Technologies · Systems · Solutions - Dürr

56
EBT and EBITDA
at DTS amounting to € 6.6 million. That charge was taken as a consequence of the
valuation of DTS and is connected with our intention either to put the product line
into a minority shareholding or to sell it. The Services business unit was able to maintain
a level close to the previous year’s despite slight losses.
Restructuring expenses and impairment losses in continuing operations (€ 6.8 million)
include € 2.8 million for combining the Paint Systems and Final Assembly Systems
business units under the new Group structure. Another € 1.6 million had to be spent
in Measuring Systems, mostly for closing the pre-manufacturing operation in
Darmstadt, Germany. Added to that was a total of € 2.4 million in Paint Systems,
Final Assembly Systems, and Ecoclean.
2004 2003
Amounts in €m EBITDA Margin EBT Margin EBITDA Margin EBT Margin
Paint Systems 1 39.6 3.4% 28.3 2.5% 41.3 3.3% 29.3 2.3%
Final Assembly Systems 1 6.0 1.6% 2.0 0.5% 11.3 2.5% 7.5 1.7%
Ecoclean 1 –2.0 –1.1% –5.1 –2.7% 9.4 4.5% 5.7 2.7%
Measuring Systems 1 18.6 6.1% 10.9 3.5% –4.0 –1.4% –14.5 –5.1%
Corporate Center 3.4 – –17.5 – –11.5 – –28.9 –
Continuing operations 2 65.6 3.4% 18.6 1.0% 46.5 2.3% –0.9 0.0%
Discontinued operations 2 4.1 1.8% –6.8 –2.9% –0.6 –0.3% –4.8 –2.1%
Group 2 69.7 3.3% 11.8 0.6% 45.9 2.0% –5.7 –0.3%
1 Margins calculated on the basis of total sales (sales in a business unit including intragroup sales to other business units)
2 Margins calculated on the basis of consolidated sales
The gross margin in continuing operations rose to 16.5% in 2004 (previous year:
16.3%). We were able to offset higher raw material prices by increasing efficiency.
Selling, administrative and other operating expenses were down by 6.3% to
€ 270.6 million (previous year: € 288.6 million) – proof of the effectiveness of our
earnings enhancement program.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in continuing operations rose to € 42.5 million
(previous year: € 19.8 million). The EBIT margin more than doubled, improving from
1.0% to 2.2%. In discontinued operations, EBIT dropped to € –6.9 million from
€ –4.9 million in 2003, mainly due to write-downs.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in continuing
operations rose to € 65.6 million (previous year: € 46.5 million). That yields an EBITDA
margin of 3.4% (previous year: 2.3%). At € 26.4 million, net interest expense was
€ 2.2 million more than the previous year’s figure. The increase is a result of our new
financing structure (corporate bond and syndicated loan) by means of which we
have largely replaced current financial liabilities with funds dated to the medium or
long term. Gross debt in continuing operations was € 289.2 million at the year’s
end (previous year: € 296.4 million). Interest income was down from € 3.5 million to
€ 2.5 million due to the planned reduction of positive bank balances in the framework
of Group-wide cash management. Although capital expenditures on property, plant
and equipment and intangible assets (excluding goodwill; see “Capital expenditures”
chart on p. 64) rose to € 27.2 million (previous year: € 20.1 million), depreciation