- Cooling down of the global economy throughout the entire business year 2012/13; move toward stabilization in the second half of the year lacked sufficient momentum to reverse the trend.
- Regionally varied development with upward trends in the USA and, more recently, in Brazil, as opposed to dwindling momentum in Asia (especially China); in Europe, continuing recessive trends due to the crisis in Southern Europe and broad-based national austerity measures.
- Group undertakes its largest ever foreign investment—construction of a direct reduction plant in Texas.
- With its largely stable earnings performance in a difficult environment, the Steel Division is a benchmark in the EU steel industry.
- Despite a moderate decline in operating result, the Special Steel and Metal Forming Divisions continue to enjoy solid profitability.
- Due to its broad-based positioning and a high degree of specialization, the Metal Engineering Division demonstrated outstanding performance.
- Compared to previous year, Group revenue drops by 4.4% from EUR 12.1 billion to EUR 11.5 billion, primarily due to lower raw materials prices.
- All reporting categories improve significantly compared to the previous year, which was adversely affected by non-recurring provisions in the amount of EUR 205.0 million.
- After EUR 1,301.9 million in the previous year, operating result (EBITDA) rose by 10.7% to EUR 1,441.8 million; at EUR 853.6 million, profit from operations (EBIT) increased compared to 2011/12 (EUR 704.2 million) by 21.2%.
- Despite investment expenditures that had grown by 48.2%, improvement of free cash flow by 50.5% from EUR 337.8 million to EUR 508.3 million.
- Structure of statement of financial position substantially enhanced: equity over EUR 5 billion for the first time, net financial debt reduced to EUR 2.26 billion, gearing ratio (net financial debt in percent of equity) as of March 31, 2013 lowered to 44.5% (previous year: 53.5%).
- Dividend proposed to the Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting: EUR 0.90 per share (after EUR 0.80 per share in the previous year)—dividend yield increased from 2.9% to 3.8%.
- At 46,351, number of employees (FTE/full-time equivalent) as of March 31, 2013 remains practically constant (previous year: 46,473).
