Germany's Exyte, the design, engineering and construction company, has released results for the 2019 financial year, covering the first three quarters from January to September. The report shows sales and profitability growth improved significantly compared with Q3 2018, thereby continuing the positive trend from the first half of the year.
Exyte said it expects record sales of around €4 billion (US$4.4bn) in the financial year 2019 (2018: €3.5bn).
In a statement, the company said it generated €2.7bn ($2.9bn) in sales in the first nine months of 2019 while adjusted EBIT of €148 million ($163m).
Sales were 6.5% higher than in the first nine months of the financial year 2018, and adjusted EBIT improved by 33.3%. The adjusted EBIT margin increased to 5.4% (9M 2018: 4.3%).
“We have carried on the momentum from the positive first half of the year and are delighted with the successful business development in the third quarter,” Dr Wolfgang Büchele, Exyte CEO, commented. “We are certain that the financial year 2019 is set to be an excellent year for our company. All of our expectations have been met.”
In all, Exyte recorded order intake of €3.6 billion ($3.9m) in the first nine months of this financial year, an increase of 4% year on year.
Order book
The order intake in Q3 alone totalled €1.2bn ($1.3bn), more than double the trade in the same period a year ago. As of 30 September 2019, Exyte’s order book was solid, with an order backlog totalling €3.8bn ($4.2bn)
Projects in the order book included a data centre in Denmark, and semiconductor projects in Ireland, Israel and Austria, to name a few.
Exyte said it recorded considerable growth and was able to continue to grow in its largest business segment, advanced technology facilities (ATF), in the third quarter as well.
At €2.2bn,($2.4bn) Exyte increased sales in this business segment by 12.1% year on year in the first nine months of the current financial year, primarily driven by projects in Singapore, Ireland, the US, Austria and Malaysia.
At the same time, sales in the data centre market increased from €136m ($149m) in the previous-year period to €197m ($216m) in the first nine months of the financial year 2019, up 44.9%.
Sales in the Life Sciences & Chemicals (LSC) business segment remained virtually unchanged year on year at €240m ($264m).
Market demand
With sales of €1.3bn ($1.3bn), the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region continues to be Exyte’s largest regional market, although the figure was marginally below the level of the previous year (9M 2018: €1.4 billion).
In the EMEA region, Exyte generated sales of €944m ($1,039m) in the current period, which is a year-on-year increase of 43.2%.
Sales in the Americas region was slightly down on the previous year at €402m ($442m). Based on the order intake, the company expects a positive development in this market as well in the future.
Dr Büchele explained: “Last year saw us receive an extraordinary project in the APAC region, which was expectedly not repeated in 2019. Nevertheless, we were able to more than compensate for this with an increase in orders in the other two regions”.
For the Exyte CEO, the company will be able to continue this positive trend in 2020 as well and grow further. "We will continue to build on our strong market position and our innovative solutions, which are highly appreciated by our customers,” Dr Büchele said.
Exyte has confirmed its sales forecast for this financial year of around €4bn ($4.4bn). At the same time, the company said it expects order intake to stay at the level of the previous year (2018: €4.4bn/$4.8bn).
The company believes it can continue to grow in the financial year 2020 and aims for sales of €5bn in the medium term.
