JOST achieves record sales and earnings in 2021 fiscal year: Sales rise by 32% to EUR 1,049 million and adjusted EBIT grows at an even faster pace by 43% to EUR 105 million

- Sales target of EUR 1 billion exceeded: Sales in 2021 up 32.0% to EUR 1,048.6 million
(2020: EUR 794.4 million)

- Operating profit significantly increased: adjusted EBIT in 2021 up 43.2% to EUR 104.8 million
(2020: EUR 73.2 million)

- Profitability strongly improved: adjusted EBIT margin for 2021 up 0.8 percentage points to 10.0%
(2020: 9.2%)

- Financial position strengthened further: leverage improves to 1.45x in first two years after Ålö acquisition (2020: 1.997x)

- Raised guidance for 2021 fiscal year fully achieved

Neu-Isenburg, February 17, 2022. JOST Werke AG ("JOST"), a leading global producer and supplier of safety-critical systems for commercial vehicles, today published its preliminary and unaudited results for fiscal year 2021.

Joachim Dürr, (CEO) of JOST Werke AG, said: "JOST performed exceptionally well in the 2021 fiscal year despite the challenging environment. We generated more than EUR 1 billion in sales revenues for the first time in the history of the company. Our innovations enabled us to take important steps on the path to autonomous driving and to intensify our collaboration with customers and end users. JOST recorded significant growth in transport and agriculture during the 2021 fiscal year and strengthened its market position across all regions. The rise in material costs and logistics bottlenecks posed major challenges that we were able to successfully overcome due to our high degree of flexibility and closeness to our customers. We reached all our financial targets in 2021 and are well equipped to achieve further profitable growth in 2022."

JOST grows in all regions

In fiscal year 2021, JOST increased global consolidated sales by 32.0% to EUR 1,048.6 million (2020: EUR 794.4 million). This sharp rise was supported by strong demand in the global commercial vehicle market. Despite the uncertainty caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, demand for trucks, trailers and agricultural tractors remained very robust during the year and in some cases exceeded supply. JOST recorded substantial year-over-year growth across all regions. Sales of agricultural components grew by 42.6% to EUR 263.2 million (2020: EUR 184.6 million). In the business unit Transport, JOST grew its sales by 28.8% to EUR 785.4 million in 2021 compared with the prior-year period (2020: EUR 609.9 million).

The company also achieved considerable improvements year-over-year in its operating business. Despite tremendously rising material and logistics costs, adjusted EBIT rose sharply and at a faster rate than sales, rising by 43.2% to EUR 104.8 million (2020: EUR 73.2 million). This was primarily due to higher production capacity utilization and the related operating leverage of fixed cost degression. JOST's lean organizational structure enabled it to generate significantly higher sales with comparatively stable selling, general and administrative expenses. As a result, the adjusted EBIT margin rose by 0.8 percentage points to 10.0% in the 2021 fiscal year (2020: 9.2%).

Europe

In Europe, JOST increased sales by 28.2% to EUR 618.2 million (2020: EUR 482.2 million). After the sharp rise in sales in the first half of 2021, the pace of growth slowed in the second half of the year due to the typical seasonality of the business. Production bottlenecks at key OEM customers, often caused by limited semiconductor availability, also amplified this seasonal effect. Bolstered by the increase in business volume, JOST grew adjusted EBIT in Europe by 21.8% year-over-year to EUR 45.4 million (2020: EUR 37.3 million). The rise in material and logistics costs had an adverse impact on earnings in the region. Although JOST managed to offset a large portion of the inflated material costs through price adjustments, it was only able to implement the agreed increases with a time lag. JOST was often forced to change its production at short notice in various occasions due to abrupt changes in OEM customer call-offs resulting from the semiconductor shortage. Thus, the adjusted EBIT margin in Europe amounted to 7.3% in 2021 (2020: 7.7%).

North America

JOST recorded robust growth in North America in both transport and agriculture in 2021, increasing sales considerably by 50.3% to EUR 259.0 million (2020: EUR 172.3 million). The company also doubled adjusted EBIT to EUR 23.7 million (2020: EUR 11.8 million). Although the rise in material and logistics costs also had an adverse impact on operating profit in this region, this negative effect was partly offset by a significant increase in production capacity utilization compared to the previous year and the resulting higher operating leverage. Another positive impact came from the thriving aftermarket business, which also recorded powerful growth, boosted by market share gains in recent years. Overall, the adjusted EBIT margin in North America improved to 9.1% in fiscal year 2021 (2020: 6.9%).

Asia-Pacific-Africa (APA)

JOST leveraged its excellent market positioning in the APA region to benefit from the market recovery in various countries across the region. The strong demand in China in the first half of 2021 and the sustained positive market environment in India, Australia, South-East Asia and South Africa enabled the group to increase sales in APA by 22.5% to EUR 171.4 million in the 2021 fiscal year (2020: EUR 139.9 million). The high level of capacity utilization at production plants in the region and a beneficial product mix in APA resulted in a 40.8% increase in adjusted EBIT to EUR 30.0 million year-over-year (2020: EUR 21.3 million). JOST improved its EBIT margin in APA to 17.5% in the 2021 fiscal year (2020: 15.2%).

Financial strength further improved

The considerable rise in activity compared to 2020 and bottlenecks in the procurement markets posed major challenges for working capital management in 2021. In order to pre-finance its strong growth, JOST invested in inventories to ensure the group could continue to make deliveries as planned. As a result, working capital rose by 41.6% to EUR 188.4 million compared with the prior-year period (2020: EUR 133.0 million). It is important to note that activity levels were exceptionally low in 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite this, JOST kept the ratio of working capital to sales well below its target level of 20% at 17.9% in the 2021 fiscal year, proving its disciplined approach to working capital management (2020: 16.4%).

Despite the increase in working capital caused by high business volumes, JOST was able to generate a positive operating free cash flow (cash flow from operating activities less payments made for the acquisition of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets) of EUR +33.4 million in the 2021 fiscal year (2020: EUR +98.1 million).

Investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets remained stable year-over-year at EUR 20.1 million (2020: EUR 20.9 million). Due to the sharp increase in sales, capital expenditure as a percentage of sales fell to 1.9% (2020: 2.6%).

Liquid assets decreased by EUR 20.8 million to EUR 87.5 million as of December 31, 2021 (December 31, 2020: EUR 108.3 million). The dividend payout of EUR 14.9 million and repayments of current and non-current liabilities to banks of EUR 43.3 million contributed to this decline. JOST's strong cash generation enabled the company to reduce its net debt to EUR 194.0 million as of December 31, 2021 (December 31, 2020: EUR 207.6 million). The leverage ratio (ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA) improved considerably to 1.45x over the same period (2020: 1.997x). This positive development underlines JOST's strong operating performance and the high volume of cash generated by its business model.

Dr. Christian Terlinde, Chief Financial Officer of JOST Werke AG, said: "We brought the 2021 fiscal year to a successful conclusion, achieving important milestones in JOST's history. In operational terms, our strict cost management and high level of flexibility enabled us to significantly improve JOST's profitability compared to the previous year. We also managed to steadily improve key financial indicators such as leverage over the course of the year. Financially speaking, we are perfectly positioned to continue pursuing our growth strategy and seize new opportunities."

The final results for the 2021 fiscal year, the proposed dividend and the outlook for the 2022 fiscal year will be published with the 2021 Annual Report on March 24, 2022. In this context, JOST will hold a virtual conference on March 24, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. CET.

About JOST:

JOST is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of safety-relevant systems for the commercial vehicle industry with its core brands JOST, ROCKINGER, TRIDEC and Quicke. JOST's global leadership position is driven by the strength of its brands, its long-standing client relationships serviced through its global distribution network, and its efficient and asset-light business model. With sales and production facilities in 25 countries across five continents, JOST has direct access to all major truck, trailer and agricultural tractor manufacturers as well as relevant end customers in the commercial vehicle industry. JOST currently employs more than 3,000 staff across the world and has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since July 20, 2017. For more information about JOST, please visit www.jost-world.com

Contact:

JOST Werke AG
Romy Acosta
Head of Investor Relations
T: +49 (0)6102 295-379
romy.acosta@jost-world.com