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Bilfinger logo at the headquarters in Mannheim
Photo: Uwe Anspach / dpa
The Mannheim-based industrial service provider Bilfinger has found a new CEO after almost a year.
The Saarland resident Thomas Schulz will take over the post on March 1 of next year, announced Bilfinger.
The 56-year-old comes from the listed Danish mining and cement industry supplier FLSmidth, which he has been managing since 2013.
FLSmidth released Schulz prematurely from his contract.
The senior position at Bilfinger has only been filled on an interim basis since Tom Blades left in January.
Chief Financial Officer Christina Johansson had always made it clear that she did not see herself as a permanent solution at the top of the company.
Schulz is a mining engineer and has spent practically his entire professional life in Scandinavia.
Before his time as head of FLSmidth, he worked for the Swedish machine and tool manufacturer Sandvik.
»Today Bilfinger is focused and profitable again.
Securing growth for the future and further developing Bilfinger's extraordinary potential is a task that I am very much looking forward to, ”said Schulz.
Bilfinger supervisory board chairman Eckhard Cordes praised Schulz's profile: "Several international career stations and his expertise in the important future field of sustainable energy-intensive industries speak for a valuable contribution to our company."
Boost in the third quarter
The economic recovery gave Bilfinger a boost in the third quarter.
Sales increased year-on-year by nine percent to 945 million euros.
The special items adjusted earnings before interest and goodwill amortization (adjusted Ebita) rose from 23 million euros in the same quarter of the previous year to 51 million euros.
In addition to the sale of land, this was primarily due to lower costs.
The adjusted Ebita margin was 5.4 percent.
The bottom line was that Bilfinger posted a profit of 41 million euros, after a deficit of 19 million euros a year earlier.
The group is becoming somewhat more confident for the year as a whole.
The company now expects to achieve an adjusted Ebita margin slightly over three percent.
dab / dpa / Reuters
