The press manufacturer said that, among other things, the order intake arising from Drupa earlier this year resulted in a provisional order backlog of around €1bn, which also represented the highest half-year figure in the company’s recent history.
This order backlog will largely take effect after 2024 and is distributed differently across the segments.
The company has also outlined further details about its ‘Spotlight’ focus programme to ensure that the company remains on its trajectory towards achieving its EBIT target of 6% and group revenue of €1.5bn in 2026 at the latest, and to strengthen operating EBIT in 2025.
It said Spotlight primarily entails measures to improve costs at the holding company and in the Digital & Webfed segment in Würzburg as well as in the Special segment at various locations.
Special items from the ‘Spotlight’ focus program in the amount of €30m to €45m are to be expected. These will show up as a special effect in group earnings in 2024 and mainly relate to adjustments to material and personnel expenses.
In a statement released yesterday (25 July), Koenig & Bauer explained that non-operating extraordinary expenses of approximately €10m, mainly in connection with Drupa, weighed on earnings in the second quarter.
“In addition to this one-off effect, the provisional operating EBIT in the second quarter of around €-13.5m fell slightly short of the operating EBIT of €-10.2m in the first quarter in line with expectations,” the company said.
“Broken down by month, group EBIT was better in June than in April and May, making a positive contribution to EBIT. Koenig & Bauer expects a strong second half of 2024 in terms of revenue and earnings as a basis for achieving its full-year operating earnings.”
The company’s full figures for the second quarter and the first half of 2024 will be published next Thursday (1 August).
Shares in Koenig & Bauer have fallen by around 6% over the past month but were up around 0.5% on yesterday’s close at the time of writing just before lunchtime today (26 July) at €12.68 (52-week high: €18.86, low: €9.69).
