KSB: Subdued quarter amid challenging environment

• Strong order intake following major energy order
• Sales revenue at prior-year level
• EBIT below previous year

FRANKENTHAL: Pump and valve manufacturer KSB significantly increased order intake in the first quarter of 2026 following a major order in the Energy Market. Geopolitical turbulences in the first quarter impacted both sales revenue and earnings before finance income / expense and tax (EBIT).

In the first quarter of the 2026 financial year, KSB reported order intake of € 1,012 million, up by 15.2 % year on year. The Pumps Segment achieved the strongest increase of 31 % to € 633 million. While order intake in the Valves Segment grew by 0.2 % to € 112 million, the KSB SupremeServ Segment reported a decline of 5.6 % to € 268 million. In the Pumps Segment, order intake in the Energy Market increased by 359 % to € 257 million, driven in particular by a major order for a power plant in Eastern Europe. By contrast, order intake in the Standard Markets saw a year-on-year decline of € 45 million (11 %) to € 354 million. The Mining Market reported a 22 % decline in order intake to € 22 million in the first quarter of 2026.

KSB slightly increased sales revenue by 0.4 % to € 712 million in the first three months. The Pumps Segment achieved the strongest increase, with growth of 16.4 % to € 390 million. In the Valves Segment, sales revenue declined by 5.9 % to € 97 million. KSB SupremeServ reported a moderate 3.2 % year-on-year decline in sales revenue to € 225 million, which was exclusively attributable to negative currency effects of € 8 million. In the Pumps Segment, Standard Markets reported above-average growth of 7.9 % to € 321 million, while sales revenue in the Energy Market declined slightly year on year to € 48 million. The Mining Market, on the other hand, reported a € 6 million decline in sales revenue to € 21 million.

In the first quarter of 2026, KSB achieved EBIT of € 39.8 million (previous year: € 45.5 million) and an EBIT margin of 5.6 %. As in the previous year, EBIT was impacted by external costs for the migration to SAP S/4HANA, which amounted to € 6.4 million compared with € 7.5 million in the first quarter of 2025). The Pumps Segment achieved EBIT of € 8.0 million (previous year: € 6.9 million), which was attributable to an increase in earnings in the Standard Markets. EBIT in the Valves Segment of € -0.1 million were practically unchanged from the previous year, but declined by € 6.9 million in the KSB SupremeServ Segment to € 31.9 million.

Dr Stephan Timmermann, CEO, commented: “The global economic headwinds seen in 2025 have now been intensified by the conflict in Iran and its broad economic repercussions. Overall, the environment in which we find ourselves remains very challenging and requires us to maintain a prudent, focused and agile approach to the near-term management of KSB. To this end, we continue to focus on our strengths. Our proven track record and resilience following the pandemic give us full confidence that we are on course to meet this year’s forecast, despite the challenging environment.”

KSB is a leading international manufacturer of pumps and valves. The Frankenthal-based Group has a presence on five continents with its own sales and marketing organisations, manufacturing facilities and service operations. With a workforce of around 16,800, the KSB Group generated sales revenue of approximately € 3 billion in the 2025 financial year.