KION Group significantly increased its profitability and free cash flow in 2023, closing the financial year with very good results in earnings – despite a decline in global demand for industrial trucks and supply chain solutions.
2024-02-29
The strong momentum was mainly driven by supply chain improvement measures in both segments, commercial actions in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment and project management process improvements in the Supply Chain Solutions segment.
At € 11.434 billion, Group revenue grew slightly by 2.7 percent (2022: € 11.136 billion) and reached a record level. Revenue development differed across both operating segments. The Industrial Trucks & Services segment grew significantly by 15.3 percent to € 8.480 billion (2022: € 7.356 billion), mainly driven by higher production levels as well as price increases implemented in the previous year. The service business also grew. Revenue in the Supply Chain Solutions segment declined by 21.3 percent to € 2.997 billion (2022: € 3.807 billion).
In 2023, the KION Group benefited from a year of delivering on our strategy as we took further significant steps along our path to sustainable and profitable growth. We significantly improved profitability in both our business segments and for KION. The substantial progress in our results, the commercial and operational agility measures and the changes of our organizational and leadership setup form a strong basis for our future business success.
Adjusted EBIT at Group level increased significantly and more than doubled to € 790.5 million (2022: € 292.4 million). The adjusted EBIT margin thus improved significantly to 6.9% (2022: 2.6 percent).
The Industrial Trucks & Services segment again achieved a double-digit adjusted EBIT margin of 10.0 percent, corresponding to an adjusted EBIT of € 848.5 million (2022: € 420.5 million). Following a loss in the previous financial year, the Supply Chain Solutions segment achieved a positive adjusted EBIT margin of 1.5 percent with an adjusted EBIT of € 44.3 million (2022: € -45.6 million).
Net income tripled to € 314.4 million (2022: € 105.8 million). Free cash flow reached a strong € 715.2 million (2022: € -715.6 million), due to overall good earnings and improved working capital management during the end of the year.
KION shareholders will benefit from the strong financial year 2023: The Executive Board and Supervisory Board of KION GROUP AG will propose a dividend of € 0.70 (2022: € 0.19) per share for the 2023 financial year at the Annual General Meeting on May 29, 2024. This corresponds to a total dividend payout of € 91.8 million. The payout ratio amounts to around 30 percent with earnings per share of € 2.33 for the 2023 financial year. It is within the targeted payout corridor of 25 percent to 40 percent.
