Creating two companies with a bright future
After separating, Philips will focus on driving higher growth and higher value from its core activities in the field of health technology, and Lighting will have a great future as a stand-alone company.
Frans van Houten, CEO Royal PhilipsManagement summary
The year 2015
- Comparable sales rose 4.5% in our HealthTech portfolio, which combines our Healthcare and Consumer Lifestyle businesses. This illustrates the progress we are making in capturing opportunities in this large and growing market. Overall, comparable sales for the Group increased by 2% to EUR 24.2 billion.
- Our Healthcare business recorded 4% growth. More significantly, our order intake was up 5% for the year. This performance was supported by strong growth in North America and Western Europe – and a substantial rebound in China in Q4.
- Our Consumer Lifestyle business achieved a comparable sales increase of 6% year-on-year, driven by double-digit growth at Health & Wellness and high-single-digit growth at Personal Care.
- Lighting recorded another year of operational improvements, resulting in a substantial increase in profitability. We strongly improved the performance of our LED business, which grew by 25% on a comparable basis and significantly improved profitability. On a full-year basis LED now accounts for 43% of total Lighting sales. In the conventional lamps business we continued to gain market share in a declining market and improved profitability combined with a solid cash flow. The expected decline in conventional lighting led to a comparable sales decrease of 3% for our Lighting business overall.
- In line with our mission to improve people’s lives, we have embedded sustainability at the heart of our business processes, and Green Product sales increased to 54% of total revenues in 2015. In recognition of our sustainability achievements, Philips was named industry leader in the Industrial Conglomerates category in the 2015 Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
- EBITA totaled EUR 1.4 billion, compared to EUR 821 million a year earlier. Our three cost savings programs all delivered ahead of plan in 2015. We achieved EUR 290 million of gross savings in overhead costs, EUR 379 million of gross savings in procurement, and our End2End process improvement program delivered productivity savings of EUR 187 million.
- Net income amounted to EUR 659 million, a 60% increase from EUR 411 million in 2014.
- Free cash flow amounted to EUR 325 million in 2015, which was EUR 172 million lower than in 2014, mainly due to CRT litigation claims, higher outflows related to pension de-risking settlements, and net capital expenditures, partly offset by higher earnings.
- By the end of the year we had also completed 74% of the EUR 1.5 billion- share buy-back program.