SCHAEFFLER ACCELERATES ITS TRANSFORMATION

Schaeffler, global suppliers for the automotive and industry sectors, published the main results for FY 2017 today. The company has confirmed the growth of its turnover by 5.9% at fixed exchange rate - published on 15 January 2018 -, thus surpassing its forecast of 4 to 5% for 2017. In 2017, the total turnover increased to reach 14 billion Euros (previous FY: 13.3 billion Euros). The turnover in the fourth quarter amounted to approximately 3.5 billion Euros. This represents a growth of 8.5% at fixed exchange rate during the fourth quarter of 2017.

Both Group divisions have contributed to this positive evolution of the turnover in 2017. While the Automotive Division has notified an increase in turnover of 5.9% at fixed exchange rate, the increase in turnover of the Industrial Division at fixed exchange rate was 5.7%. During the fourth quarter, the growth at fixed exchange rate of the Industrial Division was 9.1% even surpassing the growth of the Automotive Division.

The entry of OEM Automotive orders has recorded a promising tendency: during the entire FY, it amounted to 11.5 billion Euros, thus representing a book-to-bill ratio of 1.3x. The entry of Industrial Division orders has also continued to grow.
Based on this, in 2017, the Schaeffler Group generated an EBIT margin before special items of 1.58 billion Euros (previous FY: 1.7 billion Euros). Thus, the resulting EBIT margin before special items was 11.3% (previous FY: 12.7%), coinciding with the Group forecast of 11 to 12% for the whole 2017 Financial Year.

The Automotive Division has notified an EBIT margin before special items of 12.2% (previous FY: 14.3%). The decrease in EBIT margin is mainly due to a temporarily weak evolution during the second quarter of 2017. The Industrial Division has recorded an increase in EBIT margin before special items of 8.1% (previous FY: 7.3%).

In 2017, the available cash flow was 488 million Euros (previous FY: 735 million Euros). This figure includes approximately 27 million Euros of net cash outflows related to corporate mergers and acquisitions. Excluding these outflows, the available cash flow has slightly exceeded the forecast of 500 million Euros for the entire 2017 Financial Year. The reduction in available cash flow is mainly due to an increase in investments that have amounted to 1.27 billion Euros (previous FY: 1.13 billion Euros). The CAPEX ratio, that is, capital investments as percentage of the Group consolidated turnover, amounted to 9.1% (previous FY: 8.6%).

“With our Agenda 4 plus One excellence programme and its 20 initiatives, we have laid the bases to prepare the Schaeffler Group even better for the future. Like any transformation programme, during the initial phase, the Agenda 4 plus One will entail some extraordinary expenses and investment that will also have an impact on our 2018 results. We have decided to speed up the implementation of the programme in 2018. We stand by our financial ambitions for 2020”, declared Klaus Rosenfeld, DEO of Schaeffler AG.

The Schaeffler Group foresees an increase in turnover of 5 to 6% at fixed exchange rate in 2018, and hopes the generate an EBIT margin of 10.5 to 11.5% before special items. Furthermore the Group foresees an available cash flow of approximately 450 million Euros before mergers and acquisitions in 2018.

Schaeffler AG presented the 2017 results and its forecast for 2018 on 7 March 2018, during the press conference that was held in Munich on the annual statement.