The Sulzer industrial group received significantly more orders in 2022 than a year earlier. Sales, on the other hand, hardly increased at all due to various braking factors.
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the essentials in brief
- Sulzer received more orders in 2022. Sales, on the other hand, hardly increased.
- Due to a write-off on the business in Russia, profit fell sharply.
The Sulzer industrial group received significantly more orders in 2022 than a year earlier. Sales, on the other hand, hardly increased at all due to various braking factors. Due to a write-down on the business in Russia and Poland, profit fell sharply.
For once, Sulzer’s figures can only be compared with the previous year to a limited extent. In addition to the abandonment of the business in Russia and Ukraine and the closure of the business in Poland, the spin-off of Medmix in autumn 2021 added a distorting effect. The figures therefore relate to continuing operations.
The order intake increased by 9.1 percent to 3.43 billion francs, as the company announced on Monday. Sales increased only slightly by 1.8 percent to 3.18 billion, but exceeded the October forecast of stable sales.
In view of the ongoing restrictions in the supply chain and numerous corona-related temporary plant closures in China, this is a solid result, according to Sulzer.
The Flow Equipment (+8.9%) and Chemtech (+22.5%) divisions in particular increased their order intake significantly, while the service business (+1.6%) grew slightly.
CEO happy
Suzanne Thoma, President of the Board of Directors and CEO since October, is satisfied with what has been achieved: “This solid result underlines our resilience in a market environment characterized by geopolitical tensions and uncertainties,” she said in the press release.
A differentiated picture emerges when it comes to profit. Operating profit (EBITA) increased by 8.6 percent to 317.6 million Swiss francs and the corresponding margin by 70 basis points to 10.0 percent. The net profit, on the other hand, collapsed by around 80 percent to 28.0 million percent due to the above-mentioned write-off. Excluding these one-time items, net income was $213.1 million, up 15 percent year-on-year.
The dividend should nevertheless be kept stable at CHF 3.50. Sulzer sees this as “proof of our confidence in future performance”. With the figures, Sulzer did not meet the expectations of the analysts only at the level of net income.
For the 2023 fiscal year, Sulzer expects a currency-adjusted, organic increase in order intake of between 3 and 6 percent and sales of 7 to 9 percent and an EBITA margin of more than 10 percent. Since the negative one-off effects on net income will no longer apply, net income should also be significantly higher.
