Rába posts growing sales in H1
The company closed the first half of 2014 with consolidated, group level sales of HUF 26.9 billion, registering a 13.3 percent growth. The Components and the Vehicle Units contributed to the surge in sales figures with a marked increase of 22 and 330 percent, respectively. The EBITDA level result of Rába Group exceeded HUF 2 billion, and having continued last year’s outstanding cash-flow generation, Rába generated HUF 1.6 billion cash in the first six months of 2014, reported Rába on its website
The group declares a positive operating profit for 2014 H1, and profit for the year amounts to HUF 244 million. The two-figure increase in sales is due to a significant, 123.3 percent growth in the domestic markets. The driver behind the sales was the commenced domestic bus sales at the Vehicle Unit, together with a growth in the markets of car makers that buy the products of the Component Unit.
The performance of the Axle Unit continued to be influenced by unfavourable market trends: the considerable weakening of the ruble in the CIS countries, the low activity of the global market of agricultural equipment, and the temporary decline on the truck market, resulting from the new environmental norms introduced at the beginning of this year, reported Rába on its website.
The outstanding increase in sales revenue at the Vehicle Unit is due to the improvement in civil export sales that is one of the strategic goals of Rába, and the agreements concluded with world class, international partners. The business unit more than quadrupled its revenue compared to the base period of 2013 amounting to HUF 7.4 billion.
 |
| Rába chairman István Pintér |
The figures for EBITDA and operating profit that showed loss in last year’s base period turned into positive this year. Boosting all its results, the Components Unit reached a 22.1 percent growth thanks new contracts concluded with a view to diversification, and the operating profit rose to HUF 259 million as opposed to HUF 166 million in 2013.
Despite decreased results in the first half of 2014, the Axle Unit still generates a crucial part of the group’s revenue, together with a positive operating result and EBITDA.
Rába decreased its net loan to HUF 7.5 billion which is a considerable drop compared to the HUF 10.4 billion in H1 2013 and the HUF 8.9 billion in Q4 2013. This was reached by the company’s profitable operation and the decline in working capital by almost HUF 1.5 billion, said Rába in a statement on its website.
“Quality improvement, high level customer service, innovation and business development are the tools our company uses to counteract the uncertain market prospects. In the spirit of multifaceted operation we successfully launched the product and market diversification of the Components and Vehicle Business Units, while keeping our world class, strategic customers, the pillars of our key business unit as well.
“Rába has for a number of years been adjusting to market trends with flexible operation, thus we hope that we are on the right track to achieve our goals for this year.” – said István Pintér, chairman-CEO of Rába Automotive Holding Plc.
