Business performance in the Group

The KION Group successfully consolidated its position in the first half of 2019 despite a general slowdown in the global economy. Work began in March 2019 on converting and modernising a newly acquired plant for industrial trucks at the Indian production site in Pune and is progressing according to plan. The plant is scheduled to go into operation before the year is out. The new factory, in which capital of around €15 million is being invested, incorporates a research and development centre, a training centre for service personnel and an additional space designed to drive forward Dematic’s future growth in India. This expansion of capacity is further strengthening the KION Group’s leading position in the fast-growing Indian market.

In April 2019, KION GROUP AG issued a new floating-rate promissory note in a nominal amount of €120.5 million. In return, €20.5 million of the fixed-rate tranche of the promissory note from 2018 was repaid ahead of schedule. Also in the first half of 2019, a partial early repayment was made under the acquisition facilities agreement (AFA). This reduced it by a total of €200.0 million to €400.0 million, with a sum of €100.0 million being repaid in both the first quarter and the second quarter.