Industrial Trucks & Services segment

Business performance and order intake

A healthy number of new trucks were ordered in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment during the first three months of 2019, as had also been the case in the same period of last year. The total of 53.4 thousand units was only just short of the high level achieved in the first quarter of 2018 (53.5 thousand units). Of the total number of orders, 62.1 per cent were accounted for by the Linde brand including Fenwick, 30.8 per cent by the STILL brand and the remaining 7.1 per cent by the Baoli and OM Voltas brands. The total value of order intake rose by 1.7 per cent to €1,510.5 million (Q1 2018: €1,485.2 million), to which the persistently strong service business made a significant contribution. > TABLE 07

Revenue

Segment revenue went up by 10.2 per cent to €1,508.6 million (Q1 2018: €1,368.8 million), primarily due to the 13.5 per cent increase in revenue from new business. Warehouse trucks notched up the highest growth rates, followed by electric forklift trucks and diesel trucks. Revenue from the service business increased by 7.1 per cent year on year, with all product categories contributing to the growth. As a result of the disproportionately strong growth of new business, the share of external segment revenue contributed by the service business fell to 49.2 per cent (Q1 2018: 50.6 per cent).

Earnings

Adjusted EBIT went up by 9.5 per cent to €148.8 million (Q1 2018: €135.9 million). The segment’s adjusted EBIT margin was unchanged year on year at 9.9 per cent, because the fallout from the bottlenecks at suppliers continued to squeeze earnings. After taking into account non-recurring items and purchase price allocation effects, EBIT amounted to €148.5 million (Q1 2018: €137.1 million).

There was a moderate increase in adjusted EBITDA to €324.0 million (Q1 2018: €301.0 million). This equated to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.5 per cent (Q1 2018: 22.0 per cent).