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Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
KION GROUP AG (KIGRY) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Order Intake Amid Revenue Decline
Order Intake: EUR3.5 billion, a 33% increase year-on-year. Revenue: Declined 6% year-over-year to slightly over EUR2 billion. Adjusted EBIT: EUR189 million with a margin of 7%. Free Cash Flow: Positive at EUR132 million. Earnings Per Share: EUR0.72, a 38% increase year-on-year. ITS Segment Order Intake: 70,000 units, a 9% year-over-year increase. New Truck Business Revenue: Declined 13% year-over-year. Service Business Growth: 3% year-on-year increase. SCS Segment Order Intake: Record level of more than EUR1.4 billion. SCS Adjusted EBIT: EUR42 million with a margin of 6%. Net Financial Debt: Slight increase, remaining below EUR1 billion. Tax Rate: Updated full year 2025 tax indication to between 25% and 30%. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 11 Warning Signs with KIGRY. Release Date: July 30, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Positive Points KION GROUP AG (KIGRY) reported a 33% increase in group order intake, reaching EUR3.5 billion, marking a record quarter for order intake and supply chain solutions. Earnings per share increased by 38% year-on-year to EUR0.72. Free cash flow remained positive at EUR132 million, driven by improvements in net working capital. The Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) segment achieved a record order intake of over EUR1.4 billion, with significant contributions from business solutions. The company confirmed its outlook for fiscal year 2025, indicating confidence in its strategic direction and market positioning. Negative Points Revenue declined by 6% year-over-year to slightly over EUR2 billion, with a 13% decline in the new truck business. Adjusted EBIT margin was impacted by lower volumes and reduced fixed cost absorption, particularly in the Industrial Trucks & Services (ITS) segment. The geopolitical uncertainties and ongoing trade conflicts pose risks to the company's supply chains and market conditions. Standard and Poor's downgraded KION GROUP AG (KIGRY) to BB+ with a stable outlook, potentially affecting financing costs. The economic environment remains uncertain, with potential disruptions from trade barriers and restrictions on access to critical commodities. Q & A Highlights Q: Can you provide insights on the order pipeline after a strong Q2, and what are the prospects for second-half orders? A: Richard Smith, CEO: Orders often shift between quarters in Supply Chain Solutions (SCS), so it's important to look at trends over several quarters. Q2 was strong due to multiple large orders, but we don't expect this level in upcoming quarters. However, we anticipate the second half of the year to be better than last year. Our pipeline remains strong, with good visibility into projects. Q: How is pricing in the SCS segment, and does it align with your 10% margin objective for 2027? A: Richard Smith, CEO: Pricing is consistent with our 10% margin profitability plans. We've built protections into our contracts, including tariff fluctuations, to ensure we meet our margin objectives. Q: Can you explain the slight miss in sales this quarter relative to expectations, and what was the momentum in June and July? A: Christian Harm, CFO: The difference was mainly due to corporate services consolidation, not market development. The momentum in June and July was consistent with our expectations, and we don't see any significant changes in market dynamics. Q: Do you expect the book-to-bill ratio for SCS to be above 1 in the next quarters, and how confident are you in reaching a 10% margin for SCS? A: Christian Harm, CFO: We might not consistently see a book-to-bill ratio above 1 due to order lumpiness. To reach a 10% margin, we need to improve project execution, eliminate legacy projects, grow the service business, and leverage operating efficiencies. Q: How are discussions with non-e-commerce customers, and do you expect e-commerce activity to remain high in the coming quarters? A: Richard Smith, CEO: It wasn't just one large project in Q2; we had multiple sizable projects. E-commerce continues to be a leading indicator, and we expect other verticals to start projects as well. E-commerce will remain a significant part of our order intake. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
200 Mitie workers set to begin strike action at Sellafield over pay
AROUND 200 workers in 'frontline' roles on the Sellafield site are set to begin strike action on Friday following a disagreement with their employer Mitie over pay. GMB union members working for Mitie overwhelmingly rejected the 3.5 per cent deal offered by the company- voting to strike in anger at what the union have called a 'derisory' pay offer. The around 200 frontline workers are responsible for cleaning, security, landscaping, waste management, postal services, and laundry support the safety and functionality of one of Europe's most hazardous nuclear facilities, say the union. The union have said that the pay offer would leave many workers earning little more than £13 an hour. Fran Robson, GMB Regional Organiser, added: "Without these workers, Sellafield cannot operate safely or securely. "If Mitie refuses to return to the negotiation table with a meaningful offer, strike action will go ahead, risking significant disruption to this critical nuclear site. "We call on Mitie to provide a pay rise that genuinely recognises the essential contribution of these workers." Mitie have said that they are 'committed' to reaching a resolution and are carrying out 'continuous talks' with both Sellafield and the GMB union. However, the company say they are also putting 'strong contingencies' in place to avoid any disruptions that the strike may cause at the Sellafield site A Mitie spokesperson said: 'We are in continuous talks with both Sellafield and GMB and are committed to reaching a resolution. 'As always, our priority is to ensure continued service delivery and in the unfortunate case of a strike going ahead, we will put strong contingencies in place to avoid disruption to the site. "We are proud of the hard work and dedication of all our colleagues up and down the UK, including those at Sellafield.' READ MORE: Cumbrian mum received incurable brain tumour diagnosis on her birthday | News and Star Sellafield are not directly involved in the dispute and have warned site employees of potential delays and congestion on the roads approaching the Sellafield site gates during the strike period. A spokesman said: "As always, the safety and security of the site, our workforce, and the local community is our priority."
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Analysis-Global power grid expansion fuels fresh copper demand surge
By Pratima Desai and Ashitha Shivaprasad (Reuters) -Copper demand is rising faster than the industry anticipated, driven by billions of dollars being invested worldwide to modernise and expand power grids for the digital and clean energy revolutions that need vast amounts of electricity. Meanwhile, supply from major producers including Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo is constrained by a lack of investment in new mines, setting the stage for a prolonged period of high prices. Some analysts predict copper prices will hit records above $12,000 a ton before the end of the decade, an increase of 23% from current levels around $9,700 a ton. Consumers are exploring alternatives, but copper's superior conductivity, durability, and versatility has made it hard to replace. Grid investment alone is forecast to top $400 billion this year having set a record high of $390 billion in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. "Copper is often a massively underestimated part of grid infrastructure. People recognise the need to expand the grid, but often misjudge the sheer volume of copper this will require," said Michael Finch, head of strategic initiatives at consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI), pointing to investment needed in the U.S., the UK and China in particular. BMI expects copper demand for upgrading power generation and transmission networks globally to rise to 14.87 million metric tons by 2030 up from 12.52 million tons this year, in new figures given to Reuters. DATA CENTRES, ELECTRIC VEHICLES DRIVE GRID DEMAND Bank of America analyst Michael Widmer expects global copper demand to increase 10% to 30.32 million tons by 2030 from this year. Widmer expects the global copper market deficit to reach 1.84 million tons in 2030. The need for resilient grids is particularly acute in regions experiencing rapid growth of data centres powering artificial intelligence and machine learning. "Artificial Intelligence and machine learning data centres need bigger, better, faster computing," and that means more power, said Peter Charland, Global Information and Communications Technology Leader at AECOM, a global infrastructure consulting company. Consultancy CRU told Reuters it expects copper demand from data centres to reach 260,000 tons this year, up from 78,000 tons in 2020 and exceeding 650,000 tons by 2030. "Electricity grid infrastructure is a bottleneck and not limited to data centre application. It extends to onshore and offshore wind power, solar and electric vehicles," said Egest Balla, wire and cable research analyst at consultancy CRU. Electric vehicles also require significantly more copper than traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. BMI forecasts copper demand for electric vehicles will jump to 2.2 million tons in 2030, compared with 1.2 million tons in 2025, up from just 204,000 tons in 2020. "We are moving from copper demand that was cyclical to demand that is more structural," said Maria Cristina Bifulco, chief investor relations and sustainability officer at Italian cable producer Prysmian, the world's largest copper buyer. Prysmian buys 2%-3% of global refined copper production. ALUMINIUM, FIBRE OPTIC CABLING CONSIDERED Looming shortages and record high prices have triggered a wave of innovation including substitution and recycling in industries such as construction and manufacturing where copper costs are a large proportion of total production costs. While aluminium has long been considered a cheaper alternative, at roughly a third of the costs of copper, its use in data centres for wiring has been largely abandoned. "There was a period of time when copper was having issues meeting demand, some folks were taking aluminum cable and copper coating it," AECOM's Charland said. "That was very short-lived given the performance issues." Recycling could help sustainability targets as producing refined or secondary copper from scrap can use 65% less energy than primary production. Analysts estimate copper from scrap will rise to 11 million tons in 2030 from around 10 million tons this year. Copper has already been displaced in data transmission by fibre optic cables, which have superior bandwidth and efficiency and are essentially glass made out of silicon from sand. "It's a lot cheaper to produce glass than it is to mine copper," said Matt Miller, Global Networks Leader at AECOM. "Silicon is incredibly abundant, you can go down to the beach and grab as much as you want." Possible solutions seem unlikely to bridge the supply crunch for copper anytime soon, analysts say, especially for the structural projects governments are pinning their future economic growth prospects on. "You can do all the green energy stuff, but if you don't have a grid system to support, it will be a challenge." CRU's Balla said.
