Vossloh with renewed sales growth and significant EBIT increase in the opening quarter of the 2024 financial year

Vossloh has made an extremely successful start into the 2024 financial year. Improvements were realized in all key financial indicators compared to the previous year. Orders received of €350.1 million (previous year: €344.9 million) exceeded the very high level of the previous year. The Order backlog as of March 31, 2024 reached €804.1 million and thus remains well above the historical average. The Book-to-bill ratio, which reflects the ratio of Orders received to Sales revenues, reached a high figure of 1.30 in the reporting period.

The Group’s Sales revenues in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 4.9 percent year on year to €268.8 million (previous year: €256.3 million). Vossloh thus achieved the highest sales figure in the infrastructure business within an opening quarter over the course of the company's history. All divisions contributed to the positive development to varying degrees, with the Customized Modules division recording the highest absolute sales growth. EBIT reached €17.9 million in the first quarter of the current year, an increase of 27.4 percent. The EBIT margin improved from 5.5 percent to 6.7 percent. Net income has more than doubled compared to the previous year, increasing from €4.8 million to €10.6 million. Earnings per share amounted to 39 cents per share (previous year: 7 cents per share).

At the same time, the Vossloh Group's net assets and financial position also developed very positively. Equity increased by 3.7 percent year on year to €649.8 million (previous year: €626.3 million). The Equity ratio of 46.9 percent was thus even higher than the previous year's high level of 44.5 percent. Net financial debt including lease liabilities totaled €239.2 million as of the reporting date of March 31, 2024. Compared to the previous year's reporting date (March 31, 2023: €273.4 million), this represents a significant improvement of €34.2 million or 12.5 percent.

Oliver Schuster, CEO of Vossloh AG: "The excellent results, we achieved in the opening quarter of the 2024 financial year, are another chapter in our success story. Despite persistently challenging conditions, we have once again demonstrated our efficiency. Sales revenues reached a new record level and the positive earnings trend of recent years is continuing. On this basis and thanks to pleasing orders received as well as a promising market outlook, we are looking into the future with great confidence."

Core Components with significant EBIT increase
Orders received by the Core Components division in the first quarter of 2024 were again at a high level of €161.5 million (previous year: €166.2 million). At the end of the reporting period, the Order backlog of the division totaled €305.3 million (March 31, 2023: €327.5 million). In terms of Sales revenues, the Core Components division maintained the previous year's high level and generated €115.8 million (previous year: €115.1 million). While Sales revenues in the Fastening Systems business unit fell slightly from €79.2 million in the previous year to €74.4 million, Sales revenues in the Tie Technologies business unit increased by 9.1 percent from €41.7 million to €45.5 million. The Core Components division significantly increased its EBIT from €12.4 million to €17.8 million in the first quarter of 2024. The EBIT margin climbed from 10.8 percent in the previous year to 15.4 percent. Both business units contributed to the significant improvement in earnings and profitability.

Customized Modules division increases Sales revenues and EBIT
Orders received in the Customized Modules division remained almost unchanged at the high level of the previous year of €142.6 million (previous year: €144.1 million). The Order backlog at the end of the first quarter of 2024 amounted to €446.0 million (previous year: €502.6 million). The previous year's figure included over €35 million from activities that have since been sold. Sales revenues in the Customized Modules division increased by 3.6 percent to €124.5 million in the reporting period (previous year: €120.1 million), in particular due to higher sales in the Middle East, France and Italy. EBIT increased from €7.2 million in the previous year to €8.1 million in the first quarter of 2024. The EBIT margin improved accordingly to 6.5 percent (previous year: 6.0 percent).

Lifecycle Solutions achieves sales growth and record Orders received
Orders received in the Lifecycle Solutions division in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to €58.7 million, exceeding the previous year's figure of €46.9 million by 25.1 percent and thus reaching a new peak level in an opening quarter. In addition to China and Northern Europe, the continued positive order situation in Germany also contributed to this development. The Order backlog of €64.2 million at the end of the current reporting period marks a significant increase compared to the previous year's figure of €52.1 million. At €32.8 million, the Lifecycle Solutions division also generated slightly higher Sales revenues (previous year: €31.4 million). This growth is attributable in particular to the Logistics and High Speed Grinding subsegments. The division's EBIT was still negative due to seasonal factors and amounted to €(2.0) million (previous year: €(0.9) million). Compared to the previous year, there were lower earnings contributions from machine sales. The EBIT margin was also negative due to seasonal factors and amounted to (6.1) percent in the 2024 reporting period (previous year: (3.0) percent).

Employees
During the first quarter of 2024, the average number of employees in the Vossloh Group was 4,047 (same period in previous year: 3,903). The increase was primarily attributable to the Lifecycle Solutions and Customized Modules divisions.

Outlook for the year 2024
Vossloh confirms the existing forecast for the current financial year. From today's perspective, the Executive Board continues to expect sales revenues of between €1.16 billion and €1.26 billion. An overall positive market demand should mean that the extraordinarily high level of sales revenues in 2023 – based on the average value of the forecast – can be kept roughly stable, despite the expiry of major new construction projects at the end of 2023. With regard to the operating result, EBIT is expected to increase further to between €100 million and €115 million. Based on the average value of the sales forecast, this results in an EBIT margin of between 8.3 percent and 9.5 percent.