Annual General Meeting of KSB AG
For shareholders at the AGM of KSB on 1 June in Frankenthal, the Chairman of the Board of Management, Josef Gerstner, had news of a good start to the business year:
Order intake in the Group increased by 16.7 percent during the first four months of 2005 (KSB AG +9.2%), and the sales revenue too showed strong growth of +11.3 percent (KSB AG +3.9%). Particularly outstanding is the continued rate of growth in the Asia / Pacific companies with a 55 percent increase in orders.
However, the Chairman added, the "dynamic growth revealed by these figures has to be seen in perspective". The Group's strong order growth, he pointed out, is also associated with a number of major orders. This cannot be expected on the same scale in the months to come. Nevertheless, against the background of the sales revenue development and the structural measures initiated for 2005, KSB assumes there will be a marked improvement in earnings.
In the business year just past, with a sales revenue of € 1,266.8 million, KSB achieved earnings before taxes of € 22.1 million (previous year € 29.8 million). Costs of € 22.8 million for measures relating to the "Structural Programme 2006" had a negative impact on earnings. These measures are aimed at increasing the profitability and competitiveness of the company in the coming year. Without these special charges, said Chairman Josef Gerstner, KSB would have been able to report one of its best years in terms of earnings.
Since these special charges impacted KSB AG in particular, the parent company reported a loss of € 13.8 million in 2004. Against the background of this earnings situation, the AGM had to vote on a dividend proposal which recommended a dividend payment of € 1.03 per share for preference shares (previous year € 3.02 per share) and no dividend for ordinary shares (previous year € 2.50 per share).
The AGM was chaired for the first time by Peter Schubert as new Chairman of the KSB Supervisory Board.
Source: KSB SE & Co. KGaA
