HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co., a leading global automotive supplier, could significantly increase revenues in fiscal year 2010/2011, up 23 percent to 4.4 billion Euro (2009/2010: 3.6 billion Euro), and achieve the best result ever in its corporate history. EBIT grew from 146 million Euro to 268 million Euro year on year, the annual result could be improved to 164 million Euro (2009/2010: 81 million Euro). ”We benefit from our timelyfocus on key automotive trends such as the increasing environmental awareness, the still growing demand for safety and the shift from conventional lighting to LED technology“, says  Dr. Jürgen Behrend, managing and personally liable partner at HELLA. ”Further, the economic recovery in Europe and the US as well as the strong growth in Asia helped us to increase our revenues.”

Both the automotive segment with its core businesses lighting and electronics and the aftermarket segment that includes the independent aftermarket business and the business with special OE suppliers made positive contributions to revenues and profits. EBITDA grew from 406 million Euro to 565 million Euro year on year, the annual result could be improved to 164 million Euro (2009/2010: 81 million Euro).

Research and development expenditures were increased by 50 million Euro to 346 million Euro in the past fiscal year in order to protect HELLA's technological leadership. At the same time, the company further optimised its solid long-term financing structure in fiscal year 2010/2011; the equity ratio grew from 28 to 32 percent. The number of employees increased by overall 10 percent to 25,171 across all regions (as at 31 May 2011).

In fiscal year 2010/2011, HELLA also further expanded the global cooperation network. Overall, the HELLA joint ventures contributed about 600 million Euro in revenues on a pro rata basis; of these, about 200 millions Euro were consolidated at group level.

Growth in the automotive segment
With its leading edge technology solutions in lighting and electronics, the automotive segment benefited particularly from the higher sales  in the automotive sector. Revenues consolidated at group level increased from 2.6 billion Euro to 3.2 billion Euro, EBITDA amounted to 458 million Euro. HELLA Group’s flexible structure and a short-term increase in capacity enabled the company to deal with the strong increase in volumes without meaningful production or supply issues. The lighting business benefited particularly from the strong demand for premium and innovative lighting systems in the LED segment and the strong Chinese business. ”While we are already a leader in this field, we will further strengthen our position by continuing to build and expand our production and development capacities in the emerging markets and particularly in China“, said Dr. Jürgen Behrend. ”It is important to grow where our clients grow.”

In the electronics business, the company offers a large range of innovative products focusing on the sector's trends emission reduction, energy management, safety and comfort. These include for instance the intelligent battery sensor that monitors and controls energy usage, accelerator pedals, vacuum pumps and lane change assistants. HELLA is a market leader in many of these products and present in all relevant growth markets and car types. Here again, it focuses on further upgrading the global development network particularly in the emerging markets in order to cater to the strong local demand.

Aftermarket segment continues to grow
The revenues of the aftermarket segment consolidated at group level increased to 1.2 billion Euro in 2010/2011 (2009/2010: 936 million Euro), EBITDA amounted to 138 million Euro. This segment combines two activities that have strong synergies with the OEM business: HELLA’s global distribution network enables the company to sell automotive parts, act as the service partner of independent garages and supply the automotive parts organisations of large car manufacturers. Furthermore, the company operates as a wholesaler in Northern and Eastern Europe. The aftermarket segment also contains the business with specialised OEMs where HELLA manufactures and sells particularly lighting and electronics products to customer groups outside of the passenger car sector such as, for instance, manufacturers of buses, caravans and construction and agricultural machinery.

The positive development of the aftermarket segment was mainly driven by the expansion of the product portfolio particularly in the LED area, a strong wholesale business and substantial growth in Asia. In the past fiscal year, the segment was expanded to include joint ventures in Poland and China and a HELLA distribution company in Dubai that focuses on the Middle East. This is another area where the company is committed to further expansion. 

Strong position in key foreign markets supports growth and diversification
In the past fiscal year, HELLA could further increase regional diversification as well as the Asian growth markets’ contribution to overall sales. By end clients, 15 percent of past fiscal year’s revenues were generated in Germany, another 44 percent in the rest of Europe. The NAFTA region accounted for 18 percent of the revenues, Asia/Pacific for 23 percent.

After already expanding the automotive development capabilities in Shanghai (China) and Pune (India) in the past fiscal year, HELLA now plans to build another development facility with a lighting technology and energy management focus in Nanjing (China) in the current fiscal year.

Solid financing further optimised
HELLA was able to further optimise its solid and long-term financing structure in fiscal year 2010/2011. The equity ratio increased from 28 to 32 percent. At balance sheet date, net leverage measured as the balance of payment instruments, current financial assets and current and non-current debts amounted to 0.7 times EBITDA. In February 2011, the rating agency Moody’s upgraded HELLA Group to Baa3 (investment grade) and confirmed a positive outlook.
 
HELLA targets further growth in the established segments and in new activities
”We want to further grow the family-owned company - swiftly but also with a sense of proportion. I believe that we are very well positioned across all businesses to achieve this goal“, said Dr. Jürgen Behrend. ”In the process, we will retain our strong focus on innovation and development and further drive international expansion.” In addition to the organic growth targeted in the established businesses, HELLA also plans to further boost technology transfer into new applications outside of the core automobile business. Since 2008, HELLA has been leveraging its lighting and electronics technology and process capabilities in the still relatively recent Industries business in order to develop solutions for target groups outside of the automotive segments, for instance in the area of street and airport lighting or people counters.