► Rheinmetall increases sales and earnings
1 August 2019 – The Rheinmetall Group in Düsseldorf ended the first half of 2019 with increased sales, another improvement in consolidated operating earnings and a higher operating margin. This performance is being driven by the technology group’s Defence sector, which is achieving profitable growth in a dynamic market environment and increasing its operating earnings significantly. Although the automotive business outperformed global automotive production, which experienced a decline of around 7%, it was influenced by the weak industry environment.
Rheinmetall specified its forecasts for the Automotive and Defence sectors according to the relevant market developments. The forecast for the Group operating margin has been confirmed at the same figure of around 8%.
Armin Papperger, Chief Executive Officer of Rheinmetall AG: “In the current fiscal year, the two-sector corporate structure once again puts Rheinmetall on a solid and profitable footing. Although, as expected, Automotive is unable to distance itself entirely from the downward trend on global automotive markets, the Group remains on track for growth with respect to sales and earnings. In the Defence sector, we are increasingly feeling the effects of the considerable backlog of demand in military procurement in many countries. This is especially true in Germany as well, where we are a key partner to the German armed forces in terms of modernizing equipment and bridging the gaps. The comparatively robust business performance of our Automotive sector shows that we are in a good position with our extremely flexible cost management policy to remain highly profitable even in adverse market situations.”
The Rheinmetall Group increased its sales by €61 million or 2.2% year-on-year to €2,814 million in the first half of 2019 (previous year: €2,753 million). Adjusted for currency effects, sales growth amounts to 2.0%.
Consolidated operating earnings increased by €9 million or 5.8% in the same period to €163 million (previous year: €154 million), bringing the operating margin at Group level up slightly from 5.6% to 5.8%.
Earnings per share rose by 36.3%, from €1.79 in the previous year to €2.44 in the first half of 2019.
The order backlog in the Rheinmetall Group rose significantly year-on-year, reaching €8.8 billion (June 30, 2019), after €7.0 billion the year before.
At 72%, the international share of business activities was lower than the previous year’s figure (77%). The resurgent significance of the German market can be attributed in particular to the growing volume of orders with the German armed forces, whose efforts to modernize equipment are linked to increasing national sales in the Defence sector.
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