Stadler’s diversified product portfolio has strengthened company’s market position and was the engine of a good performance in 2023, although the last year was marked by inflation, currency distortions, and supply chain difficulties.
The company says that is continuing to generate a promising order intake with its innovative, sustainable and high-quality products and solutions. Stadler has achieved particularly noteworthy market success in Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Italy and the USA.
The order situation progressed well once again in 2023. Thanks to ongoing extremely dynamic demand, order intake totalled CHF 6.8 billion (EUR 7.1 billion), well above the strategic target of 1.5x the previous year’s revenue. The decrease in relation to the previous year (2022: CHF 8.6 billion) is attributable to the recognition of several major orders worth several billion in the 2022 financial year. In addition, two major orders totalling around CHF 1.2 billion (EUR 1.25 billion) were postponed until after year-end 2023. Given that the order intake remained significantly higher than revenue, the order backlog rose to CHF 24.4 billion (EUR 25.5 billion) as at 31 December 2023 (31 December 2022: CHF 22 billion or EUR 23 billion).
Stadler’s diversified product portfolio has “excellently positioned” the company “in the growing rail market. We were largely able to compensate for the higher prices of materials and procurement bottlenecks by persistently implementing efficiency measures in production technology. Revenue and EBIT remained at a solid level despite the considerable impact of negative currency effects”, said Markus Bernsteiner, Group CEO, the results of the financial year 2023.
Negative currency effects due to the strong appreciation of the Swiss franc, particularly against the euro, continued to have a significant negative impact on the operating result in the past financial year.
Allowing for negative currency effects, EBIT totalled CHF 183.3 million or EUR 191.6 million (previous year: CHF 205.1 million) with an EBIT margin of 5.1 percent (previous year: 5.5 percent). EBIT is in line with expectations before taking into account negative currency effects.
In terms of its group result, Stadler posted a profit of CHF 138.6 million (EUR 144.9 million) in the past financial year, compared to CHF 75.1 million (EUR 78.5 million) in the previous year. The significant increase in the group result is due in particular to lower currency losses in the financial result of CHF 11.4 million or EUR 119 million (2022: CHF 56.7 million). In addition, much higher interest income was recognised due to the high level of liquidity.
The rolling stock segment recorded orders totalling CHF 5 billion (EUR 5.2 billion) in the 2023 financial year. The previous year’s figure of CHF 7.3 billion (EUR 7.6 billion) includes major orders worth several billion. As a result, the order backlog in the reporting segment grew by another 8 percent to CHF 18.4 billion (EUR 19 billion) compared to year-end 2022 (31 December 2022: CHF 17 billion). Revenue in the rolling stock reporting segment reached CHF 3.1 billion (EUR 3.2 billion), down 5 percent (including 2 percent of negative currency effects) on the prior-year period (2022: CHF 3.2 billion).
The signalling reporting segment also recorded strong growth in the past financial year. Order intake rose to CHF 56 million (EUR 58.5 million) compared to CHF 49 million (EUR 51.2 million) in the previous year. The order backlog as at 31 December 2023 increased to CHF 162.2 million (EUR 169.5 million) compared to CHF 170.1 million as at 31 December 2022. Revenue increased by 14 percent in the financial year (including negative currency effects of 2 percent) to CHF 64.1 million from CHF 50.1 million in the previous year.
Share on:
