OREANDA-NEWS. The Schaffner Group estimates that sales for fiscal year 2014/15 and for the first half will remain at the prior-year level, based on current exchange rates. The EBIT margin is expected to be around 3% for the first half (prior year: 4.8%) and around 5% for fiscal year 2014/15 (prior year: 7.0%).

The removal of the CHF/EUR floor on 15 January 2015 will reduce the EBIT margin in fiscal year 2014/15 by around 1 percentage point, mainly due to translation effects and a higher percentage of fixed costs in CHF.

While the Automotive division continues to develop in line with targets, the EMC division is witnessing a marked fall in orders from the photovoltaic inverter industry in China, where domestic demand for the high-quality solutions of Schaffner has collapsed. In addition, an important European customer widely reduced its purchases of components from the Power Magnetics division for rail technology in the Russian end market.

The decline in sales in the EMC division has been partly offset by increasing demand for active and passive ECOsine harmonic filters. In the short term, however, considerable investments in the development of a new generation of active harmonic filters and in strengthening the distribution and support organization for power quality solutions are reducing the profitability of the division.

In the current situation Schaffner will continue pushing ahead with its strategic growth projects. However, measures will be introduced to increase process efficiency, which will bring about a reduction in personnel costs in Switzerland in the mid-single-digit percentage range.