AKWEL

CURRENT OPERATING PROFIT UP 19% TO €92.2m - Seite 2

BUSINESS IN 2019 OUTPERFORMED (+9%) DESPITE A DECLINING MARKET

Akwel posted an annual turnover of €1,101.2 million in 2019, an increase of 3.7% and 4.4% when taking exchange rates and scope as constants. This growth took place in a global automotive production market down by approximately 5%, outperforming by more than 9% as a result. This growth can be explained by the success of a number of promising products – notably in the Cooling (+11.4%) and Mechanisms (+5.7%) families and within Air (+8.2%) and Fuel (+4.4%) specific product lines – and by the significant stepping up of activity with certain manufacturers.

SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN OPERATING RESULTS

EBITDA, the increase of which (+4.6%) is in line with that of turnover, stood at €130.3m compared to €124.6m in 2018 thanks, in particular, to a controlled wage bill and reduced losses on sites that were starting up or ramping up their levels of activity. R&D costs amounted to €67.9m in 2019, or 6.2% of turnover.

The current operating margin, 8.4% of turnover, grew by 1.1 point to €92.2m, with no exceptional allocations for guaranteed returns and recall campaigns being recorded over the course of this financial year (against €23m in 2018). Akwel owns the majority of its facilities, so the impact of the application of IFRS 16 standard on its operating results remains insignificant (+€0.5m).

Operating profit was €88.9m, representing growth of 21.6%.

Financial income amounted to -€2.4m and the tax rate, which was exceptionally low in 2018, returned to a more normative level in 2019 (27%), leading to a group share net result of €62.7m, up 2.6%.

ACHIEVING THE POSITIVE FREE CASH FLOW TARGET

Following two peaks recorded over the course of 2017 (€87m) and 2018 (€77m), as expected, net investment flows slowed to €48.1m. As activity generated €76.7m in cash flow (against €73.4m in 2018), 2019 free cash flow was positive and reached €28.1m.

Akwel ended the year on a solid financial footing: net financial debt of €34.7m (including €10.6m related to IFRS 16) and consolidated shareholders’ equity of €507.6m as of 31 December 2019.

STRENGTHS IN THE FACE OF THE CRISIS

Since the third week of March, the global health crisis caused by COVID-19 has led to significant reductions and total suspensions of activity across all Group sites in order to protect employees and adapt to the needs of manufacturers. A minimum level of activity has been maintained to ensure requested deliveries and certain productions can continue to take place. Various government support measures are being used where appropriate.