The commercial vehicle and engineering company MAN has made a successful start to 2017, benefiting in particular from its strong position on the continuously growing European market for commercial vehicles. The order intake reported by the MAN Group for the first 6 months amounted to €8.1 billion, with sales revenue reaching €6.9 billion. The operating return on sales generated by the MAN Group rose to 4.0% during the first half of 2017 – after 3.7% over the same period last year.
During the first 6 months, the MAN Group´s operating profit reached €273 million (€236 million). "As the largest company in the MAN Group, MAN Truck & Bus has made a substantial contribution to this result," says Joachim Drees, Chief Executive Officer of MAN SE. Order intake and sales revenue at MAN Truck & Bus rose to €5,733 million and €4,784 million respectively during the first half of 2017. At the same time, both order intake and sales showed a positive performance in unit terms. Reaching €269 million, operating profit for the first 6 months was in line with last year´s figure and represents an operating return on sales of 5.6%.
MAN Latin America sold 11,750 vehicles during the first half of 2017, an increase of 16%. Sales revenue rose to €552 million. In the sector of newly-registered trucks over 5 t, the company gained a market share of 26.1%. MAN boss Drees, "The situation is improving again at MAN Latin America. This is mainly due to a significant rise in the volume of exports to other South American countries, as well as a renewed upturn in sales in Brazil. Basically, we are confident that the Brazilian market offers potential and are well positioned for the future."
In the Power Engineering business area, the marine and turbomachinery markets remained at a low, but stable level, while the market for energy generation showed a slight revival compared with 2016.
Overall, MAN Diesel & Turbo was able to report a marked increase in its order intake. Notably in the Power Plants business area, orders rose significantly. For the first half of 2017, MAN Diesel & Turbo reported an operating profit of €43 million, equivalent to an operating return on sales of 3.2%. The downturn in profits compared with the previous year was due largely to a reduction in sales volumes, significant pressure on margins in the case of new construction business and lower capacity utilization.
Over the period under review, Renk reported an order intake of €221 million and sales revenue of €224 million. As a result, the company generated an operating profit of €30 million, the operating return on sales reaching 13.3%.
In total, the MAN Group recorded profit before tax of €245 million for the first 6 months of 2017. Profit after tax amounted to €140 million, after €16 million in 2016.
The MAN SE Executive Board is expecting sales revenue to slightly exceed the previous year's level in 2017. The operating profit and operating return on sales generated by the MAN Group will be significantly higher than in 2016, and will also noticeably exceed the 2016 figures before special items.