Loss feared: HELLA cannot compensate for pandemic consequences and suspends dividend – share loses | message

—For the current fiscal year 2019/20, the company now expects consolidated sales in the range of around 5.7 to 5.8 billion euros and an adjusted EBIT margin of around 4 percent. HELLA had already announced in mid-March that sales would be below the forecast range of around 6.5 to 7.0 billion euros and that the adjusted EBIT margin of 6.5 to 7.5 percent would be well below the target .

In the fourth quarter of 2019/20, HELLA will also take into account non-cash impairments of around EUR 500 million. This resulted above all from the significantly reduced market volume as a result of the pandemic and the assumption that the global production volume of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles would also be significantly below the pre-crisis expectations in the medium to long term and should lead to lower capacity utilization. However, the impairments should not have any impact on the adjusted EBIT margin.

In view of the expected net loss for the current financial year at the end of May and the negative market expectations, the management decided to propose to the Annual General Meeting on September 25, 2020 to suspend the dividend payment for 2019/20.

HELLA shares initially moved in green territory in XETRA trading on Monday. By the end of trading, the shares fell back by 0.41 percent to EUR 33.72.

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)