KSB continues the positive trend of the previous year in the first quarter of 2024

FRANKENTHAL: The Frankenthal-based pump and valve manufacturer KSB is continuing the positive development of the 2023 financial year in the first quarter of 2024. The key performance indicators order intake, sales revenue, earnings before finance income / expense and income tax (EBIT) and EBIT margin are all up on the comparative prior-year quarter.

In the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, KSB increased its order intake by 0.4 % to € 863 million. The strongest increase of 8.0 % to € 283 million was achieved by the KSB SupremeServ Segment. The Valves Segment improved its order intake by 6.0 % to € 127 million. This growth contrasted with a drop in orders in the Pumps Segment of – 5.1 % to € 453 million. Owing to some larger individual orders in the first three months of 2024, the Energy Market Area recorded an increase in orders of 59.4 % (+ € 32 million). The Mining Market Area continued its strong performance, despite a lower order intake (– 56.2 % / – € 27 million) in the current quarter, which compares with major orders booked in the same prior-year period. In the Standard Markets, KSB is expecting a positive trend for this financial year – even though the order intake is lower at € 346 million (previous year: € 376 million), which is attributable to having received more major orders in the Water Market Area in the comparative prior-year period.    

KSB increased its sales revenue by 3.8 % to € 693 million in the first three months. With growth of 8.5 % to € 94 million, the Valves Segment achieved the strongest increase. In the KSB SupremeServ Segment, the company grew its sales revenue to € 232 million (+ 5.4 %), while the Pumps Segment recorded a sales increase of 1.6 % to € 367 million.

KSB increased its EBIT in the first quarter by 7.1 % to € 48.4 million (previous year: € 45.2 million). This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 7.0 % compared with 6.8 % in the same prior-year period. While KSB SupremeServ increased its EBIT by 7.7 % (€ 43.1 million), the Valves Segment improved its EBIT to an almost break-even level (€ – 0.1 million) compared with the previous year. With an EBIT of € 5.4 million, the Pumps Segment was not quite able to match its previous year’s figure of € 8.3 million.

Dr Stephan Timmermann, Chairman of the Board, explained: “As regards the economic situation, the overall picture is characterised by global political unrest, continued weak demand in Europe and the slowing economy in China. As a result, the tailwind that we were hoping for from an economic recovery failed to materialise in the first quarter of 2024. We are therefore even more pleased that we succeeded in further improving the Group’s performance thanks to our broad product range and our global positioning.”

KSB has confirmed the forecast published at the beginning of the year for the 2024 financial year.

KSB is a leading international manufacturer of pumps and valves. The Frankenthal-based Group has a presence on five continents with its own sales and marketing organisations, manufacturing facilities and service operations. With a workforce of around 16,000, the KSB Group generated sales revenue of approximately € 2.8 billion in 2023.

Press release: KSB continues the positive trend of the previous year in the first quarter of 2024