Vitesco Technologies says it fully met its forecast for 2021 for all key financial figures.
Vitesco said it performed well in 2021 despite a continued challenging market environment. Vehicle production stagnated in North America; Europe recorded a decline. Production volumes in China recovered and even grew slightly. In the past financial year, ongoing supply bottlenecks and semiconductor shortages weighed on global market growth for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
Vitesco Technologies raised its group sales organically by 4.1 percent to € 8.3 billion in fiscal year 2021 (2020: € 8.0 billion). With an increase of 44.6 percent, business unit Electrification Technology recorded the strongest organic growth of all units. The adjusted EBIT-margin of business unit Electrification Technology improved by around 39 percentage points. Electrification products accounted for € 888 million of sales.
“Our order intake clearly shows that we place our electrification products in all key markets worldwide. The billion-euro order for 800-volt-inverters with silicon carbide technology from an American car manufacturer recently communicated proves this development,” says Andreas Wolf, CEO of Vitesco Technologies. “Today, we are proud to announce another major order worth around 2 billion euros for our latest electric drive system.”
Adjusted EBIT amounted to € 148.6 million in FY 2021 (2020: € -94.5 million). The adjusted EBIT margin at 1.8 percent (2020: -1.2 percent) was slightly above the announced target range of 1.5 percent to 1.7 percent. Operating profit (EBIT) climbed to € 39.5 million (2020: € -324 million).
Vitesco Technologies recorded a total order intake of € 11.2 billion in the fiscal year 2021, with electrification products contributing € 5.1 billion. The volume of new orders booked was over € 4.8 billion in the fourth quarter alone. Electrification products accounted for more than half of this volume; order intake amounted to € 2.5 billion, of which € 2.0 billion were attributable to business unit Electrification Technology.
Vitesco Technologies was able to further expand its electrification business in the past year. Order intake for high-voltage inverters amounted to more than € 2.5 billion. Incoming orders for electric axle drives worth € 1.1 billion also contribute to the successful implementation of the company’s e-mobility strategy. Overall, Vitesco Technologies has an order backlog of more than € 51 billion, 33 percent of which is in the electrification area.
In terms of outlook for 2022, Vitesco said normalization of semiconductor supply expected, but that the consequences of the Russian war in Ukraine are ‘not yet assessable’.
“For the time being, we expect a moderate recovery in production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in our core markets and globally in 2022,” says Andreas Wolf, CEO of Vitesco Technologies. “We are ideally positioned to participate in this positive trend and to achieve our growth targets. However, the impact of the Russian war in Ukraine on global economic development in the current year cannot yet be conclusively assessed. We are following the events very closely and are constantly evaluating possible implications on our business activities.”
On semiconductor supply shortages, the company said it expects a slow normalization of the supply situation in the second half of 2022 with noticeable effects in the fourth quarter.