(Berlin, March 16, 2005) At today’s Supervisory Board meeting, Deutsche Bahn AGannounced the provisional figures for its performance during financial year 2004. On a comparable basis, the figures show substantial growth in revenues of approx. 4.1 percent year-on-year. Operating income after interest improved by more than 420 million euros and, at approx. 250 million euros, is considerably higher than the latterly forecasted figure. “In view of the continuing weak economic situation and fierce competition, Deutsche Bahn can rightly book the year 2004 as a success,” stated Dr. Michael Frenzel, Chairman of the Supervisory Board. “The fact that Deutsche Bahn, the leading mobility and logistics services provider in Europe, has returned to positive results is an important psychological signal for its employees, for the market and for the shareholder,” said Frenzel, adding, “Deutsche Bahn is well on its way.”
Hartmut Mehdorn, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board commented, “Last year’s positive results are an important step along the path we have mapped to make the company ready for a future IPO." On the launch of its “DB Campaign” back in 2001, Deutsche Bahn had already promised positive results by the year 2004. “We have kept our word,” explained Mehdorn, “although the market and competitive environment have proved to be far more difficult than we had predicted and have called for additional internal action.” He added that the company’s success was the result of hard work and substantial Group-wide efforts which were still continuing. “Strict cost management and further increases in productivity are necessary if we are to stay on course to become a competitive and value-generating company."
In 2004, the largest contributions to revenues and results again came from the business units Regio (local passenger transport) and Schenker. Performance by Schenker, the internationally operating logistics services provider, was highly positive: the company succeeding in passing the revenue mark of eight billion euros for the first time and – assisted by positive impetus from the economic upswing especially in the Asian markets, but also in Eastern Europe and America – also managed to expand its market position. Schenker and other non-rail activities meanwhile account for some 40 percent of total DB Group revenues, which in 2004 amounted to approx. 24 billion euros. The decline of around 15 percent compared with the preceding year was due to the sale of activities which did not belong to the core business. This referred in particular to the sale of the Brenntag and Interfer companies (at the beginning of financial year 2004) from the Stinnes takeover in 2002.
Transport performance trends by the DB Group during the financial year 2004 – in terms of the overall market trends for the passenger and freight transport sectors in each case – were encouraging: whereas the German passenger transport market declined by roughly one percent, the rail transport performance of the DB Group could be increased by one percent to approx. 70.3 billion passenger kilometers (pkm), which means that Deutsche Bahn again succeeded in winning market shares compared with private traffic. A major factor was the turnaround in Long-distance Transport, where transport performance was 2.3 percent up on last year, reaching a figure of 32.3 billion pkm. This reflects the positive effects of the measures launched in 2004, such as improving punctuality and numerous special fare offer campaigns. The German freight transport market booked a substantial increase of around six percent in 2004, strongly supported by the overall rail freight transport performance on the DB Group´s infrastructure, which grew at an above-average rate of 8.2 percent. Non-Group railways, which grew by some 50 percent, contributed some 3.2 percentage points to the overall rail freight transport growth.
With a good five percent increase in transport performance, which reached a level of approx. 78 billion ton kilometers, DB Group´s German rail freight transport unit Railion DeutschlandAG’s performance was in line with market trends. Including the international subsidiaries Railion Nederland N.V. and Railion Danmark A/S rail transport performance grew by 5.2 percent to 84 billion ton kilometers.
The intensive capital expenditures program resolved in 2001 and aimed at increasing the pace of modernization at Deutsche Bahn continued in 2004 at a still high level, with gross capital expenditures of some 7.2 billion euros. The decline of 1.9 billion euros compared with the preceding year can be attributed primarily to the substantial reduction in the government funds provided for infrastructure.
The total DB Group workforce as per December 31, 2004 was 225,512. Roughly every eighth DB employee works outside Germany.
The final annual figures for financial year 2004 will be announced at the Balance-Sheet Press Conference on May 25, 2005.