In the current business year, non-recurring effects in an amount of EUR 360 million will negatively influence the result of voestalpine AG. This charge essentially contains write-offs due to impairment of assets and is the result of the analysis of possible effects of the changed global economic conditions on the main business segments of voestalpine, announced in the last outlook.
All non-recurring effects reduce EBIT, but EUR 80 million affect EBITDA as well. From today’s perspective, the Management Board therefor expects EBIT for the current business year 2019/20 to be just positive and operating profit (EBITDA) to be in a range of around EUR 1.2 billion.
In view of this earnings expectation, the management board will propose to the supervisory board to submit a resolution to the Annual General Meeting to lower the dividend for the business year 2019/20 in comparison to the last business year. The proposal will take the dividend yield as well as the payout ratio into account.
In its business segments, voestalpine is a globally leading technology group with a unique combination of materials and processing expertise. voestalpine, which operates globally, has around 500 Group companies and locations in more than 50 countries on all five continents. It has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1995. With its top-quality products and system solutions using steel and other metals, it is a leading partner of the automotive and consumer goods industries as well as of the aerospace and oil & gas industries. voestalpine is also the world market leader in complete railway systems as well as in tool steel and special sections. In the business year 2018/19, the Group generated revenue of EUR 13.6 billion, with an operating result (EBITDA) of EUR 1.6 billion; it had just under 52,000 employees worldwide.