The 6th Baader Investment Conference continued on a strong momentum yesterday. On the third of four days, 29 companies held presentations. In addition, we arranged close to 400 individual and small-group meetings between investors and nearly 50 companies.

Herer the key takeouts of voestalpine :

voestalpine confirms its FCF-generating business approach. Unchanged is the approach to invest into high end products and further downstream production sites. The next business year should be able to deliver a FCF well above EUR 600mn with the option of an extra dividend. Unchanged is the 15% ROCE target, which requires an EBIT margin above 10%.

Business outlook:

voestalpine is well utilized until the end of the business year. Based on the current margin situation, the company should be able to deliver an EBIT of more than EUR 1bn. Only the rail production and parts of the O&G-related businesses are below long-term trends. Every other part of the company delivered to a result that reached a pre-Lehman level.

Points of interest:

This year’s FCF will be affected by higher WC because of high activities, rising prices and a further buildup because of next year’s furnace relining. They intend to achieve more than EUR 200mn regardless. Next year this will reverse and result in a very high FCF. Demand from the auto industry is continuously strong.