Deutz Q1 Revenues Up 1.1%

Deutz AG (DEZBF.PK,DEUZF.PK) Monday said revenues for the first quarter rose 1.1 percent to 343.4 million euros due to a favorable product mix compared with that in the prior year period.

New orders received in the first three months of the year jumped by 30.3 percent to reach 464.8 million euros, driven by better than expected market demand.

“There has been a notable increase in customers’ propensity to proceed with capital expenditure in all of the main application segments and this has enabled us to make a better start to the current year than originally anticipated. New orders are up by around a third compared with the first quarter of 2020. This growth, combined with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.35, gives us cause for optimism about the months ahead,” said CEO Dr. Frank Hiller.

All of the main application segments recorded double-digit percentage increases, the company said.

Unit sales of Deutz engines rose from 31,546 to 32,249 engines. Including Torqeedo’s electric drives for boats, the Group sold a total of 38,384 engines and motors, compared with 40,069 in the first quarter of 2020.

Deutz raised its full-year guidance for 2021. The company now expects unit sales of 140,000 to 155,000 DEUTZ engines, up from prior forecast of at least 130,000. The company now expects revenues to be between 1.5 billion and 1.6 billion euros, up from prior forecast of at least 1.4 billion euros. The company had originally expected to at least break even in terms of EBIT margin before exceptional items in 2021 but now predicts that this margin will be in the range of 1.0 percent to 2.0 percent.

K+S Receives Approval From DoJ To Proceed With Sale Of Americas Operating Unit

German chemical company K+S Group (SDFG) Monday said it received allowance from the U.S. Justice Department for the sale of the Americas operating unit. The company no longer anticipates any antitrust hurdles to the closing of the sale.

Last October, K+S said it has agreed to sell its Americas salt business bundled together as the Americas Operating Unit to Stone Canyon Industries Holdings LLC, Mark Demetree and affiliates. The sales price amounts to $3.2 billion enterprise value.

The Americas operating unit mainly comprises K+S Chile, formerly known as the Chilean company SPL, acquired in 2006, as well as Morton Salt (USA) and K+S Windsor Salt (Canada), acquired in 2009.

The purchase price payment of around 2.5 billion euros will be made in cash.

Meanwhiel, Stone Canyon Industry Holdings LLC will have to divest their entire evaporated salt business in order to proceed with the acquisition of Morton Salt Inc. among other assets.

The Justice Department said that without the divestiture, the proposed acquisition would substantially lessen competition in the sale of several types of evaporated salt, including round-can table salt, pharmaceutical-grade salt, and bulk evaporated salt.

BMW Q1 EBT Rises

German luxury carmaker BMW AG (BMW.L,BAMXF.PK,BAMXY.PK) on Monday reported that its first-quarter group EBT rose to 3.76 billion euros from last year’s 798 million euros.

BMW reported sales growth in all significant regions of the world, in particular in China, and all brands in the first quarter of 2021. In addition, positive price and mix effects, as well as high demand for pre-owned cars, also lead to key financial performance figures of BMW AG which exceed market expectations in a positive current environment.

Based on preliminary figures for the first quarter 2021, Automotive segment EBIT is 2.24 billion euros, up from 229 million euros last year. Financial Services segment EBT is 787 million euros, up from 484 million euros last year.

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Kamala Harris Visits Historic Woolworth’s Lunch Counter Where Sit-In Movement Began

In a surprise stop during a visit to Greensboro, North Carolina, on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris dropped in on the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.

The museum houses what remains of the Woolworth’s five-and-dime where, on Feb. 1, 1960, four Black college students sat at a lunch counter and politely asked for service ― a revolutionary act at the time.

They were rebuffed, but they returned to the whites-only lunch counter day after day in increasing numbers, popularizing the sit-in movement that spread quickly across the South.

Harris reportedly sat in the seat once occupied by Rosa Parks when she visited the museum in the 1990s.

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