Hella achieves annual goals

Based on preliminary figures, the earnings before interest and taxes adjusted for restructuring measures and portfolio effects (adjusted EBIT) improved by 5.9 percent to € 585 million (previous year: € 552 million). This corresponds to an adjusted EBIT margin of 8.4 percent (previous year: 8.3 percent). The reported earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose to € 808 million (previous year: € 574 million) primarily due to the extraordinary gains from the successful sale of the wholesale business. Therefore, the reported EBIT margin is 11.6 percent (previous year: 8.1 percent). "We have faced a demanding fiscal year that was marked by major uncertainties in the overall automotive sector", said HELLA CEO Dr. Rolf Breidenbach reflects in a press release. "Although we have largely compensated for these challenges in the past fiscal year and achieved our targets, we were confronted with a sharp slowdown in growth momentum, particularly in the second half of the fiscal year, as well." Outlook for fiscal year 2019/2020 reflects high uncertainties in the market environment and therefore decreasing sector development "Especially due to our strategic alignment along the major automotive market trends such as autonomous driving and electromobility, we assume that HELLA will still grow stronger than the market in the future", says Dr. Rolf Breidenbach. "However, the company will not be able to completely withdraw from the general sector development. The markets will continue to decline and to be characterised by a high degree of uncertainties. At the same time, we will still invest significantly in research and development and anticipate further increasing material and labor costs." Against this background, HELLA expects currency- and portfolio-adjusted sales in the range from € 6.5 billion to € 7.0 billion (previous year portfolio-adjusted: around € 6.8 billion) for the current fiscal year 2019/2020 as well as an EBIT margin adjusted for restructuring measures and portfolio effects in the range from 6.5 to 7.5 percent (previous year portfolio-adjusted: 8.4 percent).