Sales during the reporting period (February 1 to July 31, 2012) totaled €319.9 million, an increase of 13.7%, or €38.6 million, over the same period the previous year (€281.3 million). Miba says that about half of this growth (seven percentage points) is organic, with the acquisitions that took place in the prior year contributed four percentage points to the total increase in sales and two percentage points were related to positive effects of currency translation. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) equal to €36.6 million (previous year: €28.5 million) improved by 28.3%.
Miba Sinter Group accounted for 34.4% of group sales, followed by Miba Bearing Group at 32.8%, Miba Friction Group at 23.0% and New Technologies Group at 7.6%.
At €110.2 million, sales of Miba Sinter Group during the reporting period were €6.5 million or 6.2% higher than last year’s figure of €103.7 million. Investments in this division were kept at a consistently high level in the first six months in the amount of €12.1 million. Of this figure, €5.1 million went to increasing production capacities at the Austrian sites, and €3.5 million were invested in increasing production capacities and expanding the production area at the Slovakian plan.
The outlook for Miba in the second half-year is, however, restrained and characterised by uncertainty in several markets. Nonetheless, Miba anticipates a moderate pace of growth for the year as a whole. The group benefits from its global network, which can compensate for the decline in sales declines in Europe through growth in other geographic regions. Moreover, fluctuations that vary by industry may be offset by Miba’s broad product portfolio, which can account for the business cycles of various industries.
