EQS-News: KSB reports strong second-quarter performance

KSB reports strong second-quarter performance

• Significant increase in sales revenue and EBIT compared with the first quarter of 2026
• Positive development for KSB SupremeServ
• Annual forecast confirmed

FRANKENTHAL: Despite continuing geopolitical challenges, pump and valve manufacturer KSB has reported strong performance for the second quarter of 2026. Both sales revenue and earnings before finance income / expense and income tax (EBIT) increased significantly compared with the first quarter of 2026, which included one-off income from the first-time con-solidation of KSB Pumps Arabia Ltd. The KSB SupremeServ Segment, which combines the Group’s spare parts business with its services, par-ticularly contributed to this positive performance.

In the first half of 2026, KSB increased order intake to € 1,849 million, compared with € 1,698 million in the first half of 2025. Excluding negative currency effects, order intake would have been € 44 million higher. Of the total order intake, € 836 million was generated in the second quarter of 2026. This represents a year-on-year increase of 2 %. The KSB Supreme-Serv Segment reported the strongest growth in the second quarter of 2026 where order intake rose by 9.6 % to € 272 million. While order intake in the Pumps Segment grew by 1.0 % to € 462 million year on year, the Valves Segment reported a decline of 10.9 % to € 102 million. In the Pumps Segment, which includes exclusively new pumps, the Mining Market a-chieved a 15.2 % increase in order intake during the second quarter of 2026. The Energy Market and Standard Markets reported order intake broadly in line with the same quarter of the previous year. KSB secured several significant orders in data centre cooling.

KSB increased sales revenue from € 1,465 million (2025) to € 1,471 million in the first six months. Negative currency translation effects of € 37 million impacted this figure. € 760 million of sales revenue was generated in the second quarter of 2026. This represents growth of 0.5 % year on year or 6.7 % compared with the first quarter of 2026. The Pumps Segment achieved the strongest increase in the second quarter, with growth of 1.7 % to € 410 million. While the Mining Market recorded year-on-year growth of 29.7 %, the Energy Market reported sales revenue of € 46 million and Standard Markets € 339 million, both of which were broadly in line with the same quarter of the previous year. In the Valves Segment, KSB increased sales revenue by 1.2 % to € 98 million. KSB SupremeServ reported a moderate -1.8 % year-on-year decline in sales revenue to € 252 million.

In the first half of 2026, KSB achieved EBIT of € 98.4 million (first half of 2025: € 108.0 million). Compared with EBIT of € 39.8 million in the first quarter of 2026, which included a positive one-off effect of € 16.6 million, EBIT increased to € 58.5 million in the second quarter (second quarter 2025: € 62.5 million). On an operational basis, this corresponds to an increase of approximately 150 %. The EBIT margin came to 7.7 %, com-pared with 8.3 % in the same quarter of the previous year. As in the previous year, EBIT in the second quarter of 2026 was affected by external transformation costs of € 5.9 million (second quarter 2025: € 6.0 million) associated with the transition to SAP S/4HANA. The year-on-year decline was due in large part to the Pumps Segment. This Segment generated EBIT of € 15.8 million in the second quarter of 2026, compared with € 20.4 million in the corresponding period of the previous year. The drop in earnings was primarily attributable to the performance of the Petrochem-icals / Chemicals Market. EBIT in the Valves Segment was slightly reduced by -€ 1.6 million year on year. In contrast, EBIT in the KSB SupremeServ Segment remained largely stable in the second quarter of 2026 at € 44.3 million. Compared with the first quarter of 2026, EBIT in the KSB SupremeServ Segment increased from € 31.9 million to € 44.3 mil-lion.

“The first half of 2026 was once again characterised by significant global disruption, largely resulting from the war between the United States and Iran that began in February. Around the world, this situation has led to greater reluctance to invest, rising prices and widespread logistical bottle-necks,” commented Dr Stephan Timmermann, CEO. “Given the continued weakness in the Chinese as well as European markets and the associated cost-reduction programmes implemented by a number of KSB’s key customers, I am pleased with the level of order intake achieved. As in previous years, strong production output in the second half will be critical to securing sales revenue and profitability. The international management team introduced cost measures to sustain earnings at an early stage. They will have impact in particular in the second half of the year. We remain confident of meeting the forecast for all three key indicators published at the beginning of the year.”

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.