KION Group continues to grow in the second quarter

Completion of the Dematic acquisition in the 4th quarter

Riske emphasized that the KION Group is making very good progress with the implementation of the Dematic acquisition. A key milestone was the very successful capital increase last week, which partially refinanced the acquisition of Dematic. The closing of the transaction, which was announced on June 21, is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016. "The acquisition of Dematic will create a leading global full-service provider of intelligent material flow solutions that covers all needs relating to Intralogistics 4.0," emphasized Gordon Riske, whose contract was recently extended until 2022.

Clear progress in the core business

According to Riskes, clear progress can also be seen in the current core business with forklift trucks, warehouse technology and related services with regard to KION's strategy for further profitable growth. "The significant improvement in the margin to 10.5 percent in the second quarter shows that we are making good progress towards our margin targets in our core business," said the CEO. The KION plant in Stříbro, Czech Republic, which opened at the beginning of the year and is the Group's most modern production site, and the Group-wide module and platform strategy are among the factors contributing to this.

The 2020 strategy, which was presented just over two years ago, focuses on growth, profitability, capital efficiency and crisis resilience. By 2020, the KION Group aims to further expand its position as a leading provider of material handling solutions, remain the most profitable provider in the industry with a sustained double-digit adjusted EBIT margin in its core business and significantly increase its return on capital employed. To this end, the company should be in a position to remain profitable even when sales slump, as was the case during the financial crisis in 2009.

Continuing on a profitable growth path

After a very solid start to the year, the KION Group remained firmly on track for profitable growth in the second quarter. Thanks in particular to the sustained momentum in the core market of western Europe, the value of order intake rose by 8.3 per cent year on year to €1.427 billion in the period from April to June. The order backlog amounted to EUR 1.009 billion, 16.8% more than at the end of 2015, while sales improved by 7.0% to EUR 1.344 billion. Operating profit (EBIT) even increased by 20.9 per cent to €140.8 million. As a result, the KION Group achieved a significantly improved EBIT margin of 10.5 per cent from April to June - the highest ever in a second quarter.

The KION Group's truck orders rose by 3.9 per cent to around 45,600 units in the second quarter of 2016, meaning that the Group once again outperformed global market growth. In western Europe, the Company once again recorded a year-on-year increase in orders in the second quarter of 4.7 per cent. The KION Group's focus in the warehouse trucks segment - currently the segment with the highest growth rates - is on sustainable growth with higher-value trucks and less on high-volume products with lower added value. Meanwhile, in China, the world's largest single market, the KION Group's brand companies ordered 3.9 per cent more trucks than in the same quarter of the previous year.