Bauer remains on course

Despite some minor setbacks, German-based manufacturer Bauer has reported good overall results for the first nine months of 2017.

Total group revenue rose 22% to €1.4 billion, compared to the €1.14 billion recorded in the first nine months of the previous year, while sales revenues increased by 27.5% to €1.3 billion.

The company’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) improved from €38 million in the first nine months of 2016 to €48.9 million in the equivalent period this year. Earnings after tax went from a loss of €4 million last year to a gain of €6.9 million in the first nine months of 2017.

Though the order backlog remained at a high level, it fell from €1.01 billion at the end of September 2016 to €977.3 million at the end of September 2017. This drop was attributed to the sale of shares in a real estate company at end of 2016, as a result of which orders were taken off of the backlog. Bauer said that without this effect, orders in hand would have been higher than the previous year’s level.

This hit the group’s construction segment, which saw its order backlog fall by €61.5 million to €516.5 million at the end of the first nine months of 2017. Again, the figure would have been above the previous year’s figure – and it would have exceeded expectations – had it not been for the sale of shares in the real estate company.

Also, the construction segment’s EBIT shrank from €7.3 million in the first nine months of 2016 to €12.6 million in the equivalent period this year.

However, on the up side, the segment’s total revenue grew by 29.1% to €666.5 million.

Meanwhile, the equipment segment benefitted from a strong order intake, which increased by 20.5% from €488.2 million in the first nine months of 2016 to €588.1 million this year.

Total revenue for the equipment segment rose by 24.3% from €465.7 million in the first nine months of last year to €579 million in the first nine months of this year, and sales revenue grew by 39% to €480.8 million.

The segment’s EBIT exceeded expectations, more than doubling from €22.8 million to €46.7 million.

In light of these results, Bauer has confirmed its forecast for 2017, predicting total group revenues of about €1.8 billion, earnings after tax of between €23 million and 28 million, and EBIT of around €75 million.

Professor Thomas Bauer, chairman of the management board of Bauer, said, “We are seeing an overall positive trend in our business operations.

“The construction segment is showing continued stable growth worldwide and the demand for complex specialist foundation engineering projects will continue to grow due to the continuing urbanisation and the rising complexity of infrastructures.”