Worldwide offset press leaders Heidelberg and KBA are finally shaking off the remnants of the decade-old global financial crisis, as the latest revenue figures for both companies continue to show substantial improvements. Heidelberg’s latest figures show that incoming orders for the third quarter of 2017 were up 16% over the previous year. The OEM cited three key factors for this success – its digital transformation, its new subscription model, and its new digital packaging and label presses. After three quarters, EBITDA (excluding restructuring result) climbed from 94 million € to 105 million €. As a result, the EBITDA margin after 9 months was 6.3% versus 5.6% in the previous year. EBIT (excluding restructuring result) totaled 54 million €, while the previous year was 43 million €.
Meanwhile, Koenig & Bauer (KBA) achieved, and in some cases exceeded, its goals for 2017. At 1.22 billion €, KBA Group’s revenue reached its target of up to 1.25 billion € as outlined in its goals. With revenue up 4.3% over the previous year of 1.17 billion €, KBA achieved its “mid-term organic revenue growth rate” of about 4% – more than making up for the further decline of 25 million € in revenue from its newspaper presses and commercial web presses. The group’s new orders rose substantially by 10.1% in 2017 over 2016 – 1.15 million € versus 1.27 million €. With orders up 29.7% over the previous year, its fourth quarter was especially strong. Its order backlog stood at 606.2 million €, up 8.7% over the previous year. Its EBIT margin of 6.7% exceeded its goal of around 6% for 2017.
The financial crisis of 2007-2008, also known as the global financial crisis, is considered by many economists and other financial industry experts to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Heidelberg and KBA finally in the black
