BERLIN, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- German engineering and electronics company Bosch ended the financial year 2019 with adjusted revenues which declined by 1.1 percent year-on-year to 77.9 billion euros (85.7 billion euros), the company announced on Wednesday.
"A weak economy and the steep decline in automotive production left their mark on Bosch as well," Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, commented on the preliminary annual figures on Wednesday.
According to Bosch, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) almost halved from 5.4 billion euros in the previous year and only amounted to around 3 billion euros in 2019, putting the estimated EBIT margin at just under 4 percent.
In addition to the downturn in automotive production, particularly in the key Chinese and Indian markets, a further reduction in the share of diesel engines in cars, high restructuring costs as well as "increasing upfront investments" would have affected the overall result of the company, the company noted.
While sales in the Asia Pacific region decreased by 4.5 percent to 22.5 billion euros in 2019, Bosch's business in Europe saw "stable development" at 41 billion euros.
In Bosch's Mobility Solutions business unit, which generated most of the company's sales, revenues had developed better than global automobile production. Bosch announced that sales in its core business had remained at same level as the previous year and amounted to 47 billion euros.
For 2020, Bosch expected the global automotive production to shrink for the third year in a row and forecast a further decline in global sales of 2.6 percent to around 89 million vehicles, almost 10 million units less than in 2017. Bosch did not anticipate "any increase in global automotive production before 2025."
Without giving any concrete financial forecast, Stefan Asenkerschbaumer, chief financial officer (CFO) and deputy chairman of the Bosch board of management, expected a "very challenging year for Bosch", in which the company would "work rigorously" on its profitability.
