KUKA Group reached its guidance and clearly surpassed the previous year’s key figures in 2014

• At € 2.2 billion (+18.4 percent), orders received pass the two billion mark for the first time
• Sales revenues rise to € 2.1 billion (+18.1 percent)
• EBITDA rises to € 184.9 million (+16.7 percent)
• EBIT and the EBIT margin improved continuously throughout the year, reaching € 142.0 million and 6.8 percent
• Guidance for 2014 achieved

Augsburg, 13-2-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — In 2014, KUKA Group reached its guidance and clearly surpassed the previous year’s key figures. KUKA continued to profit from the strong global demand for robots and automation solutions. The preliminary results indicate that the Group exceeded not only the volume of orders received and the sales revenues of the previous year but also the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). Orders received even topped the previous year’s high figure by 18.4 percent, surpassing the two billion threshold. Both divisions contributed to this very good performance. Organic development of the orders received, excluding the Reis and Alema companies acquired at the beginning of 2014, showed very substantial growth of 8.7 percent.

In detail, KUKA Group ended the 2014 financial year as follows :

The preliminary volume of orders received increased to € 2,229.0 million in the past financial year, up 18.4 percent on the previous year (2013: € 1,881.9 million). The acquired companies, Reis Group and Alema, contributed € 184.2 million to this result. Both divisions profited from major orders received from the international automotive industry and aircraft industry.

Orders received in the Robotics division increased slightly by 1.5 percent from € 793.5 million (2013) to € 805.5 million (2014). This development was primarily driven by the service and automotive segments. The Group registered growth of 12.7 percent in the service segment and 3.0 percent in the automotive segment.

The Systems division in particular received a high level of orders in the financial year just ended. With € 1,456.0 million (organic: € 1,271.8 million), Systems topped the prior year’s figure by 31.0 percent (2013: € 1,111.6 million). Besides the strong demand from the automotive industry in North and South America, this positive organic growth was also attributable to the highly promising development in aircraft construction.

The preliminary figures for KUKA Group’s sales revenues show an increase of 18.1 percent (organic: 10.4 percent) from € 1,774.5 million in 2013 to € 2,095.7 million in 2014. The Robotics division generated sales of € 834.6 million, 10.7 percent up on the previous year. The Systems division was particularly successful in boosting its sales revenues by 22.9 percent to € 1,285.6 million in 2014 (2013: € 1,045.9 million). The organic sales growth at Systems was positively affected by the developments in the automotive sector in Europe, China and the US and by the increasing unit sales in the aircraft industry.

The book-to-bill ratio, i.e. orders received in relation to sales revenues, remained above 1 in 2014, coming in at 1.06 (organic: 1.04).

KUKA Group’s preliminary order backlog amounted to € 1,059.9 million at the end of 2014 on an organic basis. This was equivalent to a 6.9 percent increase compared with the year’s end of 2013 (31.12.13: € 991.6 million). Including the newly acquired Swisslog as at December 20, 2014, the order backlog amounted to € 1,702.5 million. The order backlog at Robotics reached a year-end level of € 241.5 million, a drop of -14.0 percent from the corresponding figure of € 280.7 million at year end 2013. On the other hand, the Systems order backlog rose to € 955.4 million at the end of 2014, up 33.7 percent on the previous year (31.12.13: € 714.4 million). The new Swisslog division reported an order backlog of € 517.2 million as at December 31, 2014.

KUKA Group achieved an EBIT of € 142.0 million in 2014, which is a new record. Compared with the previous year’s figure (2013: € 120.4 million), EBIT increased by 17.9 percent (organic: 28.3 percent). The EBIT margin remained unchanged at 6.8 percent despite the integration and restructuring costs for Reis Group. Robotics increased EBIT by 16.1 percent from € 77.1 million (2013) to € 89.5 million (2014) and thus achieved an EBIT margin of 10.7 percent (2013: 10.2 percent). Above all the Systems division, including Reis Group and Alema, contributed to this gratifying development, boosting the relevant figure from € 60.8 million (2013) to € 80.2 million (2014); in organic terms, EBIT in 2014 amounted to € 87.5 million. This corresponded to a 31.9 percent increase and an EBIT margin of 6.2 percent (organic: 7.6 percent). This growth in the margin was primarily attributable to the high level of demand, which in turn led to good utilization of capacity at Systems. The result benefited additionally from the successful implementation of the measures to enhance efficiency.

The number of employees in KUKA Group as at December 31, 2014 grew by 4,112 compared with the previous year to a total of 12,102. This represents a year-over-year rise of 51.5 percent. Around 85 percent of this increase is accounted for by the newly acquired companies Swisslog (2,369 employees), Reis (1,032 employees) and Alema (87 employees). The remaining growth was spread over many areas and countries, focal points being China and North America.
“We are pleased that we were able to successfully implement our strategic measures and to significantly beat our financial targets in the past year,” states Dr. Till Reuter, CEO of KUKA AG. “In 2015 it will now be important to integrate Swisslog successfully and to play a lasting role in shaping Industry 4.0.”
This press release contains the preliminary figures. The complete 2014 financial statements and the outlook for 2015 will be presented at the financial results press conference on March 25, 2015 in Munich.

KEY FIGURES: KUKA GROUP

KEY FIGURES: ROBOTICS

ORDERS RECEIVED BY SEGMENT: ROBOTICS

KEY FIGURES: SYSTEMS

We will be happy to help you with press questions:

KUKA AG
Leiterin Corporate Communications
Katrin Stuber-Koeppe
Phone: +49 821 797 3722
PR@kuka.com