Heidelberg full year results reveal sales growth and a drop in incoming orders, which the company anticipated from the previous year’s frupa high.
Heidelberg attributes the sales growth tt the Western Europe and Chinese markets. Its order backlog increased by 20 per cent and ebitda came in at €14m (423m) compared to €1m in the prior year. Lower financing costs helped the bottom line as well.
Rainer Hundsdörfer, chief executive at Heidelberg says, “We are making good progress in transforming Heidelberg into a digital company. We have already had our initial successes in the first quarter, thanks to our new digital presses and two constructive acquisitions. We want to become even faster and more efficient in the future and are continuing to reconfigure company structures to that end.”
From these results Heidelberg says it loooks on course to achieve its annual targets. The company wants to return to growth with the motto- Heidelberg goes digital. Dirk Kaliebe, chief finacnial officer at Heidelberg says, “The almost complete conversion of a bond into shareholder’s equity is further evidence that our digitization strategy is being acknowledged on the capital markets. The repayment of the convertible bond has brought us closer to our goal of achieving a sustainable improvement in net interest income. We want to reduce interest costs, which currently stand at €34 million, to €20 million annually in the future.”
Heidelberg says it sees itself on course to achieve the company targets for 2022, aiming to reach company sales of €3bn; ebitda of €250 – 300m; and a net result of €100m The additional revenues from new applications via digital platforms come through the ongoing expansion of an eCommerce platform. Through the announced efficiency enhancements and improvements to the cost structure, operational excellence measures could drive up profitability by approximately €50m.
It projects sales in financial year 2017 and 2018 to reach the same level as the previous year. from an anticipated development in order levels; the acquisitions it has already completed;, and – a measure that will have an inverse effect on sales – the avoidance of low-margin or high-risk activities.
For the next financial year 2017/18, the company aims to achieve an ebitda margin in the region of 7 to 7.5 per cent through efficiency improvement measures. Compared to the previous year and factoring in a further improvement in the financial result, net profit after taxes looks set to show a moderate increase
