By Redação AutoIndústria | 3/17/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
ZF had last year revenues of 8.8 billion euros, a 14% growth over 2021, when ot amounted to 38.3 billion euros. Adjusted EBIT surpassed 2 billion euro with a 4.7% marfin, compared to 1.9 billion euro and 5% in the previous year.
According ot the company, sales expansion were above the vehicle market’s, but results need to improve. “Better profitability and a larger cashflow are important conditions for us to remain strong in Research and Development and reduce our financial debt. We are working both topics intenselly”, said in a note M], ZF’s CFO.
In 2022, ZF made a record € 3.4 billion investment in R&D. Free cashflow for fusions and purchases was € 544 million, compared to € 991 million in 2021. The company closed the fiscal year with a € 10.4 billion net debt, compared to € 10.1 billion in 2021.
“Despite making progress with our strategy in 2022, we can’t be happy with this financial result’, said ZF’s CEO Holger Klein. “Our most important task is to concentrate, promote changes and gain speed. We launched an inclusive performace program to accelerate processes, simplify decision taking and keep the cost discipline.
Based on the ‘Next Generation Mobility’ stragey, ZF plans to unite the Cars Chassis Technology and Active Safety Systems divisions in a new unit that will include chassis, steering and brakes technologies.
Some areas also shound act independently to grow faster, as the Passive Safety Systems division and the conventional automobile axles and autonomous bus businesses. “We are looking for external investors as partners in attractive areas with a very good growing potential and high investment requirement”, said the CEO.
For 2023, ZF works with a lower sales perspective of about € 45 billion and an adjusted EBIT margin from 4.7% to 5.7%. The company expects one more challenging period considering the continuous reduction of vehicle production oin the last few years and the global uncertainty due to global economical and geopolitical scenarios.
