Austrian plant engineering Andritz said it expects sales of over 4 billion EUR in 2011 and plans to increase sales to over 4.5 billion euros.

Wolfgang Leitner, President and CEO of ANDRITZ AG, specified the sales and earnings targets of the ANDRITZ GROUP for 2011 and 2012: "Based on the high order intake and good development in sales in the first half of 2011, we expect Group sales to rise above four billion Euros for 2011. For 2012, we are planning a further increase in sales to over 4.5 billion Euros in view of the good order intake and the acquisitions made in 2010 and 2011. We confirm our target to achieve an average EBITA margin of 7% over the cycle and also intend continuing our proactive dividend policy," said Leitner and added: "However, a possible significant downturn of the global economy would most likely impact the achievement of these goals."

Based on Group sales of 4.5 billion EUR, an EBITA margin of 7%, and a tax rate of 30%, earnings per share of about 4.23 EUR could be reached in 2012 (2008: 2.73 EUR per share; 2009: 1.89 EUR per share; 2010: 3.48 EUR per share), corresponding to an average annual growth of over 20% in earnings per share since 2000.

ANDRITZ plans to continue its dividend policy, which is focused on maintaining continuity, and aims to increase the dividend payout ratio steadily to approximately 60% in the next few years.