KION shares

Strong outperformance

The stock markets quickly absorbed the impact of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. In the third quarter, however, the DAX did not quite make up for all of the losses in the first half of the year and closed at 10,511 points, down by 2.2 per cent compared with the end of 2015. By contrast, the MDAX gained 3.9 per cent over the nine-month period.

KION shares rose sharply in the third quarter, significantly outperforming the benchmark indices. On 22 September 2016, the shares reached their high of the year so far of €58.09 – which was also their highest price since the IPO – and closed at €57.62 on 30 September. This was up by 25.2 per cent compared with the price at the end of 2015 of €46.02. At the end of the third quarter, market capitalisation stood at €6.3 billion, of which €3.7 billion was attributable to shares in free float. > DIAGRAM 01

Successful capital increase

On 18 July 2016, KION GROUP AG issued 9,890,000 new shares, corresponding to 10.0 per cent of the existing share capital, at a price per share of €46.44 to be placed in an accelerated bookbuilding offering. The gross proceeds from the capital increase amounted to approximately €459.3 million, which will be used to partly fund the planned acquisition of Dematic. As the anchor shareholder of KION GROUP AG, Weichai Power subscribed to 60.0 per cent of the new shares. This increased the Chinese company’s shareholding in the KION Group from 38.3 per cent to 40.2 per cent. Weichai Power has undertaken not to acquire more than 49.9 per cent of KION shares before 28 June 2018 (as part of a standstill agreement).

In September, as it had done in 2015, KION GROUP AG repurchased treasury shares on the basis of the authorisation from the 2016 Annual General Meeting. The 50,000 shares acquired (0.05 per cent of the share capital) are available for use in the KION Group’s employee equity programme. As at 30 September 2016, the Company therefore held 210 thousand shares, which equated to an unchanged proportion of 0.2 per cent. The free float decreased slightly, to 59.6 per cent. > DIAGRAM 02

Comprehensive coverage

Nineteen brokerage houses currently publish regular reports on the KION Group. As at 30 September 2016, twelve analysts recommended KION shares as a buy and seven rated them as neutral. The median target price specified for the shares was €58.00 at the end of the quarter. > TABLE 01

Stable credit rating

Two rating agencies publish credit ratings for the KION Group. The rating awarded by Standard & Poor’s for the Group is at BB+ with a negative outlook. Moody’s rating is Ba1 under review for a downgrade.