Continental AG produced disappointing numbers in 2019, though its turnover of €44.5 billion was largely unchanged from the year before. That’s because the company produced an operating loss of €268 million, its first such loss in a decade, while its consolidated earnings after taxes sank to a loss of €1.2 billion. Its EBIT, when adjusted, fell from €4.1 billion to just €3.2 billion, reducing its profit margin from 9.3 percent to 7.4 percent year-on-year. Weakness in China’s automobile market forced it to issue a profit warning last July and to announce a ten-year cost savings program designed to shave €500 million in outlays beginning in 2023. Controversially, this would cost 20,000 employees their jobs, including 7,000 Germans. If there’s a bright side, it’s that the profit margin for its core product, tires, remains high at 14.9 percent. But at the moment, the market is so bleak, Continental is unable to provide investors with forecasts for the year.
