ZURICH (Reuters) – ABB expects to increase its annual sales by a total of 6% to 9% each year from 2024, the Swiss engineering group said on Thursday, becoming the latest European industrial company to unveil more ambitious targets.
The goals, announced ahead of ABB’s investor day in Italy, were an upgrade from the previous annual revenue growth target of 4% to 7%.
Most of the sales will come from internal growth, ABB said, with an expected five to seven percentage points of extra revenue, while an additional one to two percentage points is expected from acquisitions.
ABB, which supplies industry and transportation networks with robots, electrification equipment and motors, also raised its core profitability target to a range of 16% to 19%.
The Zurich company, whose products include electric vehicle chargers and industrial controllers, had previously targeted an operational EBITA margin of at least 15% by 2023, a goal it achieved last year.
The raised goals follow recent updates by Germany’s Siemens and France’s Schneider Electric, which have also given confident assessments despite current global uncertainties.
The International Monetary Fund recently downgraded its forecast for global growth for next year, with advanced economies expected to significantly slow as interest rates rise.
“We are now coming out of this transformation period, and the majority of our divisions have progressed towards a strategic growth mandate,” said ABB Chief Executive Bjorn Rosengren in a statement ahead of the event in Frosinone, Italy.
He said ABB would benefit from the global transition towards lower carbon emissions and more sustainable technology, along with customers seeking to increase efficiencies, automate their factories more and digitalise their operations.
Roughly 70% of ABB’s business was now in growth mode, with the focus on internal growth.
ABB would also buy companies to fill technology gaps and focus on high growth markets, it added, aiming to buy five to 10 small to mid size companies per year.
(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Tom Hogue and Jacqueline Wong)
