GEA releases preliminary figures for 2010
Order intake up 12% to EUR 4,578 m
The recovery in GEA Group’s customer industries gathered momentum in the course of the year. The order intake rose by 12 percent to EUR 4,578 million. In the fourth quarter alone, order intake amounted to EUR 1,248 million, 24% up over prior year. This level is on par with the average of 2008, the year still largely unaffected by the crisis. Following order intake with a delay, sales matched the prior-year volume at EUR 4,418 million, as predicted in earlier guidances. In 2010, the group again paid particular attention to the quality of orders in respect of terms and conditions.
In buyers’ markets still marked by pricing pressure as a result of temporary overcapacities, GEA managed to deliver EBIT before restructuring expenses of about EUR 357 million. The EBIT margin could be increased by approximately 50 bps to 8.0 – 8.1 percent. Cost savings from capacity adjustments first initiated at the end of 2008 contributed to this improvement. Restructuring expenses, the bulk of which concerned the segment GEA Heat Exchangers, amounted to some EUR 119 million in 2010, including all provisions for measures to be completed in 2011 as planned. EBIT after restructuring hence amounted to approximately EUR 237 million. No further restructuring program is planned. As in the previous year, discontinued operations did not affect GEA Group's result.
Net liquidity more than doubled to EUR 105 million, mainly as a consequence of the company’s restraint in capital expenditures and its management attention to further reduce working capital. The latter could be brought down to a proportion of only 10.0 percent of sales at the reporting date and 12.4 percent in the annual average, which represents a significant reduction of around 400 bps as against the previous year.
“We are pleased that GEA could complete a very successful business year with two acquisitions that fit us well”, said Jürg Oleas, CEO of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, adding: “Given these encouraging figures, the Executive and Supervisory Boards of GEA will propose an increased dividend of 40 cents per share to the Annual General Meeting.”
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