proplan Transport- und Lagersysteme GmbH.

The speeches of the Chief Executive Officer and the chairman of the Supervisory Board were broadcast live at kiongroup.com/agm. A webcast of the Chief Executive Officer’s speech is available on the Company’s website.

The Annual General Meeting, which was attended by some 120 shareholders, was also the main area of investor relations activity. In addition, the Group gave presentations at investor conferences and roadshows and held numerous dedicated meetings with analysts and institutional investors.

Sixteen brokerage houses publish regular studies about KION shares. As at 30 June 2015, twelve analysts recommended KION shares as a buy and four rated them as neutral. The median target price specified for the shares was €45.00. > TABLE 01

The fixed-rate (6.75 per cent) tranche of the bond issued in February 2013, which has a volume of €450.0 million, remains a key part of the Company’s funding structure. This bond is due to mature in 2020 and becomes redeemable in February 2016. There were further improvements to KION’s credit rating in April 2015. Rating agency Standard & Poor’s now rates the KION Group as BB+ with a stable outlook, while the rating from Moody’s is Ba2 with a positive outlook.