However, first quarter Ebit decreased from €6.5m in 2014 to €1m this year, which Vossloh mainly attributes to lower Ebit in its Core Components division as well as a higher loss in the Transportation division.

 

In the Core Components division, which covers high-volume industrially-manufactured products, first-quarter sales fell from €70.9m in 2014 to €66.2m. First-quarter Ebit for the division totalled €6.4m, and Ebit margin fell from 15.5% in 2014 to 9.6% in 2015.

Vossloh's Customised Modules infrastructure division, which includes switches and control and monitoring system, generated first-quarter sales of €115.9m, a 19.4% increase on the 2014 figure of €97m. First-quarter Ebit for the division increased slightly to €5.5m.

First-quarter sales for the Lifecycle Solutions division, which specialises in rail and switch maintenance, were down slightly at €11.9m but, due to seasonal fluctuations, the division's negative Ebit worsened from €1m in 2014 to €1.6m this year.

First-quarter sales in the Transportation division, which includes locomotives and LRVs as well as components and services, recorded an 11% increase from €115.3m in 2014 to €127.9m. Despite this, Ebit was negative at €5.6m, considerably worse than the negative Ebit of €4.7m in 2014.

Vossloh says it expects sales growth of between 3% and 4% in the current financial year, which would be significantly higher than the growth expectations for the rail technology market. The company expects a significant improvement in Ebit this year compared with its adjusted Ebit in 2014 and aims to achieve an Ebit margin of between 3% and 4% in 2015.