With higher sales and an even sharper (20 percent) gain in EBIT, the KSPG Group in the first quarter of 2015 has benefited from its forward-pointing product line-up, its favorable positions in the auto industry's growth markets (especially China) and, not least of all, from an improved operating performance. During the first three months of 2015, the Group generated sales of €664 million (up around 8 percent over Q1/2014's €617 million). Adjusted for exchange-rate effects, the sales rise was 5 percent.
During the same period, EBIT improved by €9 million to €55 million and hence the operating result margin from 7.5 to 8.3 percent (year-on-year quarterly comparison). The Chinese joint ventures not included in the sales figures raised their quarterly sales by 41 percent to €212 million (on the basis of 100 percent).
The Group's sales surge was thus easily in excess of the global auto economy's1.2percent rise for the period. With production up by 8.5 percent, China was once again the growth motor; Western Europe (up 2.9 percent) and NAFTA (up 2.3 percent) were also important sales regions for KSPG.
Assuming that the global auto market remains stable, KSPG is looking to sales of €2.5 to €2.6 billion for the current fiscal period and hence an operating result margin of 8 percent for all of 2015.
Source: KSPG
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