AUGSBURG (dpa-AFX) - KUKA (KUKAY.PK, KUKAF.PK) reported that, for 2018, before purchase price allocations, growth investments and reorganization expenditure, KUKA Group generated EBIT of 96.4 million euros compared to 148.3 million euros, prior year. This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 3.0% compared to 4.3%. Taking into consideration all expenditure in 2018, the earnings before interest and taxes for KUKA Group totaled 34.3 million euros compared to 102.7 million euros, last year. Accordingly, EBIT margin was 1.1% compared to 3.0%. The company said the decline was additionally attributable to project deteriorations and measures for increasing profitability.
KUKA Group's sales revenues amounted to 3.24 billion euros in 2018, down 6.8% on the previous year's result. KUKA Group generated orders received worth 3.30 billion euros, 8.5% below the previous year's result.
For 2019, KUKA said the company is expecting a slight increase in sales revenues to around 3.3 billion euros. KUKA Group expects to achieve an EBIT margin of approximately 3.5% before final evaluation of the current reorganization expenditure. KUKA anticipates a slight increase in demand in the 2019 financial year.
KUKA said the company is adapting to the changed framework conditions and is systematically implementing the action plan already initiated in January. For 2019, savings in the high double-digit million euro range have already been identified. The company noted that the savings also include job cuts at the Augsburg headquarters. KUKA is planning to cut a total of 350 full-time jobs in Augsburg in the current year.
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