KNNGF - KION GROUP ADR (KIGRY) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

2025-02-28 09:40:48 ET

KION GROUP ADR (KIGRY)

Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call

February 27, 2025 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Rob Smith – Chief Executive Officer

Christian Harm – Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Sven Weier – UBS

Akash Gupta – JPMorgan

Martin Wilkie – Citi

Tore Fangmann – Bank of America

Sebastian Growe – BNP Paribas Exane

Peter Rothenaicher – Baader Bank AG

Christoph Dolleschal – HSBC

Presentation

Rob Smith

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our Update Call and Webcast on the Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results in 2024. You can find our update call presentation on the IR website.

I’m going to start with a summary on our full year 2024 results, then I’ll give you a strategic update and a few words on our exciting teamwork and collaboration with NVIDIA and Accenture. Then Christian is going to take you through the detailed Q4 financials as well as our outlook for 2025. I’ll be back with the key takeaways, and we’ll open the line for your questions and look forward to that. So starting on Page 3 together, group order intake was €10.3 billion, representing a 5% decline compared to the prior year and reflects the subdued markets in both operating segments during 2024.

Revenue was a record at €11.5 billion. Adjusted EBIT increased 16% to the record level of €917 million, with the adjusted EBIT margin improving 110 basis points to be 8% in the full-year 2024. The improvement was driven by improvements in both operating segments. Free cash flow was €702 million, slightly below last year but exceeded our capital market expectations. The improvement was driven by the strong EBIT and the substantial improvements we made in net working capital.

Earnings per share were €2.75, an increase of 18%. In line with the increased earnings per share, we will be proposing at the AGM on 27 May a €0.82 dividend, leaving the payout ratio unchanged at approximately 30%. We have made very good progress in both our operating segments and on the KION level since the difficult year of 2022, which you’ll recall was impacted by high inflation and severe supply chain disruptions. Our operational and commercial agility measures and our strategic focus on innovation, digitalization, and artificial intelligence have proven to be successful and 2024 was a strong year for KION.

I’d like to give you an update on the next steps of our KION strategy on Pages 4 and 5. The world is moving fast and so are our markets, and we’re at a pivotal moment in KION’s history. We’re creating a company that is even more agile and resilient for the benefit of all our stakeholders. And to prepare ourselves now for our next, we’ve worked hard on designing our Playing to Win strategy. It’s our vision that the KION Group is the supply solutions company. Our people’s passion is innovating, automating, and orchestrating solutions for our customers’ supply chains. KION brands keep the world moving. We bring this vision to life with our Playing to Win strategy. We’re making automation easily accessible and scalable, from partial to full lights-out automation. We’re providing intelligent industrial trucks, automation solutions, software, and services for smooth material flows.

On Page 5, you’ll see, in our Playing to Win strategy, there are three key plays. Through our commitment to innovation and growth, we’re enhancing our business in both operating segments by offering even more customer-centric solutions and regional expansion. Furthermore, we’re strengthening our presence in the growing automation market by decisively driving innovative technologies and solutions in that automation market. In product development, we’re strengthening cross-brand collaboration, particularly in areas like automated forklifts and autonomous mobile robotics....

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