Knorr-Bremse Reports Strong 2022 Results

Source: Knorr-Bremse announcement

MUNICH — Knorr-Bremse AG remains on its growth course despite global crisis. The global market leader for braking systems and leading provider of other systems for rail and commercial vehicles yesterday presented its preliminary results for the 2022 fiscal year.

Marc Llistosella, the new Chief Executive Officer of Knorr-Bremse AG since January 1, said: “The achievements made by Knorr-Bremse and all its people last year impress me greatly. We again achieved an excellent result. We delivered on our promises. We did that in an extremely challenging year, with the awful human and economic impacts from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with high inflation, with the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the global supply chain shortages.

“Today, we have a very large order book to our name. That shows me the high level of trust that our customers have in our reliability and quality. All this represents the best conditions for moving into the future, even if the challenges remain tremendous and we are still maintaining a strict focus on our costs.

“With a clearly coordinated portfolio as well as products and processes that are consistently aligned with market needs, we will defend our position as a global market and technology leader.”

Frank Markus Weber, Chief Financial Officer of Knorr-Bremse AG, said: “Our business model involving two divisions, Rail Vehicle Systems and Commercial Vehicle Systems, has proved to be resilient once again. Order intake and revenue have risen significantly. Profitability, with an operating EBIT margin of 11.1 percent, is very solid despite the adversities in the global market environment.

“Raising prices for customers, negotiating with suppliers, and implementing cost reduction measures have helped to achieve this result. We also continued to drive the topic of sustainability (ESG) over the last year. Even just with our three different sustainability-linked financing instruments, we have shown how much Knorr-Bremse values sustainable

business. The fact that we will broaden our climate targets to scope 3 this year and have them assessed by the SBTi is impressive confirmation of this.”

Determined Implementation of Profit Optimization Measures

The 2022 fiscal year was shaped by the enormous influences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the strict zero-Covid policy in China that applied until year end, and the price rises driven by inflation. In this difficult global environment, the Group’s revenue successfully increased by 6.6 percent to € 7,149.7 million (previous year: € 6,705.6 million) due to the pleasing customer demand, primarily in Europe and North America.

The main driver of this was the commercial-vehicle market and, to a smaller extent, the rail vehicle market. The internal Profit & Cash Protection Program introduced early in 2022 was able to soften the blow from the inflation-related costs, however it could not make up for the negative influences from Russia and China.

The operating EBIT margin reached a value of 11.1% (previous year: 13.5%) with operating EBIT of € 794.6 million (previous year: € 908.1 million). Free cash flow in 2022 amounted to € 220 million (previous year: € 600 million). The reasons for this development were mainly the buildup of inventories to ensure our delivery capabilities as well as delays in payments from our customers.

To view the entire announcement, with comprehensive figures, click HERE.

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