Due to the great geopolitical and economic uncertainty, it is currently not possible to make a well-founded forecast for the 2022 financial year, Schaeffler announced in connection with the announcement of the 2021 annual financial statements. It is not possible to estimate what impact the war will have on supply chains, especially on the customer side, global automotive and industrial production, freight rates, raw material and energy prices, inflation and global economic development.

Although the management of the automotive supplier and industrial group had adopted an outlook for 2022 when preparing the annual financial statements, this could not be maintained due to events. CEO Klaus Rosenfeld: "Due to the dramatic developments in connection with Ukraine and the resulting increasing uncertainties and upheavals, we have decided to suspend our forecast, which was approved internally by the Executive Board on February 22, 2022 before the invasion. Our diversified positioning with three divisions and four regions, the quality of our operating business and our solid finances will help us to get through the current crisis. The strategic initiatives and priorities defined in our Roadmap 2025 remain valid. This applies in particular to the topic of sustainability."

Result for the 2021 financial year - Industrial division grows

Schaeffler reported significant growth in revenue and earnings for the past year. Revenue rose from around 12.6 to approximately 13.9 billion euros. This corresponds to a currency-adjusted increase of 9.7%. According to the information provided, consolidated net profit amounted to 756 million euros after a loss of 428 million euros in the previous year. Schaeffler therefore intends to pay shareholders a dividend of 50 cents per share, twice as high as in the previous year.

The Industrial division continued its course of profitable growth in the past financial year and generated revenue of 3.568 billion euros (2020: 3.132 billion euros); this corresponds to an increase of 13.6% excluding the impact of currency translation. However, the sector clusters developed differently: particularly strong growth was achieved in the Industrial Automation, Power Transmission and Offroad clusters as well as in the trading business (Industrial Distribution).

In the Europe region, currency-adjusted sales rose by 12.3%, with the Industrial Automation, Power Transmission and Industrial Distribution sector clusters recording significant growth rates in the second half of the year in particular. Growth in the Americas region of 13.8% on a currency-adjusted basis was mainly attributable to Industrial Distribution. In the Greater China region, sales rose by 14.5% on a currency-adjusted basis, although the expiry of subsidies had the expected impact on demand in the wind sector cluster. In the Asia/Pacific region, sales were up 18.3% on the previous year after adjusting for currency effects. The increase was largely due to the rise in volume in the wind sector cluster in India.

EBIT before special items rose by 54.4% to € 426 million (2020: € 276 million). The EBIT margin before special items improved to 12.0% (2020: 8.8%).

(With documents from dpa)