The group issued the warning on Friday evening (20 December). Its shares are listed on the German DAX stock exchange and when trading opened this morning K&B’s share price fell by more than 12%, to a new 52-week low of €26.50 (£22.63).

The 52-week high is €48.04.

In its statement, K&B said the market environment remained “very demanding”.

Not all of the expected orders could be booked, and some projects that were supposed to be completed this year “could not be finalised”.

“In addition, higher order processing costs have reduced the margin,” K&B said.

Further details were unavailable at the time of writing.

As a result, the group’s management board expect group revenue to be on a par with 2018, when sales were €1.226bn, with EBITDA margins of between 4%-4.5%.

The reset represents a major reversal of K&B’s previous position. Over the summer, and following gloomy reports from a number of competitors, K&B had reaffirmed its own forecasts that sales would be €1.5bn with an EBITDA margin of at least 7%. It had been targeting EBITDA margins of between 7% and 10% over the next five years.

K&B will announce its year-end results and provide an outlook for 2020 on 19 March.