Overall assessment of the economic situation
The KION Group finished 2017 with strong growth, achieving the targets set in October for its KPIs. The figures for 2016 in the income statement include the contributions from Dematic in November and December, the period in which it was consolidated for the first time. The comparability between the full-year figures for 2016 and 2017 is therefore limited.
Following a strong fourth quarter, order intake for the KION Group as a whole amounted to €7,979.1 million (2016: €5,833.1 million) despite negative currency effects and was predominantly attributable to encouraging growth in the new truck business. Moreover, Dematic’s customer orders were included for the full financial year for the first time. The order book expanded by 9.1 per cent year on year to reach €2,614.6 million at the end of the year (31 December 2016: €2,396.6 million). Despite negative currency effects, the KION Group generated consolidated revenue of €7,653.6 million. This was due not only to higher unit sales but also to the growth of the service business in Industrial Trucks & Services.
Total revenue in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment went up by 8.2 per cent to €5,630.9 million, with order intake rising by 8.8 per cent.
While the year-on-year increase in the value of order intake and revenue in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment was stronger than anticipated, order intake and revenue in the Supply Chain Solutions segment were less than originally expected. The reasons for this were the reluctance to invest observed in the US retail sector and delays by customers in awarding projects. The segment’s total revenue amounted to €2,006.3 million. Adjusted for non-recurring items and purchase price allocation effects, the KION Group’s EBIT came to €765.6 million. This improvement of €228.3 million was due, in particular, to the inclusion of Dematic for the full year. Significantly higher prices for materials adversely affected the KION Group’s adjusted EBIT and could not be passed on to customers entirely. Despite the higher cost of materials and negative currency effects, the KION Group’s adjusted EBIT margin improved substantially, by 0.4 percentage points, to 10.0 per cent. After taking into account purchase price allocation (PPA) effects and further non-recurring items, EBIT amounted to €549.4 million.
In total, the KION Group generated net income of €426.4 million (2016: €246.1 million). This included positive overall effects on taxes resulting from the remeasurement of deferred taxes in connection with the lowering of corporate income tax in the United States that was approved just before the end of the year. The basic earnings per share attributable to the shareholders of the KION Group amounted to €3.72, compared with €2.38 in 2016. KION GROUP AG will propose a dividend of €0.99 per share to the Annual General Meeting (2016: €0.80 per share).