KUKA Annual General Meeting

• Shareholders grant discharge to the Executive Board and Supervisory Board with large majority
• Dividend of €0.50 per share approved
• Successful financial year – strategy vindicated
• Additional investments in Industrie 4.0, Big Data and mobile robotics
• Industrie 4.0 expert Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann is new member of the Supervisory Board

 

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 2016 financial year. The Annual General Meeting elected Dr. Andy Gu (Vice President Midea Group), Paul Fang (Chairman/CEO Midea Group), Francoise Liu (HR Director Midea Group), Alexander Tan (Deputy CFO Midea Group), Prof. Dr. Michèle Morner (Incumbent of the Chair of Public Management and Leadership at the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer), and Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann members of the Supervisory Board.

Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann complements the board with comprehensive expertise in Industrie 4.0. The shareholders also followed the proposal of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board to pay a dividend of €0.50 per entitled share for the 2016 financial year. The items on the agenda were approved by a great majority.

Successful financial year – strategy vindicated

KUKA completed the 2016 financial year with successful results, even exceeding the previous year’s figures by a considerable margin in some cases. The volume of orders received reached a new record value of €3,422.3 million, benefiting from growth in North America and China in particular. At €2,948.9 million, sales revenues were at virtually the same level as the previous year.

Additional investments in Industrie 4.0, Big Data, mobile robotics and platforms

KUKA will invest in the development of its products over the course of the year, including mobile robotics and platforms such as KUKA Connect, in order to strengthen its leadership in innovation and to continue playing a pioneering role in Industrie 4.0.

“Our cloud-based platform KUKA Connect, for example, is the elementary link that enables our customers, and here specifically our robots and machines, to connect to networks. The KUKA startup connyun offers our customers an entire ecosystem allowing them to implement all of their process steps in a more efficient manner.”, emphasized Dr. Till Reuter during the Annual General Meeting.

Business development – guidance for 2017

KUKA has started the year with a successful first quarter, having achieved a rec- ord level of orders received totaling €967.3 million. For 2017, KUKA is expecting Group sales revenues to increase to around €3.1 billion and the EBIT margin to surpass 5.5% before purchase price allocation and growth investments. The investments relate to Group-wide issues such as digitization, Industrie 4.0, mobility, general industry and China.

Details of the results of ballots will be published in the next few days on the KUKA AG website.