KUKA boosts sales revenues in 2017 and continues to invest in the future

• Orders received up to €3.6 billion (+5.6%)

• Sales revenues up substantially by 18.0% to €3.5 billion

• Order backlog of €2.2 billion (+5.3%) at year-end, indicating further growth in 2018

• EBIT before purchase price allocations and before growth investments at €148.3 million (EBIT margin: 4.3%) after €138.0 million in 2016 (EBIT margin: 4.7%)

• Net income for the year of €88.2 million

• Dividend recommendation €0.50 per share

• Guidance 2018: sales revenues of more than €3.5 billion and EBIT margin of around 5.5%*

Augsburg, March 22, 2018 – KUKA completed the 2017 financial year with successful results, even exceeding the previous year’s figures by a considerable margin in some cases. The high global demand for robots and automation solutions resulted in a double-digit growth rate, particularly in sales revenues, and to a further increase in both orders received and order backlog.

Record value for orders received

During the past financial year KUKA Group generated orders received worth €3,614.3 million, representing a significant increase of 5.6% on the previous year’s result (2016: €3,422.3 million). This means that KUKA has now exceeded the pre-vious year’s value and achieved a new record for the fourth time running.

Record sales revenues

KUKA Group’s sales revenues amounted to €3,479.1 million in 2017. This is equivalent to an 18.0% increase on the previous year (2016: €2,948.9 million).

The book-to-bill ratio, i.e. orders received in relation to sales revenues, was above 1 at Group level in the 2017 financial year, coming in at 1.04 and thus indicating good capacity utilization.

KUKA Group’s order backlog amounted to €2,157.9 million at year-end 2017. This was an increase of 5.3% compared to the prior-year value (2016: €2,048.9 million) and indicates further growth in 2018.

Before depreciation for purchase price allocations and before growth investment, KUKA Group generated earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of €148.3 million (2016: €138.0 million). This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 4.3% (2016: 4.7%). Individual projects in the Systems division and measures for increasing profitability at KUKA Systems produced an impact on earnings in the mid-double-digit million euro range. Measures for enhancing profitability and also the cost structure are currently being implemented.

Dividend recommendation €0.50 per share

KUKA Group recorded earnings after taxes of €88.2 million, representing a slight increase on the previous year’s figure (2016: €86.2 million). Earnings per share amounted to €2.22 in 2017 (2016: €2.19). The Executive Board is once again proposing to the Annual General Meeting that an unchanged dividend of €0.50 per share be paid for fiscal 2017.

In fiscal 2017, the free cash flow in KUKA Group was -€135.7 million. This constitutes a negative development compared with the previous year’s value (2016: -€106.8 million). The development is primarily attributable to the increase in the cash flow from investment activities. The acquisition alone of various companies in the fields of Industrie 4.0, simulation and hospital automation amounts to approximately €100 million.

In 2017, equity capital increased from €840.2 million to €866.6 million. Meanwhile, the equity ratio fell slightly compared with the previous year from 33.0% to 32.8% due to the growth of the balance sheet total. Furthermore, the net income of €88.2 million had the effect of increasing equity capital. At the same time, however, the currency effects recorded in 2017 totaling -€40.9 million had the contrary effect of decreasing equity.

Significant increase in personnel throughout the Group

In the year under review, the Group’s workforce rose from 13,188 in 2016 to a total of 14,256. This is an increase of 8.1%. The workforce was expanded world-wide. The Americas, in particular, recorded strong growth.

Outlook: increasing demand expected worldwide

Given the current economic forecasts and general conditions and taking into consideration the existing risk and opportunity potential, KUKA anticipates rising demand in the 2018 fiscal year, particularly from North America and Asia. A slight increase in demand was anticipated for Europe as a whole. In this region, KUKA will now be more selective when it comes to accepting new projects in systems engineering, which may also lead to a decline in the level of orders in this segment. From a sector perspective, KUKA expects a positive development for the sales markets in general industry. Demand in the automotive industry is anticipat-ed to remain stable, now that customer investments have risen considerably in recent years.

On the basis of the current general conditions and exchange rates, KUKA is forecasting sales revenues of more than €3.5 billion in fiscal 2018. Based on the current economic environment and the anticipated business development, KUKA Group expects to achieve an EBIT margin of around 5.5% before purchase price allocations, investments in growth and reorganization expenditure amounting to about €30 million. The investments relate to Group-wide issues such as digitization, Industrie 4.0, mobility, general industry and China, for example. KUKA is expecting these investments to open up additional areas of growth for the Group in the coming years, which should be reflected in higher sales revenues. The expenditure for depreciation on the purchase price allocations should amount to about €15 million in 2018.

Key figures KUKA Group

Key figures Robotics

Key figures Systems

Key figures Swisslog