Annual General Meeting in Hamburg / Jungheinrich increases dividend again
HAMBURG, June 16 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The Jungheinrich Group got off to a good start this year, posting gains in incoming orders and net sales by the end of April 2008 compared with the same period last year. The company thus continued the positive trend experienced last year, maintaining its course for profitable growth. At the Annual General Meeting on June 10, 2008, the company's shareholders were presented with a draft resolution to increase the dividend for fiscal 2007 by 4 euro cents to 0.52 euros per ordinary share and 0.58 euros per preferred share.
In the first four months of this year, orders received rose by 14 percent to 750 million euros (prior year: 659 million euros). In the same period, net sales were up 11 percent to 680 million euros (prior year: 612 million euros). All of the business areas contributed to this growth. As of April 30, 2008, orders on hand from new truck business totalled 391 million euros and were thus 29 per cent higher than the 303 million euros achieved in the corresponding period last year.
Based on continuously positive macroeconomic forecasts, Jungheinrich expects the global market to expand by 5 per cent to some 1 million trucks (prior year: 950 thousand units). Booming markets in Eastern Europe, with Russia leading the way, and in Asia, with China as the foremost engine, will drive this growth. Jungheinrich is well positioned in the aforementioned regions with proprietary sales companies and will invest heavily in these markets of the future.
The company is still confident about its business trend over the remaining course of fiscal 2008. Says Hans-Georg Frey, Chairman of the Board of Management of Jungheinrich AG: "Following the good start in the first few months, we anticipate to see moderate growth over the rest of the financial year. Fiercer price-on-price competition, higher raw material prices, fluctuating foreign exchange rates and the effects of the bank crisis on the real economy will have a negative impact. In sum, we continue to be optimistic." Jungheinrich expects incoming orders for 2008 to come in at over 2.2 billion euros (prior year: 2.1 billion euros). Sales are forecast to amount to more than 2.1 billion euros (prior year: 2.0 billion euros).
Jungheinrich ranks among the world's leading companies in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sectors. Jungheinrich is a logistics service provider with manufacturing operations, which offers its customers a comprehensive range of forklift trucks, shelving systems and services covering the entire field of intralogistics. Jungheinrich shares are traded on all German stock exchanges.
