Koenig & Bauer (KBA) is scaling down its expectations for 2013, saying its sales and earnings targets are no longer attainable due to a subdued demand in web, sheetfed and special presses. The company says the first nine months of the year saw its sales and order figures suffer thanks to market and economic developments. Management is currently seeking to sustainably improve earnings by advancing the realignment of the group, which claims to be the world’s second-largest press manufacturer.
Axel Kaufmann, CFO with KBA
Axel Kaufmann, CFO with KBA, says, “Along with the total group sales to be generated by the end of the year, the product mix delivered as well as the extraordinary expenses for restructuring measures and impairments will have a significant impact on the annual result in the group. “Currently this amount is not yet foreseeable, but will lead to a loss in 2013. Excluding special items, we are still targeting a positive operating result and balanced group earnings before taxes.” Although the third quarter of 2013 saw the volume of new orders rise by 7.4 per cent on the previous year, the whole nine months saw an order intake of €709.6m (around AU$1bn) – 14.1 per cent down on last year’s figure which was boosted by drupa. KBA adds that postponed special press shipments led to a 20.3 per cent drop in group sales compared to the previous year, and group order backlog was also lower than in 2012. Due to the shortfall in sales and restructuring expenses the latest operating result came to –€10.7m (around –AU$15.3m), a far cry from last year’s €18.9m (approximately AU$27.1m). Including a financial loss of –€5.6m (around AU$8m), KBA posted a pre-tax loss (EBT) of €16.3m (AU$23.4m). Sheetfed offset delivered the highest sales figures for the year, though orders were down by 11.5 per cent on last year’s drupa-buoyed numbers. New orders in the web and special press segments also fell by 18.5 per cent, KBA says partially due to a slowdown in the security press business. While the company says the volume of domestic sales rose by nearly 50 per cent, shipments to other parts of Europe were below the historical average due to economic weakness. On the other hand, revenue in the Asia Pacific region rose from 24.4 per cent to 28.9 per cent.
KBA says it is strengthening its sheetfed offset fleet in the packaging market with new features for finishing, quality control and energy saving
By the end of the year, despite a forecast of strong sales in the fourth quarter, the company expects further negative impacts from restructuring expenses and impairments. Though revenue of web and special presses are predicted to fall further behind last year than sheetfed presses, KBA cites a silver lining in the form of subsidiaries targeting metal-decorating and industrial coding, which are forecast to reach or even exceed their targets. KBA will also look to other fields to compensate for its loss in business volume in its traditional meat and potatoes, including systems for directly decorating glass containers through its acquisition of Kammann Maschinenbau and new roads into the expanding flexible packaging market with its majority takeover of the Italian press manufacturer Flexotecnica.
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