Annual Report 2005/06 - voestalpine

motive), as well as in the special sections
and storage technology areas (Division
Profilform).
Sales, operating result, and employees of
the following newly acquired companies
were consolidated for the first time in the
2005/06 business year: HTI GmbH and the
Vollmer Group (Division Automotive), SST
Signal & System Technik GmbH, CONTEC
Transportation Systems GmbH, and Rahee
Track Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Division Railway
Systems). Furthermore, the newly established
company Elmsteel Romania (Division
Automotive) was consolidated for the
first time during the past business year.
net income increased by more
than 2%
Due to the sharp increase in the operating
result, both profit before tax and the net income
(result after taxes) have substantially
increased by 36.8% from EUR 497.5 million
to EUR 680.8 million and by 62.6% from
EUR 323.5 million to EUR 525.9 million
respectively.
The tax rate in the past business year was
22.8% compared to 24.9% in the 2004/05
business year.
As a consequence of the very good operative
development, the net financial debt of the
voestalpine Group dropped significantly
from EUR 683.5 million to EUR 376.9 million.
This corresponds to a decline by 44.9%.
At the same time, with equity rising by 19.9%
from EUR 2,124.7 million to EUR 2,547.3
million, the gearing ratio (net financial debt
in percent of equity) was more than halved
from 32.2% to 14.8% in the 2005/06 business
year.
The earnings per share for the 2005/06 business
year amount to EUR 13.13. Compared
to last year’s figure of EUR 9.44, this corresponds
to an increase by 39.1%.
Subject to the approval by the Annual General
Shareholders’ Meeting of voestalpine
AG, which is scheduled for July 5, 2006, the
shareholders will be paid a dividend of
EUR 2.0 per share (2004/05: EUR 1.50) plus
a bonus of EUR 1.10 per share (2004/05:
EUR 0.60); thus, the total dividend per share
will be EUR 3.10 (last year: EUR 2.10). This
corresponds to a dividend yield of 4.3% (as
measured by the average share price of
EUR 72.68 per share for the 2005/06 business
year).
raW maTerials anD energy
The raw materials situation remained tense
in the 2005/06 business year and was again
characterized by high demand from China
and prices whose overall upward trend continued
unabated. The single exception were
coal and coke where the price and availability
situation eased somewhat because
of the rapid expansion of new mining capacities.
Management Report
Annual Report 2005/06
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