Industrial Trucks & Services segment

Business performance and order intake

The brand companies in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment increased orders for new trucks by 7.5 per cent to 178.3 thousand units. Of this total, 61.3 per cent was accounted for by the Linde brand including Fenwick, 33.0 per cent by the STILL brand including OM STILL and the remaining 5.7 per cent by the brands Baoli and Voltas. The KION Group was able to benefit in particular from the growth in electric forklift trucks and warehouse trucks, which already account for more than 80 per cent of order intake. Orders for IC trucks fell slightly year on year but stabilised to a significant extent in the second half of the year. Substantial growth occurred in some regions, primarily the European markets, China and North America. However, orders fell in Central and South America, a consequence of the persistently weak market situation in Brazil.

The total value of order intake rose by 4.6 per cent to €5,383.2 million (2015: €5,146.3 million). Growth was generated from both new trucks and service business. Some of the gains were offset by negative currency effects.

Revenue

Total segment revenue went up by 3.1 per cent to €5,202.6 million. The main factor behind the increase was higher unit sales of new trucks, primarily in Germany, France, Italy and eastern Europe. This more than made up for a fall in revenue in the United Kingdom, Brazil and Asian countries. Overall, new truck business with external customers rose to €2,860.3 million (2015: €2,779.9 million), with electric forklift truck business continuing to expand.

Revenue from external customers in the service business was up by 3.3 per cent to €2,340.2 million (2015: €2,264.5 million). The proportion of external revenue in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment accounted for by service business came to 45.0 per cent overall (2015: 44.9 per cent).

Earnings

The positive trend in revenue combined with the margin improvements in new truck business resulted in adjusted EBIT of €586.9 million, which was significantly higher than in the prior year (2015: €529.5 million). Consequently, the adjusted EBIT margin for the segment increased to 11.3 per cent (2015: 10.5 per cent). Even after taking into account non-recurring items and purchase price allocation effects, EBIT was significantly higher year on year at €553.0 million (2015: €482.5 million).

Adjusted EBITDA stood at €958.8 million (2015: €882.5 million). This equated to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.4 per cent (2015: 17.5 per cent). > TABLE 022