Bosch reports 7% increase in quarterly sales

Bosch, a leader in automotive technology and services, has reported a 7 per cent increase in sales during the first quarter of the current year. After adjusting for exchange-rate effects, the increase in sales was roughly 10 per cent, Bosch said.

Bosch said its automotive technology business sector continued its strong business performance, growing impressively in the first quarter of 2014.

For the current fiscal year, the global provider of technology and services expects its sales to grow 3 to 5 per cent.

''We continue to move forward with our traditional business and are opening up new fields of business. In so doing, we are benefiting from our broad technological and industrial expertise,'' said Volkmar Denner, chairman of the Bosch board of management.

''We have also seen clear growth in our other business sectors. With regard to the regions, business in Asia Pacific is developing especially well,'' said Stefan Asenkerschbaumer, CFO. Bosch also aims to further improve result in 2014, he added.

In fiscal 2013, Bosch said, sales increased by 3.1 per cent to €46.1 billion (based on an adjusted previous-year figure of €44.7 billion ).

The sales figure has been adjusted for the company's exit from crystalline photovoltaics as well as consolidation effects resulting from changed accounting policies and acquisitions in the previous year.

After adjusting for exchange-rate effects, sales during the 2013 financial year grew 6.3 per cent. A strong euro had the effect of bringing down sales to the tune of €1.5 billion euros, Bosch said.

Excluding burdens from photovoltaics, Bosch disclosed a 6 per cent EBIT margin. This translates into EBIT of €2.8 billion.

Bosh said the positive developments in the automotive technology business sector made a significant contribution to the improvement in result.

''Also thanks to our many efforts to cut costs, we have taken an important step toward achieving our target EBIT margin of 8 per cent,'' Asenkerschbaumer said.

Even including the extraordinary burden of €1.3 billion resulting from photovoltaics, EBIT margin increased to 3.2 per cent. Bosch has discontinued the activities in the area of crystalline photovoltaics. The company has now sold most of its activities in this area. The sale of the remaining activities is planned to be finalized in the first half of 2014.

Bosch already a leader in sensor technology, said internet-enabled products and internet-based services are one of the focal points of the company's future sales growth.

With the opening up of the new micromechanical sensor technology and internet-based market segments such, a gateway technology driver assistance systems, Bosch expects sales to double in Asia Pacific and the Americas by 2020.

In 2013, the Bosch Group's workforce grew by about 8,500, to 281,000 (adjusted previous-year figure: 273,000).

In 2014, Bosch expects to hire some 9,000 university graduates around the world.