The Board of Directors of Rieter Holding AG has appointed Carsten Liske as Head of the Business Group Machines & Systems effective January 1, 2019.
Carsten Liske has been with Rieter since 2009. In January 2015, he had been appointed to the Group Executive Committee as head of the newly formed Business Group After Sales. He has successfully built up the business group and with this contributed significantly to the development of the Rieter Group. Before, he was in charge of Global Operations and the subsidiary in China at Rieter’s Business Group Machines & Systems.
Carsten Liske will take over from Chief Executive Officer Norbert Klapper who holds this position since October 1, 2018 on an interim basis.
Outlook for 2018
As announced in July of this year, for 2018 as a whole Rieter anticipates that sales will be above the 2017 figure and EBIT (before restructuring costs) will be below the prior year level. Net profit is expected to be significantly higher than in the previous year, as no extraordinary restructuring charges are anticipated in 2018.
The situation Rieter’s customers are facing in some markets (rising interest rates, strong currency and/or commodity price volatility and political uncertainty) – as outlined in July 2018 – remains unchanged. Rieter believes that these challenges will continue to impact demand.
Q3 performance
In the Business Group Machines & Systems, order intake fell to CHF 433.4 million, a reduction of 12% compared to the first nine months of the previous year (2017: CHF 490.1 million).
In the third quarter of 2018, Machines & Systems received orders worth CHF 135.7 million (Q3 2017: CHF 164.9 million). In the Asian countries (excluding China, India and Turkey), especially in Vietnam, order intake increased compared to the third quarter of 2017. In China, development was stable. For Indian customers, increasing challenges in financing of orders led to a weakening of demand in the third quarter. In Turkey, demand was very low.
The Business Group After Sales recorded a decline in order intake compared to the first nine months of the previous year, from CHF 115.8 million to CHF 111.3 million (-4%).
Order volumes in the third quarter of 2018, which totaled CHF 36.3 million, were lower than in the prior year period (Q3 2017: CHF 38.0 million). The spare parts business developed positively. However, the lower volume in the machinery business led to a decline in installation services. In the third quarter of 2018, After Sales also recorded a significant decline in order intake from Turkey compared to the previous year.
The Business Group Components – including the acquisition of SSM Textile Machinery – increased order intake to CHF 205.1 million (2017: CHF 159.1 million), a growth of 29%.
In the third quarter of 2018, order intake was CHF 66.0 million (Q3 2017: CHF 66.8 million). For Components, compared to the prior year period order intake in the key markets of China, India and the Asian countries (excluding China, India and Turkey) was generally stable in the third quarter of 2018.