Augsburg, 27 May 2016
- Executive Board and Supervisory Board granted discharge with large majority
- Dividend of 0.50 euro approved
- Targets for 2015 achieved – Strategy confirmed
- Continued focus on digitization
At the company’s Annual General Meeting in Augsburg, the shareholders of KUKA AG ratified the actions of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board members in the past financial year. The shareholders followed the proposal of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board to pay a dividend of 0.50 euro per entitled share for the 2015 financial year.
The items on the agenda were approved by a great majority.
Targets for 2015 achieved – Strategy confirmed
KUKA posted record revenues for the 2015 financial year and continued its profitable growth. The volume of orders received reached €2.8 billion and sales revenues rose to €2.97 billion. This development was fueled by strong demand from North America and China as well as the global orientation towards the strategic focus markets. Nearly 50% of KUKA’s revenues in the 2015 financial year came from China and North America.
Focus on digitization
The company’s focus in 2016 is on the digitization of production and logistics. KUKA has the technologies and products for Industrie 4.0 and also the requisite process expertise. “Industrie 4.0 is THE central topic for us,” emphasized KUKA Aktiengesellschaft CEO Dr. Till Reuter during the Annual General Meeting. “We pick up new stimuli from inside and outside the company and advance innovations in quite different ways. Together with our customers, we will develop new business models that will position these customers correctly in the factory of the future, thereby increasing their efficiency.”
Business development – Guidance for 2020
The results of the first quarter of 2016 show that KUKA has made a good start to the current financial year. Orders received reached a new record level of €746.5 million. For 2016, KUKA is expecting Group sales revenues to increase to more than €3.0 billion and the EBIT margin to surpass 5.5% before purchase price allocation. Investments will concentrate on new products and solutions for Industrie 4.0 and the Smart Factory.
The Group is aiming for sales revenues of €4.0 to 4.5 billion by 2020 and an EBIT margin of more than 7.5%. Two major drivers behind this development are the Chinese market and Industrie 4.0.
Details of the results of ballots will be published in the next few days on the KUKA AG website.
