Group sales increase, earnings fall by -90% compared with 2022

SURTECO GROUP SE, holding company for what it describes as leading national and international surface technology brands, increased sales in the first three quarters of 2023 by seven percent year-on-year to 637.3 million euros as a result of the acquisition of the Omnova business units in March 2023. While the cost of materials ratio improved to 50.7 percent in this period (previous year: 51.6 %), the personnel expense ratio rose to 26.5 percent (previous year: 22.7 %) due to provisions for personnel measures. Weak demand across all segments, non-recurring costs in connection with the Omnova acquisition, provisions for personnel measures and the purchase price allocation (PPA) impacted earnings overall. At 4.1 million euros, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were down -90 percent on the previous year’s figure of 41.1 million euros. Adjusted for all special charges, EBIT adjusted was 27.6 million euros.

Against the backdrop of the persistently difficult underlying conditions and the special charges, EBIT is now expected to be in the range of 5 to 15 million euros in fiscal 2023. EBIT adjusted (adjusted for special charges) is expected to be in the range of 35 to 45 million euros. Group sales will also be significantly below the original forecast of 920 to 950 million euros.

“Unfortunately, the underlying conditions deteriorated again in the third quarter. This made the consistent implementation of our program to improve earnings all the more important. This will lead to provisions in the current business year, but will help us to achieve our growth targets in the future,” commented Wolfgang Moyses, Chairman of the Board of Management of SURTECO GROUP SE.

The report on the first three quarters of 2023 and further information on SURTECO GROUP SE are available on the Internet at www.surteco.com.