Earnings

The higher volume of revenue was offset by a rise in the cost of sales, which went up by 54.4 per cent to €4,218.4 million (Q1 – Q3 2016: €2,732.9 million excluding Dematic). In addition to the first-time consolidation of Dematic, an increase in the price of materials had the biggest effect on the cost of sales. Currency effects related to pound sterling also had a negative impact, affecting overall earnings in the period under review. At 25.7 per cent, the gross margin was below the figure for the prior-year period (Q1 – Q3 2016: 29.0 per cent). This was compensated for by the disproportionately low increase in selling expenses and administrative expenses, whereas development costs were up by 52.6 per cent year on year (excluding Dematic). The ‘Other’ line item, amounting to €13.7 million (Q1 – Q3 2016: €37.1 million), included the share of profit (loss) of equity-accounted investments, which came to a profit of €12.6 million (Q1 – Q3 2016: €9.9 million).

The change in the cost of sales and in other functional costs is shown in > TABLE 06.

The net financial expenses, representing the balance of financial income and financial expenses, improved to €61.8 million thanks to the optimised financing structure (Q1 – Q3 2016: €79.6 million). These expenses include transaction costs of €2.7 million that were recognised in connection with the early repayment of financial liabilities. The prior-year figure included one-off financial expenses of €25.7 million, which were also incurred in connection with the optimisation of the financing structure.

Income tax expenses amounted to €103.3 million (Q1 – Q3 2016: €74.2 million). This resulted in a tax rate of 31.0 per cent (Q1 – Q3 2016: 31.1 per cent).

The KION Group’s net income after taxes for the first three quarters of 2017 was €230.4 million (Q1 – Q3 2016: €164.4 million). Earnings per share attributable to the shareholders of KION GROUP AG came to €2.03 (Q1 – Q3 2016: €1.59) based on an average 113.1 million (Q1 – Q3 2016: 101.5 million) no-par-value shares.