ABB published its business figures for the fourth quarter and full year 2015 at the beginning of February. The figures were down, mainly due to the Industrial Automation and Drives and Process Automation divisions.
© ABB
Order intake was 1% lower than in the previous year on a like-for-like basis for the year as a whole and therefore fell slightly (down 12% in US dollars). The order backlog amounted to USD 24.121 billion at the end of December 2015, an increase of 5 % compared to the end of 2014 (decrease of 3 % in US dollars). According to ABB, the consistent implementation of the Next Level strategy has led to an improvement in the operating EBITA margin of 60 basis points to 11.8%. According to the company, the most important factors for the Group's higher profitability were the successful turnaround of the Power Engineering Systems division and the continued cost reduction and productivity measures. Group profit fell by 25 % compared to the previous year. According to ABB, this was due to restructuring costs and related expenses of USD 626 million in connection with capacity adjustments and measures to increase employee productivity. Sales, on the other hand, remained stable on a currency-adjusted basis, ...
