Kuka profits from high demand for robots and automation

During the past financial year Kuka Group recorded orders valued at EUR 3,422.3 million, representing a significant increase of 20.6% on the previous year’s result (2015: EUR 2,838.9 million). This record value surpassed the three billion euro mark for the first time. All three divisions profited from growth primarily in North America and China. The Robotics division in particular posted a gain of 21% in orders received on the Chinese market. High level of sales revenues Sales revenues amounted to EUR 2,948.9 million in 2016 – almost the same level as the previous year (EUR 2,965.9 million). Kuka Group’s order backlog amounted to EUR 2,048.9 million at year-end 2016. This was an increase of 25.0% compared to the prior-year value (2015: EUR 1,639.0 million). The high order backlog represents around two thirds of annual sales revenues which should ensure good capacity utilisation during fiscal 2017 and to some extent for 2018, the company says. “KUKA can look back on one of the most eventful years in its history. With sales revenues of around 3 billion euro and an EBIT margin of 5.6%, Kuka was very successful, In particular, however, we have also invested very heavily in new technologies such as Industrie 4.0, big data and mobile robotics,” says Dr. Till Reuter, CEO of Kuka AG EBITDA totalled at EUR 205.3 million, compared to EUR 259.1 million in the previous year. The EBITDA margin in 2016 was thus 7.0%, having been 8.7% in 2015. Not taking the purchase price allocation for Swisslog and one-off effects of the Midea Group takeover bid into account, Kuka Group achieved earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of EUR 166.0 million (2015: EUR 194.3 million). The EBIT margin stood at 5.6% (2015: 6.6%). Taking into account all the expenditure in 2015 and 2016, Kuka achieved an EBIT of EUR 127.2 million (margin: 4.3%) in the past financial year, compared to EUR 135.6 million (margin: 4.6%) in the preceding year. During 2016 Kuka increased its workforce by 7.2% from a total of 12’300 at the end of 2015 to 13’188 at the end of 2016.