HÖRMANN Industries publishes financial results for the first nine months of 2021

HÖRMANN Industries GmbH (corporate bond, WKN: A2TSCH) today published its financial results for the first nine months of 2021. In the period under review, the Group's sales increased year-on-year from EUR 366.8 million by EUR 63.2 million to EUR 430.0 million. The increase in sales disproportionately resulted from the Automotive and Communication divisions, whereas the Engineering and the Services divisions continued to feel the late-cycle effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated delays in order placements.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of HÖRMANN Group improved significantly in the period under review to EUR 31.2 million (previous year: EUR 18.3 million) and EUR 22.2 million (previous year: EUR 8.3 million) respectively. HÖRMANN ended the first three quarters of 2021 with a consolidated net income of EUR 15.3 million (previous year: EUR 2.6 million).

Dr. Michael Radke, CEO of HÖRMANN Industries GmbH: "After a very positive first half of the year, we have been feeling the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic again since summer due to the price increases for raw materials and the production cutbacks at our customers, particularly in our Automotive division. For example, the semiconductor crisis led to massive production stops at some of our customers, which are still continuing. Thanks to our diversified positioning with four business divisions, we nevertheless expect to close the year as a whole with earnings at pre-crisis level."

Development of the business divisions

In the Automotive division, sales increased by EUR 62.9 million year-on-year from EUR 189.9 million to EUR 252.8 million due to a higher demand in the truck and agricultural machinery product segments and as a result of increased material costs in the reporting period. Since the third quarter of 2021, however, the business division has been affected by temporary production stops and continued cutbacks in production on the customer side due to the semiconductor crisis. In addition, difficulties in the procurement of raw materials for the company's own production, high prices for metal raw materials as well as volatile changes in production capacity requirements have a negative impact on the earnings situation.

In the first nine months of 2021, the Communication division benefited from government stimulus programmes and additional investments in the expansion of European control and safety technology for the railways as well as the more efficient design of the network infrastructure for digitization in railway transport ("Digitale Schiene Deutschland"). With sales of EUR 120.0 million (previous year: EUR 100.0 million), it reported year-on-year sales growth of 20%.

At EUR 45.6 million, sales in the Engineering division were, as expected, significantly lower than in the comparative prior-year period (EUR 64.3 million). This was due to severe delays in the order placement as a result of the great uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, despite a high level of incoming orders and orders on hand in logistics construction, the division is suffering from postponed project realisation due to delays in upstream work and material shortages, with the result that longer-running projects cannot be invoiced until the end of 2021 or into 2022.

The Services division was also affected by the pandemic-related economic uncertainties in the automotive industry, causing sales to decline to EUR 12.0 million (previous year: EUR 13.5 million). In the medium term, the focus is on acquiring customers from the non-automotive sector with its expertise in automation and maintenance. To this end, the Automation division of SAV GmbH in Mittweida was acquired at the beginning of January 2021 and the operations of SOLution-TEC GmbH, Wolfenbüttel, was taken over effective 1 November 2021.

Forecast for the full year slightly adjusted

At Group level, based on an assessment of the current order situation of the individual divisions, HÖRMANN Industries GmbH expects slightly lower total sales for the full year 2021 in a range between EUR 565 million and EUR 590 million compared to the previous forecast (previously: EUR 600 million to EUR 620 million; 2020: EUR 521.5 million). This is due to the aforementioned pandemic-related material shortage, which has resulted in temporarily reduced production in the Automotive division. Taking into account the slightly lower sales forecast and the material price increases described above, positive earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) are expected in a range of EUR 25 million to EUR 27 million (previously: EUR 26 million to EUR 28 million; 2020: EUR 12.6 million).

The consolidated interim report for the period from 1 January to 30 September 2021 is available at https://www.hoermann-gruppe.com/en/investor-relations/financial-reports/financial-reports.