Solid foundations for a sustainably successful future

ZF Friedrichshafen AG expects overall revenue growth of 7 percent over the medium term, which would be above-average for the market as a whole.

According to the company, its sales revenue will be between 35 billion euros ($39.45 billion) and 36 billion euros in 2016.

The adjusted earnings before interest and taxes margin for 2016 is expected to be between 5 and 6 percent. The anticipated adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin will be over 10 percent.

ZF said that the markets for passenger cars as well as for light and heavy commercial vehicles will show solid overall development this year.

At the same time, ZF expects its Industrial Technology Division to see substantial sales growth in 2016.

"In 2015, we performed successfully and once again did better than in the previous year," said Stefan Sommer, CEO of ZF. "To ensure that we are also well placed for the future, we need to do our homework in 2016 and improve our results. This applies in particular to the German locations, which we need to make even more competitive."

The company reported sales revenue of 29.2 billion euros in 2015, including 8.9 billion euros contributed by the newly acquired TRW. Organic sales growth was 5 percent in 2015.

The acquisition of TRW, one of the leading auto safety parts suppliers, was completed on May 15 last year. TRW was integrated into ZF as the newly established Active and Passive Safety Technology Division. The combined company has a global workforce of around 138,300 at about 230 locations in some 40 countries.

"2015 was an outstanding year for our company: We celebrated our centenary and successfully completed the largest and most important acquisition in the company's history," said Sommer.

"I am proud to say that, in the past financial year, we laid the foundations for a sustainably successful future at ZF. We are networking mechanical components intelligently with control units and sensors. This way, we will be able to help shape the megatrends of safety, efficiency and autonomous driving even more effectively."

Sommer said ZF TRW already presented initial successes from the comprehensive, multiyear integration process.

"Innovations such as the IAA show car and a prototype of a volume production model, which was recently unveiled in Sweden, demonstrate the value added that the combined companies offer in terms of products and technologies. With our new structure we are perfectly placed to become a truly global integrated systems supplier," said Sommer.

"We will also continue to systematically drive forward the integration of ZF TRW in 2016. We will be focusing on developing innovative products, which enable us to fully leverage our unrivaled expertise in the area of smart mechanical systems."

(China Daily 04/27/2016 page24)