Vossloh achieves record orders received and increases profitability in the first half of 2024

The Vossloh Group impressively continued its successful course in the second quarter of 2024. With a record orders received of €769.6 million, the high level of the first half of 2023 (€688.8 million) was exceeded by 11.7 percent. As of June 30, 2024, Vossloh reported a new record order backlog of €905.5 million, compared with €859.4 million in the previous year. The Book-to-bill ratio, which reflects the ratio of orders received to sales revenues, was 1.37 in the first half of 2024 (previous year: 1.15).

At €560.9 million, Group sales in the first half of 2024 were down 6.6 percent on the previous year's record sales of €600.6 million. The decline is almost exclusively due to temporarily lower sales contributions from the Chinese project business. At the end of the third quarter of 2024, deliveries of fastening systems are expected to increase again due to the significant year-on-year growth in order backlog in China. At €49.5 million, EBIT in the first half of 2024 was slightly above the previous year's high level of €49.3 million despite the decline in sales. The EBIT margin improved from 8.2 percent to 8.8 percent. All divisions achieved an increase in profitability compared to the previous year. Net income significantly increased year-on-year from €29.4 million to €40.1 million, primarily due to a noticeable reduction in tax expenses. As a result, Earnings per share amounted to €1.96, up 81 cents on the previous year's figure of €1.15.

The Vossloh Group's net assets and financial position also developed positively. Equity increased noticeably by 5.5 percent year on year to €660.3 million (previous year: €625.6 million). The Equity ratio of 47.3 percent was therefore 3.4 percentage points higher than the previous year's level of 43.9 percent. Net financial debt including lease obligations amounted to €247.0 million as of June 30, 2024. This represents an increase of €12.3 million compared to the previous year (June 30, 2023: €234.7 million). Free cash flow is expected to be clearly positive in the second half of 2024, which is likely to lead to a noticeable reduction in net financial debt by the end of the year.

Oliver Schuster, CEO of Vossloh AG: "The record order intake and the continued positive development of our business underline the trust our customers place in our products and services and are the result of the hard work and strategic foresight with which we have continuously strengthened our market position in recent years. Our employees once again performed outstandingly in the reporting period and made this success possible through their tireless commitment, their proximity to customers and their deep understanding of customer needs. Based on this strong foundation and in view of an unchanged attractive market environment, we are very confident that we will achieve our ambitious growth and profitability targets."

Core Components with significant increase in profitability
At €305.9 million, Orders received in the Core Components division in the first half of 2024 did not fully match the previous year's high level of €350.5 million. In particular, the Group had recorded high orders from a new construction project in the previous year, which were not matched in the reporting period. The order backlog at the end of the reporting period totaled €325.8 million (June 30, 2023: €358.8 million). As expected, Sales revenues in the Core Components division fell short of the previous year's high figure of €263.8 million at €217.2 million. The decline is mainly attributable to the Fastening Systems business unit , while the Tie Technologies business unit recorded stable sales development. The Book-to-bill ratio in the first half of 2024 was 1.41 and therefore significantly higher than the previous year's figure of 1.33. At €33.8 million, EBIT in the Core Components division nevertheless reached the high level of the previous year in the first half of 2024. This is primarily due to a stronger margin sales mix in the Tie Technologies business unit. The EBIT margin in the division climbed from 12.8 percent in the previous year to 15.6 percent.

Customized Modules achieves record order backlog
Orders received in the Customized Modules division rose from €268.2 million in the previous year to €361.3 million - an increase of 34.7 percent. The Order backlog at the end of the first half of 2024 reached a new high of €522.6 million (previous year: €467.9 million). This increase is even more remarkable as the previous year's figure still included around €34 million from activities that have since been sold. Sales revenues in the Customized Modules division amounted to €263.8 million in the reporting period, down 4.7 percent on the previous year's record figure of €276.8 million, due in particular to lower revenues in Mexico, the UK and Denmark. EBIT nevertheless increased slightly from €22.0 million in the previous year to €22.5 million. The EBIT margin improved accordingly to 8.5 percent (previous year: 7.9 percent).

Lifecycle Solutions achieves significant increase in sales revenues and EBIT
Orders received in the Lifecycle Solutions division amounted to €117.1 million in the first half of 2024, exceeding the previous year's figure of €87.8 million by 33.3 percent. In addition to China and Sweden, the continued positive order situation in Germany was the main contributor to this development. At the end of the reporting period, Order backlog stood at €65.6 million, a significant increase on the previous year's figure of €44.9 million. At €89.1 million, the division also generated significantly higher Sales revenues (previous year: €76.9 million). This growth is attributable in particular to the Track Supply subsegment. EBIT also improved significantly from €4.1 million in the previous year to €7.3 million. The EBIT margin climbed to 8.2 percent compared with 5.4 percent in the previous year. The Track Supply subsegment was also the main contributor to this positive development.

Employees
In the first half of 2024, the average number of employees in the Vossloh Group was 4,093 (previous year: 3,972). The increase was primarily attributable to the Lifecycle Solutions and Customized Modules divisions.

Outlook for the year 2024
Vossloh confirms the existing guidance 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. The continued positive market environment should mean that the high level of sales in 2023 - based on the mean value of the guidance - can be kept roughly stable, despite the expiry of major new construction projects at the end of 2023. Regarding the operating result, EBIT is expected to increase further to between €100 million and €115 million. Based on the mean value of the sales guidance, this results in an EBIT margin of between 8.3 percent and 9.5 percent.