The current development of the war in Ukraine and the resulting increase in defense spending by the Bundeswehr shaped the balance sheet press conference of the Rheinmetall armaments group. CEO Armin Papperger put the company's sales potential for ammunition, trucks, armored wheeled and tracked vehicles and soldier systems at up to 42 billion euros over a period of around ten years - with the first deliveries starting in about a year. In doing so, Rheinmetall can rely on its national and international production facilities, whose workforce would have to be expanded by 1,500 to 3,000 employees for the additional production.
Rheinmetall was able to report a record operating result for the 2021 fiscal year. The value improved by a third to 594 million euros, while sales increased by 4.7 percent to 5.7 billion euros. At EUR 24.5 billion, a new high was also reached for the order backlog.
The division with the highest sales, Vehicle Systems, was able to increase sales by two percent to 1.9 billion euros. Thanks to a better product mix, the operating result increased by 24 million euros to 174 million euros. Rheinmetall sees significant contributions from the Boxer programs in Australia and Great Britain as well as from truck deliveries to the German armed forces and to Australia. Orders for the modernization of the Challenger main battle tank, for the production of Kodiak armored personnel carriers and the modernization of the Puma infantry fighting vehicle made a particular contribution to the order intake of 2.9 billion euros.
The Weapon and Ammunition division contributed 1.2 billion euros to group sales. That is an increase of 2.8 percent. Rheinmetall names the Propulsion Systems business unit (drives) and the newly founded Rheinmetall Project Solutions GmbH as positive stimuli for development. The operating result increased by almost 20 percent to 218 million euros.
In 2021, the Electronic Solutions division generated sales of EUR 932 million, almost the same as in the previous year. However, the operating result increased significantly by 7.6 percent to 99 million euros.
The two civil divisions, Sensors and Actuators and Materials and Trade, made a significant contribution to the positive group result with jumps in sales of 9.4 percent and 22 percent, respectively, and increases in earnings of 189 and 75 percent, respectively.
For the current fiscal year, Rheinmetall continues to expect strong growth in sales with expected stable, high returns. Rheinmetall has set itself the goal of organic sales growth of 15 to 20 percent, thereby increasing the forecast from the 2021 annual report. Profitability should also increase at the same time. The ratio of operating profit and sales is expected to rise to over 11 percent.
Editors / gwh
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