KHD reports considerable rise in 1H order intake

KHD reported an increase in order intake to EUR79.3m in the first half of 2017, considerably higher than the EUR19.3m in the same period of last year. The company’s order backlog increased for the first time since the 2012 financial year.

Revenue in the first half fell by 26.9 per cent to EUR48.7m due to the low order intake at the beginning of the financial year. Significant contributions to revenue came primarily from projects in India and North America.

Orders of  EUR60.8m were placed in the Capex segment in the first half-year compared to EUR1.7m in the previous year. In the Plant Services segment, the order intake of EUR18.5m (previous year: EUR17.6m) slightly exceeded the previous year’s value and met the budget target. In comparison with the Capex business area, the Parts & Services business is relatively consistent and contributed 23.3 per cent to order intake.

Based on the order intake volume achieved in the first half-year and taking the progress in execution of existing projects into consideration, the order backlog as of 30 June 2017 increased (compared with the figure of 31 December) by EUR19.2m to EUR150.7m.

Revenue in the Capex segment in the six-month period reached only EUR29.9m (previous year: EUR47.3m). The considerable reduction in revenue in the Capex segment is the result of the low order backlog at the beginning of the financial year. The relatively stable business in the Plant Services segment achieved revenues of EUR18.8m (previous year: EUR19.3m), just slightly below the comparable figure from the previous year.

KHD continues to expect an order intake and order backlog for the 2017 financial year to be considerably higher than the previous year’s figures (EUR83m and EUR131.5m, respectively), and that as a result, capacity utilisation should be improved significantly starting from the 2018 financial
year onwards.

However, due to delays in order intake, the reduction in order values, and customer changes to project execution schedules, revenue for the 2017 financial year will be about 20 per cent lower than the previous year’s value.

KHD confirms the outlook for EBIT and the EBIT margin. This means that a significantly  negative EBIT is expected in the 2017 financial year, though it will improve considerably compared with the previous year’s figure (EUR-33.2m).