The fire department equipment supplier Rosenbauer reported an interim success in overcoming its economic problems. The operating result before taxes and interest increased from minus ten million euros to plus 37.5 million euros in 2023. At the end of the year there was a mini profit of 1.2 million euros – following a loss of 22 million euros.
But the fact that there is still a lot to do is clear from the significant deterioration in cash flow: the company spent 83 million euros more than it earned last year. CEO Sebastian Wolf argues this on the one hand by looking at the deadline: a number of vehicles were delivered in December but were no longer paid for.
On the other hand, Rosenbauer is still struggling with lead times that are too long: it takes 16 months in Europe from receipt of an order to payment by the customer, and even 22 months in the USA. Both deadlines should be shortened by six months each, says Wolf in the OÖN interview. Wolf explains why it takes even longer in the American factories to finish a vehicle with the individually manufactured chassis. The production renovator Thomas Biringer will optimize this process and implement “efficiency and result improvements”. This should raise the results from the current profit margin of 3.5 percent to five percent this year.
The order intake shows that the general prospects are good: Although prices were increased by nine percent in 2022 (which corresponds to the increase in sales in 2023), higher prices were achieved once more last year, says Wolf. New orders amount to 1.4 billion euros, an increase of 20 percent. This puts the order backlog at 1.8 billion euros – with annual sales of over one billion euros.
Thin equity ceiling
But first the financial basis needs to be improved. The equity ratio fell to 15.7 percent. As reported, this has also led to changed, i.e. more expensive, financing conditions. Regarding the announced capital increase, which is intended to bring in fresh money, Wolf only says that various options are still being examined. There would be proposed resolutions at the general meeting on May 14th. Of the 6.8 million shares, 3.4 million are to be issued.
The family, as the previous majority shareholder, will not go along and will therefore fall below 50 percent.
Author
Sigrid Brandstätter
deputy head of the economics department
Sigrid Brandstätter
