28.04.2017

Strong start for Palfinger

Palfinger has reported a record first quarter in terms of revenues and forecasts the trend to continue through the year.

The company has reported total revenues of €361.9 million up 13.5 percent on the same period last year. Most of the growth came from its dominant European business and Russia. The US and China were roughly flat, while South America appears to have 'bottomed out' and Asia Pacific posted modest growth.

In Europe the company acquired its distribution operations in Spain and Denmark, while in the US it sold off its PalFleet service body business to Reading Truck Group, including four locations. The company had acquired the business with Omaha Standard in 2008, Omaha will now focus on the other PAL Pro Mechanics bodies, telescopic service cranes and liftgates. The deal closed in March. Pre-tax profit for the quarter was up 7.6 percent to €29.2 million. Net debt increased 4.5 percent on the quarter to €532.3 million.

The company says that order intake is solid and that production capacity utilisation remains high so it expects the positive upward trend to continue and is forecasting full year revenues of €1.45 billion- eight percent up in 2016, with another five percent growth in 2018 to €1.53 billion.

Chief executive Herbert Ortner said: "Thanks to our strategic positioning, we are continuing to grow. In the first three months, we already achieved our aim of a two-digit EBITn margin. Besides our focus on restructuring, priorities in 2017 include our initiatives regarding customer orientation, digitalisation and the further optimisation of processes."

Vertikal Comment

This a good set of numbers from Palfinger although profitability growth has not kept pace with revenue growth again. This though is probably down to the fact that the company continues to invest in the longer term aim of having the three major geographic regions of the world make up a third of the company’s revenues and profits. In spite of several years efforts and numerous acquisitions and joint ventures Europe still represents almost 60 percent of revenues and a much higher percentage of the profits.

The long term strategy makes good sense and is gradually transforming the company into a major global lifting equipment business with a strong coherent brand, a model that has proven to be highly rewarding for another Teutonic business in the lifting sector – Liebherr.

Expect Palfinger to continue to grow and prosper