EQS-News: JOST slightly increases earnings after taxes in financial year 2024 and proposes a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share

JOST slightly increases earnings after taxes in financial year 2024 and proposes a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share

• JOST confirms preliminary results: Forecast for the 2024 financial year achieved
• Sales development in line with expectations: Sales of EUR 1,069 million (2023: EUR 1,250 million)
• Earnings after taxes increase: Earnings after taxes rise to EUR 53 million despite decline in sales, supported by positive one-off effects in the financial result (2023: EUR 52 million)
• Adjusted earnings per share: Adjusted earnings per share amount to EUR 5.20 (2023: EUR 6.24)
• Strong free cash flow: Free cash flow increased to EUR +115 million (2023: EUR +112 million)
• Dividend proposal: Dividend proposal stable at EUR 1.50 per share (2023: EUR 1.50)

Neu-Isenburg, March 26, 2025 - JOST Werke SE ("JOST"), one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of safety-related systems for the on- and off-highway commercial vehicle industry, today presents its financial statements for financial year 2024 and confirms the preliminary results published on February 18, 2025.

Joachim Dürr, CEO of JOST Werke SE, says: "2024 was an assertive and forward-looking year for JOST. We further developed our corporate strategy and started its successful implementation. With our ambitious global initiatives, we intend to accelerate our growth both organically and through strategic M&As. We took a major step at the beginning of 2025 with the acquisition of Hyva – the global market leader for tilt cylinders. Along with our successful push & pull sales model and our asset-light business model, the acquisition of Hyva strengthens our resilience on the market and product side. This gives us an important competitive advantage for our long-term success. Thus, I am very optimistic about 2025. We want our shareholders to participate in this success and are therefore proposing a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share to the Annual General Meeting."
 

Sales and earnings performance

The market environment in the 2024 financial year was characterized by a cyclical slowdown in demand in all regions. JOST was unable to escape this market trend. Accordingly, group sales fell by 14.4% to EUR 1,069.4 million due to market conditions (2023: EUR 1,249.7 million). Offsetting this decline, the consolidation of the companies JOST Agriculture & Construction South America Ltda. (formerly: Crenlo do Brasil) and LH Lift for full twelve months (2023: four months) contributed additional sales of EUR 55.2 million in 2024. Adjusted for the acquisition and currency effects, sales in the 2024 financial year fell by 18.3% compared to the previous year.

Despite this decline in sales, JOST was able to keep the adjusted EBITDA margin stable year-on-year at 13.9% (2023: 13.9%). Adjusted EBITDA fell by 14.4% to EUR 148.1 million in line with sales (2023: EUR 173.1 million).  As forecast, adjusted EBIT in 2024 fell slightly more sharply than sales by 19.8% to EUR 113.0 million (2023: EUR 140.8 million). This is mainly due to the development of depreciation and amortization, which did not decline in line with sales. The adjusted EBIT margin therefore amounted to 10.6% (2023: 11.3%).
 

Earnings after taxes and proposed dividend

The financial result improved significantly by EUR 17.3 million to EUR -4.0 million in 2024 (2023: EUR -21.3 million). This increase is mainly due to the positive development of the US dollar derivatives that JOST concluded in October 2024 to hedge the purchase price of Hyva, as the purchase price was payable in US dollars. The one-off positive exceptional from currency gains amounted to EUR 14.3 million. Counter to this, costs for financing the purchase price amounted to EUR 0.6 million.

Income tax fell to EUR 10.3 million in 2024 due to the sales-related decline in earnings (2023: EUR 19.2 million). Earnings after taxes thus increased slightly by 0.6% to EUR 52.6 million (2023: EUR 52.3 million) despite the sharp decline in sales. Similarly, earnings per share rose to EUR 3.53 (2023: EUR 3.51).

Adjusted for the positive one-off effect in the financial result, the negative non-operating and non-cash exceptionals from PPA amortization as well as the one-off costs in connection with the acquisition of Hyva, adjusted earnings after taxes in 2024 reached EUR 77.4 million in 2024 (2023: EUR 93.0 million). Adjusted earnings per share thus declined by 16.7% to EUR 5.20 (2023: EUR 6.24). At 7.2%, the ratio of adjusted earnings after taxes to sales remained almost stable compared to the previous year (2023: 7.4%).

Equity increased by 6.1% to EUR 405.5 million (December 31, 2023: EUR 382.2 million). Overall, the equity ratio improved by 2.4 percentage points to 40.4% and exceeded the 40% mark for the first time (December 31, 2023: 38.0%).

Although leverage will be above the strategic corridor of 1.0x-2.0x in 2025 due to the acquisition of Hyva, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board have decided to propose once again a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share for the 2024 financial year to the Annual General Meeting in order to allow JOST's shareholders to participate in the successful 2024 financial year (2023: EUR 1.50). This corresponds to an increase in the payout ratio to 29% of adjusted earnings after taxes (2023: 24%).
 

Robust financial position and strong balance sheet build a very good basis for financing the Hyva acquisition

JOST was able to further increase the previous year's strong free cash flow to EUR +115.1 million in fiscal year 2024 despite the decline in sales (2023: EUR +112.3 million). The cash conversion rate (ratio of free cash flow to adjusted earnings after taxes) rose sharply to 1.5 and clearly exceeded the target of 1.0 (2023: 1.2). This excellent development is mainly due to the improvements achieved in working capital, which fell significantly by 30.5% to EUR 164.2 million compared to the previous year (2023: EUR 236.1 million). JOST was thus able to significantly improve the ratio of working capital to sales to 15.3% compared to the previous year (2023: 18.0%).

Net debt decreased significantly by a total of EUR 53.2 million to EUR 127.5 million as of December 31, 2024 (December 31, 2023: EUR 180.7 million). This very positive development enabled JOST to significantly improve its leverage ratio in a challenging market environment despite the revenue-related decline in adjusted EBITDA. Leverage thus went down to 0.861x (December 31, 2023: 0.998x) and built a very strong starting position to successfully implement the financing of the Hyva acquisition via debt and own funds

Oliver Gantzert, CFO of JOST Werke SE, says: "The market environment in 2024 was challenging. Nevertheless, I am very satisfied with JOST's financial performance. We managed 2024 very well in operational terms and were able to largely offset the decline in sales through effective cost-cutting measures. I would like to warmly thank our teams across the world for their hard work. The excellent balance sheet at the end of 2024 and the strong free cash flow paved the way for us to quickly finalized the purchase of Hyva. In 2025, the focus in the financial area will be on reducing the increased debt burden resulting from the acquisition. We want to keep the leverage ratio below the 2.5x EBITDA mark by the end of 2025."
 

JOST reduces CO₂ emissions per production hour by more than half compared to the base year 2020 and thus achieves its long-term reduction target much faster than anticipated

In 2024, JOST clearly exceeded its target of halving the total CO₂ emissions per production hour from Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2030 compared to the 2020 base year much faster than originally anticipated. Compared to the base year 2020, JOST was able to significantly reduce emissions by 58.7% to 2.6 kg CO₂ per production hour in 2024 (2020: 6.3 kg CO₂ per production hour). In absolute terms, JOST was also able to reduce CO₂ emissions by 9.5% year-on-year to 24.8 thousand tons of CO₂ (2023: 27.4 thousand tons of CO₂). This success is the result of measures and investments to reduce energy consumption across the group. At the same time, JOST further increased the share of renewable energies in the overall electricity mix to 44.4% (2023: 36.6%)

Effective February 1, 2025, JOST consolidated Hyva, the largest acquisition in the company's history. With Hyva, JOST now has 14 additional production sites worldwide and a wide range of new products. The integration of Hyva will significantly change the energy and CO₂ balance of the group in 2025. JOST will therefore use the year 2025 as a new base for adopting new targets for the group up to 2030.
 

Outlook

According to the expectations of market research institutes, demand for equipment in the transport, agriculture and construction industry is set to stabilize or grow moderately in 2025 compared to the previous year.

Based on these market expectations and supported by the consolidation of the Hyva Group, acquired as of February 1, 2025, JOST forecasts that consolidated sales will increase significantly by 50% to 60% in financial year 2025 compared to 2024 (2024: €1,069.4 million). Adjusted EBIT in 2025 is expected to rise by 25% to 30% compared to the previous year (2024: €113.0 million). Adjusted EBITDA is also projected to grow by 25% to 30% compared to 2024 (2024: €148.1 million).

JOST’s Annual Group Report for the 2024 financial year, including the 2024 Sustainability Report, is available at http://ir.jost-world.com/reports. The accompanying virtual earnings conference will take place on March 26, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. CET. After the conference, the recording will be available on the JOST website http://ir.jost-world.com.

Contact:

JOST Werke SE
Romy Acosta
Head of Investor Relations
T: +49 6102 295-379
romy.acosta@jost-world.com

 
About JOST: JOST is a world-leading producer and supplier of safety-critical systems for the commercial vehicle industry. Under the umbrella brand of JOST, the comprehensive range of products is categorized into systems for On-Highway (transport industry) and Off-Highway applications (agriculture and construction industries). JOST’s global leadership position is driven by the strength of its brands JOST, Hyva, ROCKINGER, TRIDEC and Quicke, its long-standing client relationships serviced through its global distribution network, and its efficient and asset-light business model. With its five core brands, the company is the global leading producer of fifth wheel couplings, landing gears, agricultural front loaders and front-end tipping cylinders. Since the acquisition of Hyva in 2025, JOST employs over 7,500 staff worldwide, has sales and production sites in more than 35 countries, and operations on six continents. JOST has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Further information on JOST can be found here: www.jost-world.com