Comparison between actual and forecast growth

In light of the unpredictability of the coronavirus pandemic’s likely impact, the Executive Board of KION GROUP AG retracted the outlook for the 2020 financial year in March 2020 that had been published in the 2019 annual report. The pandemic resulted in a marked reluctance to invest. Coupled with the restrictions in the service business in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment, this had a noticeable adverse impact on consolidated revenue for the year as a whole, which in turn negatively affected adjusted EBIT and free cash flow.

A new outlook for the reporting year was released in October 2020 when the results for the first nine months of 2020 were published. This new outlook was achieved in full in respect of all key performance indicators. At €9,442.5 million, the Group’s order intake was at the upper end of the target range (€8,900 million to €9,600 million). The Group’s revenue of €8,341.6 million was at the upper end of the new target range (€7,850 million to €8,450 million). Adjusted EBIT amounted to €546.9 million, which was slightly higher than the target range of €465 million to €545 million. Free cash flow was expected to be in a range between €50 million and €150 million and reached €120.9 million at the end of 2020, thus within the target range. At 6.2 percent, ROCE was at the upper end of expectations (5.2 percent to 6.2 percent).

The results of the two operating segments were also within the new target ranges. Order intake in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment was expected to be between €5,500 million and €5,800 million; it reached €5,776.3 million and was thus at the upper end of the target range. The segment’s revenue amounted to €5,699.0 million, which was within the target range of €5,450 million to €5,750 million. Adjusted EBIT in the segment amounted to €305.5 million and was thus at the upper end of the target range of €265 million to €305 million.

At €3,654.5 million, the order intake of the Supply Chain Solutions segment was within the target range of €3,400 million to €3,800 million. The segment’s revenue of €2,627.1 million was at the upper end of the target range of €2,400 million to €2,700 million. Adjusted EBIT at €277.5 million was slightly higher than expected (target range of €235 million to €275 million).