Masterflex SE presents Annual Report 2023 – Record earnings achieved

Gelsenkirchen, March 28, 2024 – Masterflex SE (ISIN: DE0005492938) today presented its audited consolidated financial statements for the 2023 financial year and confirms the preliminary figures published on March 11, 2024. Despite an overall challenging economic environment and the associated recessionary trends in some customer industries, Masterflex succeeded in achieving new record levels in earnings. 

In the 2023 financial year, Masterflex SE generated revenue of EUR 101.1 million (previous year: EUR 100.3 million) and can look back on a successful and robust business development despite a noticeable economic headwind in some of its customer industries. Although revenue was slightly below the forecast range of EUR 103 million to EUR 110 million, primarily due to the increasing slowdown in demand in the traditional cyclically sensitive customer industries, EBITDA increased to a new record level of EUR 17.9 million (previous year: EUR 16.4 million). Operating EBIT also reached a new record level in the 2023 financial year, growing by 10.5% to EUR 12.6 million (previous year: EUR 11.4 million). The Masterflex Group succeeded in consolidating the operating EBIT margin in the double-digit range and increasing it from 11.4% in the previous year to 12.4% in the 2023 financial year, enabling the Group to achieve the middle of the forecast range of EUR 11.0 million to EUR 14.0 million in operating EBIT. Consolidated net income amounted to EUR 8.0 million in the reporting year (previous year: EUR 7.8 million). Basic and diluted earnings per share in accordance with IFRS improved to EUR 0.83 (previous year: EUR 0.81).

Despite the economic headwind, most of Masterflex SE's subsidiaries were on course for growth in the 2023 financial year, with the good demand dynamics in the aviation business, life science and medical technology sectors being particularly noteworthy. In the classic cyclical sectors such as automotive and mechanical engineering, on the other hand, there was increasing restraint on the part of customers. Nevertheless, Masterflex succeeded in increasing its EBIT margin and EBIT. This was achieved by shifting the sales mix towards higher-margin customer sectors, such as medical technology, whose share of revenue rose from around 17% to 19%. Productivity increases and further efficiency measures also contributed to this success.

The Group's financial position has improved further compared to the previous year. The Masterflex Group's cash and cash equivalents increased to EUR 11.1 million as at December 31, 2023 (previous year: EUR 9.8 million) thanks to the increase in operating result. Consequently, net debt at the end of 2023 amounted to EUR 13.1 million, an improvement on the previous year's figure of EUR 16.9 million. The consolidated equity of the Masterflex Group increased by EUR 5.6 million to EUR 57.6 million as at the balance sheet date of December 31, 2023 (previous year: EUR 52.0 million), in particular due to the strong increase in profits. The equity ratio (equity in relation to total assets) improved by 3.9 percentage points from 57.6% to 61.5% at the end of the 2023 financial year.

Order backlog as at December 31, 2023 remained at a high level of EUR 20.5 million (previous year: EUR 22.8 million). At the same time, the outlook for economic development is cautiously positive. A limiting factor for the accuracy of the forecast for economic development and the further development of the Masterflex Group are the uncertainties resulting primarily from the geopolitical upheavals in connection with the war in Ukraine, the tensions between the USA and China and the conflict in the Middle East. Assuming that there is no deterioration in the aforementioned uncertainty factors in the 2024 financial year, the Management of Masterflex Group expects to generate revenue in the range of EUR 100 to EUR 107 million. In terms of EBIT, the Management Board anticipates a range of between EUR 12 and EUR 15 million.

Dr Andreas Bastin, CEO of Masterflex Group, comments: "Masterflex Group benefits from its market-leading position in the global market for innovative and highly sophisticated hose and connection solutions, enabling us to achieve a new record in earnings despite the challenging economic environment. Our goal for 2024 is to continue to grow and, in particular, to further expand our high profitability and thus our earnings."
 

Dividend
Due to the positive results development, the Management Board and Supervisory Board of Masterflex SE will propose an increased dividend of EUR 0.25 per share for the 2023 financial year (previous year: EUR 0.20 per share) at the Annual General Meeting on June 12, 2024.

Annual Report
The Annual Report 2023 was published on www.masterflexgroup.com.

Conference Call
A conference call will be held for representatives of the press, analysts and institutional investors on March 28, 2024, 10:00 am. The current investor presentation on the 2023 business figures will be published on www.masterflexgroup.com. 
To register, please send an e-mail to sh@crossalliance.de.