Another demanding business year is behind the Geberit Group. Despite challenging conditions in the building construction industry in Europe, sales and sales volumes increased significantly. In this regard, the development of newly introduced products and broad-based growth in the markets were very pleasing. Operating margins were only slightly below the previous year’s level. Without the one-off costs resulting from a plant closure, operating margins would have increased, thanks in part to efficiency improvements. At the same time, investments continued in the innovation pipeline and all important, larger investment projects were carried out as planned. This enabled the company to further expand and strengthen our market position as leading supplier of sanitary products. Net sales increased by 2.5% to CHF 3,163 million. Adjusted for negative currency effects of CHF 72 million, the increase came to 4.8%. In total, operating cashflow (EBITDA) amounted to CHF 931 million, corresponding to an increase of 2.0%; after currency adjustments, an increase of 5.3% was achieved. As a result of the aforementioned one-off costs, the EBITDA margin was slightly below the previous year’s level of 29.6% at 29.4%. Net income reached the prior-year level at CHF 598 million (+0.1%), corresponding to a return on net sales of 18.9%. If the one-off costs were excluded, net income would amount to CHF 617 million, with a return on net sales of 19.5%. Compared to the developments recorded in net income, earnings per share recorded a more positive development of +0.5% to CHF 18.15 due to the positive effects of the share buyback programme. Free cashflow developed positively, with an increase of 7.4% to CHF 659 million.

Read more on: www.geberit.com/mediarelease. Please visit our website www.geberit.com for additional information. The online version of the complete annual report is available on www.geberit.com/annualreport.

Don't hesitate to contact us for any other inquiries.