HERZOGENAURACH (dpa-AFX) - After a challenging run, automotive supplier Schaeffler is looking ahead to 2025 with caution. According to the board's assessment, no significant sales leaps are expected, and CEO Klaus Rosenfeld was similarly reserved regarding profitability on Tuesday. The business with conventional automotive drives remains particularly difficult. However, the Franconian company expects momentum from e-mobility and the spare parts division. Rosenfeld is also pushing forward with future fields such as humanoid robots and defense. Nevertheless, last year ended with a net loss. The stock, which had performed well so far this year, dropped significantly.
The share price fell by 15 percent, erasing much of its gains for the year. Earlier in the year, the stock had surged mainly due to optimism surrounding the humanoid robotics business. Over the course of a year, the share price had nearly doubled.
JPMorgan expert Jose Asumendi attributed the surprisingly low operating result in the fourth quarter to the division with peripheral and future businesses as well as the drive division in his analysis of the financial figures. Overall, however, the results were solid.
For the new year, Rosenfeld is targeting an adjusted operating margin before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT margin) of 3.5 to 5.5 percent on planned sales of 22.5 to 24.5 billion euros, as the SDax-listed company announced in Herzogenaurach. Analysts had previously expected figures at the upper end of these ranges.
Last year, sales on a comparable basis fell by 3.4 percent to 23.5 billion euros. However, Schaeffler was able to increase its operating profit by 11.1 percent to 936 million euros, thanks in part to cost-cutting measures, with the margin rising by half a percentage point to 4.0 percent. In the fourth quarter, however, Schaeffler performed weaker than experts had generally anticipated.
In 2025, high special charges from corporate restructuring with job cuts and from the conversion of software systems once again resulted in a net loss, with the group reporting a loss of 424 million euros. A year earlier, Schaeffler had posted an even higher loss of 632 million euros due to the acquisition of Vitesco. Despite the net loss, the dividend is set to increase by 5 cents to 0.30 euros, thanks to improved cash flow.
Schaeffler significantly increased its so-called free cash flow before payments for acquisitions and disposals of business units. In 2025, the company generated 266 million euros, slightly exceeding the already raised forecast range. The previous year, the cash balance had shown an outflow of 694 million euros. Schaeffler mainly cut back on investments, spending about half a billion euros less. Growing profitability and careful management of working capital, such as inventory, also supported the figures./men/tav/stk
