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| GEA Group reports strong earnings growth German engineering company GEA Group generated earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of EUR 422.2 million in 2007. This represents a 41.6 per cent, or EUR 124 million, improvement on the previous year (2006: EUR 298.2 million). All segments contributed to this growth. The EBIT margin was boosted by 126 basis points. GEA Group reported 16.4 per cent growth in new orders to EUR 5,794.4 million (2006: EUR 4, 977.9 million). GEA is benefiting from its increasingly global presence in dynamic growth markets such as Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America. Sales were increased to significantly above EUR 5 billion in 2007. This growth to EUR 5,198.6 million (2006: EUR 4,346.2 million) represents an improvement of 19.6 per cent compared with the previous year. The order book rose by almost 30 per cent year-on-year. Earnings after tax on continued operations amounted to EUR 254.4 million. The GEA Group invested 2.7 per cent of its sales (EUR 139.4 million, 2006: EUR 100.0 million) in property, plant, and equipment, and intangible assets. In addition, companies with annual sales approaching EUR 200 million were acquired for a total enterprise value of around EUR 120 million. The Executive Board anticipates a further rise in new orders of between 5 and 10 per cent for 2008. The company assumes a sales growth of around 10 per cent, due to the high level of the order book. Growth in the first two months of 2008 confirms this expectation. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |