Lagos, Nigeria; 18 February 2021: All is set for the return of popular singing competition show, Nigerian Idol. The organizers of the show, MultiChoice Nigeria, has announced that the sixth season of the show will start airing on March 14, 2021, on DStv and GOtv.
The announcement was made at a virtual media session today, February 18, to officially unveil plans for the season.
Nigerian Idol Season 6 will premiere on DStv Channel 198 and GOtv Channel 29 on Sunday, March 14 at 6 pm with a special airing of the most memorable and entertaining moments from the auditions which took place late last year. The main episodes will air weekly starting Sunday, March 28 at 7 pm on Africa Magic Showcase, Urban and Family.
Speaking during the session, the Chief Customer Officer of MultiChoice Nigeria, Martin Mabutho said,
“This season of Nigerian Idol is like nothing you’ve ever seen. In line with our promise to always bring the best and most entertaining content to our customers, we have put together a show that we’re sure will have viewers on the edge of their seats.
Nigerian Idol is famed for producing superstars and this season, we’re going even bigger – with the grand prize and with everything else. We can’t wait to show you all we have planned.”
Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, Africa Magic’s Channel Director added,
“We believe that this season’s Nigerian Idol will produce a fresh crop of talent who will be well-grounded to conquer both the local and global music scene. This year, we received over 3,600 entries and I thank our outstanding judges for painstakingly reviewing every participant to ensure we got the best from the pool of entries.”
Mba-Uzoukwu went on to say that the company is following strict COVID-19 guidelines and will implement the necessary safety measures including social distancing, wearing of masks and daily temperature checks for the duration of the show.
MultiChoice Nigeria had previously unveiled the legendary creative entrepreneur, Obi Asika, singer Seyi Shay and celebrity DJ Sose as the judges on this season of the show.
The mix of judges with distinct experiences and backgrounds is one the organisers say will bring a dynamism to the show that the contestants will undoubtedly benefit from. This season of the show will be hosted by popular media personality, IK Osakioduwa.
Nigerian Idol season 6 is sponsored by Bigi and will air on DStv channel 198 & GOtv channel 29 starting March 14. Viewers can watch Nigerian Idol Season 6 via the DStv app on multiple devices at no additional cost. The app is available for download on iOS and Android devices.
Nigerian Idol will also be available in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Australia and 23 other countries via online streaming service, Showmax. This is in addition to the series being available across Africa on the streaming service.
For more information, visit www.africamagic.tv/nigerianidol. You can also follow the official Nigerian Idol social media pages for news and updates with the hashtag #NigerianIdol on Twitter @nigerianidol, Instagram @nigerianidol and Facebook www.facebook.com/nigidol
We are shamelessly a net importer of milk at the moment. In 2019, Nigeria only produced a paltry 523,599 tonnes of milk domestically.
Photo by Juliana Amorim
We consume about 1.3bn tonnes of milk annually, so spend between $1.2bn and $1.5bn annually to bridge the gap between production and consumption. Once we have these mega ranches in place, we must set them steep milk production targets.
Once more, we simply refuse to be productive. However, let us set ourselves the goal of joining these countries:
US – 91.3bn tonnes
India – 60.6bn tonnes
China – 35.7bn tonnes
Brazil – 34.3bn tonnes
Germany – 31.1bn tonnes
Russia – 30.3bn tonnes
France – 23.7bn tonnes
New Zealand – 18.9bn tonnes
Turkey – 16.7bn tonnes
UK – 13.9bn tonnes
Personally, I would build one mega ranch each in the six largest states of Nigeria and get a dairy company to open a nearby milk processing plant. If you have one such plant in Niger, Borno, Taraba, Yobe, Kaduna and Bauchi states, with each producing say 200m tonnes of milk a year, we are nearly there.
Written by:
Ayo Akinfe, born in Salford, Manchester, is a London-based journalist who has worked as a magazine and newspaper editor for the last 20 years. Ayo attended Federal Government College Kaduna and obtained his first degree in history from the University of Ibadan.
China, a country once known for producing imitiations of popular brands at a cheaper and faster rate is now known as a country at the frontier of innovation and technology.
New products, platforms and services are being created, enabled and driven by innovation and technology with the help of opportunity mapping.
Shanghai, China | Photo by Nuno AlbertoChina’s share in poor countries’ debt to the G20 reached 63% – Report Brandspurng
Mapping and capturing opportunity is very vital in creating innovation and this should be done with respect to the target market needs and the cultural context in which they live in.
Societies are different even with the speed and power concentration created by globalization. Have you ever wondered why hero larger beer is a popular brand in the south-east and south-south regions of Nigeria, well it is because it was culturally designed in its packaging and Communication?
Mapping this cultural opportunity is one of the means by which China is growing as an innovative hub.
As Nigerians we all know about the Alaba market dominated by Igbos of the south-east and the production of goods in which many see as counterfeit products, maybe some are but many are just imitiations that can be made better with adequate money being pumped into the production.
Many products are created as a cheaper alternative to the original versions and similar names or the exact names of popular brands are placed on it. When will we start taking pride in our locally made products and encourage better inputs in order to generate quality and innovative output?
This same dilemma of pure imitation is what is being seen in the startup space in Nigeria, everyone is just out to copy what has been made probably because of the comfort it offers but does it really offer comfort because of the government always changing regulation.
One necessary question to be asked is how can we rise above imitiations and produce a value that transcends any unnecessary government regulation and open doors to new market outside Nigeria.
China did not wake up one morning to change the perception of inferior products or imitiations product, in fact, they are still fighting it through actions, marketing and communications, nation branding and other activities work together to fight the narrative and change perception and that is something we can borrow to change the perception of Alaba Market and even startup competing in already saturated markets.
Nigeria can learn a lot from the Chinese in terms of changing the narrative and not subtly selling the country. There is a lot of learnings from them and one of them is what is killing startups and even the Alaba Market in Nigeria which is government policies and regulations.
Favourable government policies and regulations should be formulated towards aiding innovation. Private companies and individuals cannot develop innovation solutions without the environment for it to thrive.
The lack of a friendly and enabling environment kills ideas and innovation. The Government has to come up with innovation-driven programmes and policy to help change the narrative. This provision of an enabling environment would also attract more investors as doubts would be removed.
Another area where we can learn from China is utilizing our population size to our advantage. We all know that we have no accurate population size in Nigeria but the speculated numbers are enough to be utilized.
The market size provides the potential for growth whenever an innovative solution is created with Mass appeal even though it is marketed initially as the solution for a particular set of people.
However, more than half of Nigerians belong to the poverty line. The emergence of this current generation is trying to force the increase in wealth distribution and cause the increase in middle-class families but obstacles keep raising to kill that initiative. Finding a way to tap into this market size is very important for innovative solutions to thrive.
There is one other important area where we can learn from China in order to make innovation thrive which is the creation of a unique business model created with our market in mind.
Like earlier stated, our culture and way of living are quite different from the westerners who thrive on individualism. Collectivism is our manner of living. That thinking that no man or no woman is an island and needs support from family or associations and groups they belong to.
What this means is that for innovation to thrive we need to view it from a cultural lens and create solutions that would generate social proof. Solutions that would gain social validation from the society would thrive faster than any other solution.
Also, while considering business model suited to the Nigerian environment, one must consider the Igbo Apprentice system where someone is brought from the village to learn to trade and after some years is given money to start up his or her own business while these systems might not be the best, it works and also has its merits and demerits especially if you are working with a bad boss.
This is an example of an existing business model in Nigeria that is within a particular culture and can be studied in order to create better versions that work within a culture.
Applying all or some of this learnings can change the way business is being done and the manner in which innovation fails in Nigeria. It can bring about a positive change to innovative practice and solutions.
Yesterday, the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman stated that the Federal government spends over N5 0.0bn monthly on subsidizing electricity supply across the country. The subsidies help to cover the shortfall in receipt collections by the Distribution Companies (DisCos) who continue to struggle with meeting up with obligations with NBET.
However, according to the Minister, the subsidy payments continue to weigh on government finances despite recent tariff adjustments.
% Payment by Discos to NBET
The sector remains riddled with agelong challenges such as decrepit infrastructure. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), a government monopoly responsible for transferring electricity from GenCos to DisCos suffers from high transmission losses, recording Aggregate, Technical and Commercial and Collection Losses (ATC&C), as high as 4 6% at some periods.
This results in the under-collection of electricity tariffs. Low metering levels are another constraint hampering liquidity flows in the sector (only 45% of consumers are metered). Low metering has led to a reliance on estimated billing by Discos, which leads to a higher consumers default.
In recent times, efforts have been made by the current administration to resolve the conundrum in the sector.
For example, in 2019, the much-celebrated Siemens AG Power Agreement deal was announced by the Federal government. Other efforts such as improving meter production were implemented.
From June 2021, the MYTO indicates the adoption of full removal of the subsidy regime, after a partial removal in 2020. In our opinion, efforts must be made to improve the infrastructure for a more efficient market.
Increased metering rate and reduction in transmission losses will support the adoption of a full cost-reflective tariff regime, which will improve the sector’s attractiveness regarding investments.
Enhanced Solution Delivers Impactful Metrics That Enable Advertisers To Better Evaluate Ad Effectiveness And Optimize Budgets Across Platforms
Feb. 18, 2021 – Nielsen today announced a new approach that moves away from third-party cookies to privacy-centric, people-based identifiers for Attribution. This new technique ensures advertisers and publishers are able to understand the entire consumer journey across platforms, better optimize their spend and prove the impact of advertising.
To combat the issue of data erosion and prepare for an increasingly fragmented future, Nielsen’s previously announced ID resolution system utilizes persistent, device-agnostic identifiers, enabling Nielsen to verify demographic characteristics and media exposure over time across all media.
By underpinning its audience and outcomes measurement products with this ID resolution approach, Nielsen is ensuring its products have the flexibility to adjust to ongoing technology and regulatory changes and support cross-media measurement.
Nielsen is transforming its digital data collection methods for Attribution to deliver a resilient, always-on solution for cross-device, person-level measurement.
As part of this rollout, Nielsen is introducing the Identity Sync, the industry’s first non-campaign specific tag that doesn’t depend on device IDs or the browser ecosystem. This enables always-on, real-time collection of advertiser data associated with individuals, the devices they use over time and the online actions they take.
In addition, it allows Nielsen to build deterministic matches between consumers and their ad exposures using persistent identifiers as the connector to each conversion event.
Nielsen has completed several pilots with select clients. Early findings have shown that shifting from a cookie-based solution to Nielsen’s persistent, identity-backed solution provides more accurate marketing measurement.
Barceló Hotel Group’s use of the Identity Sync provided a significant view of the customer journey, with 96% of conversions attributed to actual marketing touchpoints.
With the newfound read on customers’ behaviours, Barceló was able to effectively analyze its customers’ media touchpoints that led to bookings and sales, unlocking 9% of potential savings in key areas like paid search by shifting away from keywords not leading to conversions.
“Barceló tapped Nielsen for their expertise in attribution measurement to fulfill the gap of insights that were preventing us from fully optimizing our media activation. With Nielsen’s innovative approach,
we were able to take into account all measurable interactions along our customers’ journey and uncover waste to better allocate spend in the future,”said Johanna Álvarez, Adtech, Analytics & Attribution Manager at Barceló.
“The level of accuracy that Nielsen was able to produce using persistent identifiers was unmatched, and we feel more empowered than ever to make better marketing decisions as the industry moves away from cookies.”
The Identity Sync helps Nielsen solve for the ability to map digital footprints in the absence of third-party cookies. Among the key benefits:
Maximized Data Capture & Reconciliation: Being able to take into account all measurable customer interactions means that advertisers have a better view of each touchpoint along the customer journey and can effectively analyze which interactions actually led to the desired customer action and uncover waste, allowing them to save on underperforming investments.
Increased Cross-Device Clarity: As the sync collects multiple non-cookie-based identifiers of customers across their devices, Nielsen is able to provide an intelligent unified view of their path to conversion. As more publishers are integrated with the Nielsen ID System, our ability to resolve cross-device engagement continues to strengthen.
Adaptability & Flexibility: Introducing de-identified person-based identifiers into the model is essential to laying the foundation for the next generation of attribution solutions that is resilient against digital disruption and industry changes.
“At Nielsen, we’re committed to helping our clients navigate the cookieless world and unlock the next generation of metrics that enable them to drive outcomes, maximize reach, and optimize their budgets, “ said Matt Krepsik, GM of Planning & Outcomes Products at Nielsen.
“With our transformed approach to Attribution, we’re turning data into actionable insights so advertisers can understand the impact of their marketing efforts and publishers can continue to prove the impact of advertising on their platforms.”
Nielsen’s ID System and modernized Attribution approach are backed by its unique internal assets, direct integrations with publishers and advertisers, and our comprehensive measurement graph.
The Nielsen ID System will also utilize Nielsen’s panels to validate the graph and combine data across various data sources in a privacy-centric manner to map consumer journeys.
Nielsen’s ownership of the technology stack, data science expertise, back-end infrastructure and data sources will allow the company to maintain independence and approach ID resolution with a resilient system that can ingest new datasets as the industry evolves and new sources become available.
Nielsen’s next-generation approach to outcomes measurement is currently available globally for Nielsen Attribution.
Corporate institutions have continued to explore alternative financing options by tapping the debt capital market (DCM) to sustain their business activities and plug capital shortfalls.
The continuous admission of securities to FMDQ Exchange’s platform is reflective of the potential of the Nigerian DCM and the commendable level of confidence demonstrated by both issuers and investors in the market.
It also validates the efficient processes and integrated systems operated by FMDQ Holdings PLC (FMDQ Group or FMDQ), through its wholly-owned subsidiaries – FMDQ Exchange, FMDQ Clear Limited, FMDQ Depository Limited and FMDQ Private Markets Limited – and how these have sustained its uninterrupted service delivery to the market and its diverse stakeholders during this difficult time and as we forge ahead in 2021 and beyond.
In line with the value proposition of FMDQ Exchange, the CP shall be availed the benefits of the value-driven quotations service on the Exchange, including global visibility through its website and systems, liquidity credible price formation and continuous information disclosure through FMDQ’s Quoted Commercial Paper Status Report (QCPSR), to protect investor interest, amongst others.
Coronation Merchant Bank Limited (Coronation MB) provides merchant banking services, which include assets/fund management services, securities trading, treasury services, investment banking and corporate banking services to corporate institutions, institutional investors and high net worth individuals.
The Bank aims to place its clients ahead of the curve in their sphere of operations and by so doing, deliver sustainable value to its shareholders whilst positively impacting the Nigerian economy. This quotation will serve to enhance its liquidity buffers as it seeks to achieve its corporate objectives.
FMDQ Group is Africa’s first vertically integrated financial market infrastructure (FMI) group providing a one-stop platform for the seamless and cost-efficient execution, risk management, clearing, settlement and depository services, as well as data and information services across the debt capital, foreign exchange and derivatives markets in Nigeria.
The NSE ASI declined by 0.63%, a deeper fall than yesterday’s 0.19%. Year-to-date the market is in the red, down by 0.15%. The market capitalization currently sits at 21.04 trillion naira, a decline from yesterday’s 21.17 trillion naira.
All 5 sectors under coverage declined today. The Insurance sector was down by 1.54%, Oil & Gas sector was down by 0.20%, the Consumer Goods sector by 0.51%. The Banking and Industrial sectors declined by 2.60% and 0.13% respectively.
Afolabi Sotunde Illustration Naira
Investors’ sentiment was negative today. Market breadth was 0.33x, down from yesterday’s 0.33x, as only 10 stocks advanced in contrast with the 30 stocks that declined.
Fixed Income Market
The performance in the bond market was mostly flat. The yields of bonds with shorter tenors declined further. The FGN-MAR-2024 declined by 14 bps to 7.78% respectively, while the yields of the FGN-FEB-2028 and APR-2029 bonds remained unchanged at 10.45% and 10.43% respectively.
Treasury bills yields remain unchanged across 92-day, 182-day and 364-day tenors at 0.76%, 1.94% to 1.96% and 2.04% to 2.07% respectively.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Downward Trend Continues in the Market, All-Share Index Declines By 0.63%
Contrasting Activity At The Ends of The Yield Curve
U.S. Stocks Decline; Treasury Yields Resume High
Oil Briefly Tops $65 in London Amid Shockwaves From U.S. Freeze
Investment in agriculture, aquaculture and animal husbandry
Investment in power generation
Manufacturing of consumer goods
Production of industrial goods
Food processing
Steel processing
Railway and road expansion
Housing development
Automobile manufacturing
Producing pharmaceuticals
Photo by Cleyder Duque from Pexels
These are all areas in which we are desperately lacking at the moment and if we want to get out of this rut, production in these sectors need to be put on a war footing. When I look at how the US, UK and USSR expanded industrial output during World War Two, I can see the template we need to follow.
With the revival of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change following the election of President Joe Biden, fossil fuel demand and prices are in for a battering. I doubt if they will ever recover to pre-pandemic levels again but even if they do, it will be a short-term blip.
Nigeria basically has to manufacture her way out of poverty. To do this, industrial capital needs to be made widely available at rates close to zero.
Have you not noticed that Nigerians are brilliant at producing prototypes of products? However, I cannot think of one Nigerian firm that can deliver 1m units of a finished product in a year if awarded a contract to do so.
If for instance, the Nigeria Police Force wants 1m uniforms by July, is there one clothing manufacturer in Nigeria that can deliver on such an order? If say, the Africa Union wants 1m 10kg packs of processed gari by May, is there one Nigerian firm that can deliver this?
If the World Health Organisation wants say 1m syringes by June, is there one Nigerian firm that can deliver this? If Toyota wants 1m headlamps for one of its factories, is there one Nigerian firm that can deliver this?
I can go on and on. We are simply not productive enough as a people and this consumerist parasitism and import dependency are not sustainable.
It is only a matter of time before Nigeria collapses on our collective heads unless we start manufacturing. If I had my way, the lending rate for all the above items would be capped at 2%.
Written by:
Ayo Akinfe, born in Salford, Manchester, is a London-based journalist who has worked as a magazine and newspaper editor for the last 20 years. Ayo attended Federal Government College Kaduna and obtained his first degree in history from the University of Ibadan.
This is in addition to the several billions of Naira in economic stimulus packages provided by the monetary and fiscal authorities to help households and businesses cope with the ravaging effect of COVID-19.
Y-o-Y Real GDP Growth Rates
Sector-wise, the exit was propelled essentially by a 1.69% growth in the non-oil sector; with the Information & Communication, Agricultural and Real Estate sectors registering the biggest growth rates of 14.95%, 3.42% and 2.81% respectively.
The oil & gas sector, however, saw a 19.76% y-o-y decline in real output to N1.15 trillion (or USD7.63 billion) as average daily oil production fell quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) by 6.6% to 1.56 million barrels per day (mbpd) amid production cuts imposed by Opec+.
For full-year 2020, real GDP declined y-o-y by 1.92% to N70.01 trillion (or USD465.85 billion); with the non-oil sector moderating by 1.25% to N64.30 trillion (or USD427.82 billion) and the oil & gas sector plunging by 8.89% to N5.7 trillion (or USD38.01 billion).
Source: National Bureau of Statistics, Cowry Research
Information & Communication and Financial services sectors saw the biggest annual growth rates of 13.18% and 9.37% respectively while the Agricultural sector, the biggest contributor to real GDP at 26.31%, grew by 2.17%.
In line with our expectation, Nigeria’s economy remains well on track to see a convincing recovery amid a return to economic activities, the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine, strong crude oil prices and the numerous stimulus packages. We nevertheless expect the Nigerian authorities to take necessary measures to strengthen the fragile recovery.
Daimler AG today reported its results for the fiscal year 2020 ended December 31, 2020. In a challenging environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group’s total unit sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles decreased by 15%, to 2.84 million (2019: 3.34 million).
Revenue was €154.3 billion (2019: €172.7 billion), a reduction of 11%. Due to extensive cost and cash preservation measures and strong performances across all divisions, EBIT of the Daimler Group increased by 53% to €6.6 billion (2019: €4.3 billion). Adjusted EBIT, reflecting the underlying business, was €8.6 billion (2019: €10.3 billion).
Daimler AG – Annual Results Conference 2020, Stuttgart Daimler AG – Annual Results Conference 2020, Stuttgart
The figures are based on audited financial statements. The reporting structure and previous year’s figures have been adjusted to reflect the newly formed Group divisions.
“The year 2020 was a stress test for just about every company in almost every industry. The Daimler team mastered this test very well. Our products continue to be in great demand across all major markets and divisions.
With the rapid growth in our xEV sales and the introduction of new products and technologies, we have also taken important steps in terms of electrification and digitalization. Our financial results are significantly above market expectations reflecting substantial progress on cost-efficiencies.
In addition, we have achieved a significant margin improvement based on strong product mix and pricing – especially in the second half of the year.
Daimler AG – Annual Results Conference 2020, Stuttgart, (v.l.n.r.) Ola Källenius, Vorstandsvorsitzender der Daimler AG und Mercedes-Benz AG, Harald Wilhelm, Vorstandsmitglied der Daimler AG verantwortlich für Finanzen & Controlling und Daimler Mobility und Mercdes-Benz AG sowie Martin Daum, Vorstandsmitglied der Daimler AG & Vorstandsvorsitzender der Daimler Truck AG (f.l.t.r.) Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, Harald Wilhelm, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Finance & Controlling and Daimler Mobility and Mercedes-Benz AG as well as Martin Daum, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG
We proved our ability to generate substantial cash flow and to drive the ongoing transformation on our own – even under the adverse circumstances of a pandemic,” said Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG.
In 2020, net profit improved to €4.0 billion (2019: €2.7 billion). Net profit attributable to the shareholders of Daimler AG amounted to €3.6 billion (2019: €2.4 billion), leading to an increase in earnings per share to €3.39 (2019: €2.22).
At the Annual General Meeting on March 31, 2021, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of €1.35 per share (2019: €0.90). The total payout will therefore amount to €1.4 billion (2019: €1.0 billion).
“We are confident that we can maintain positive momentum if current market conditions prevail, accelerating our strategic plans and further enhancing our financial robustness.
The intended separation of our industrial businesses is designed to unlock the full potential for Mercedes-Benz as the world’s pre-eminent luxury car business, committed to leading in electric drive and car software, and Daimler Truck as the world’s largest truck and bus producer and technology leader,”said Källenius.
Daimler plans to spin-off and list Daimler Truck. It is intended that a significant majority stake in Daimler Truck will be distributed to Daimler shareholders.
Daimler Truck will have fully independent management, stand-alone corporate governance including an independent Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and is targeted to qualify for listing on Germany’s blue-chip DAX index.
The transaction and the listing of Daimler Truck on the Frankfurt stock exchange are expected to be completed before year-end 2021. In addition, it is also Daimler’s intention to rename itself as Mercedes-Benz at the appropriate time.
All further details about the intended spin-off will be presented to shareholders at an extraordinary shareholder meeting in Q3 2021 in order to obtain their mandatory approval for the plan.
Investments, free cash flow and liquidity
In 2020, at the Group, investments in property, plant and equipment decreased by 20% to €5.7 billion (2019: €7.2 billion). Research and development expenditure was €8.6 billion (2019: €9.7 billion) – a reduction of 11%.
The free cash flow of the industrial business amounted to €8.3 billion (2019: €1.4 billion). The adjusted free cash flow of the industrial business was €9.2 billion (2019: €2.7 billion). The net liquidity of the industrial business improved to €17.9 billion (end of Q3 2020: €13.1 billion/end of 2019: €11.0 billion).
Divisional results
Sales by the Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans division decreased by 13% to 2,461,800 vehicles (2019: 2,823,800). Revenue was €98.6 billion (2019: €106.9 billion). EBIT amounted to €5,172 million (2019: minus €109 million) and return on sales was 5.2% (2019: minus 0.1%).
Adjusted EBIT was €6,802 million (2019: €6,151 million) and adjusted return on sales was 6.9% (2019: 5.8%). Cash flow before interest and taxes (CFBIT) was €7,048 million (2019: €598 million). Adjusted CFBIT amounted to €7,917 million (2019: €1,939 million). The adjusted cash conversion rate (CCR) was 1.2 (2019: 0.3).
Sales by Mercedes-Benz Cars slipped by 13% to 2,087,200 vehicles (2019: 2,385,400). Mercedes-Benz Vans’ sales were down 15% to 374,600 (2019: 438,300).
In 2020, the average CO2 emissions of the new car fleet in Europe (EU28 – European Union, United Kingdom, Norway and Iceland) are expected to reach 104 g/km (2019: 137 g/km NEFZ, including vans registered as passenger cars). With this, the 2020 CO2 targets in the European Union have been met.
Daimler Trucks & Buses division showed a decrease in unit sales of 27% to 378,500 vehicles (2019: 521,100).
Revenue was €34.7 billion (2019: €44.4 billion). EBIT amounted to €525 million (2019: €2,672 million) and return on sales was 1.5% (2019: 6.0%). Adjusted EBIT was €678 million (2019: €2,672 million) and adjusted return on sales was 2.0% (2019: 6.0%). Cash flow before interest and taxes (CFBIT) was €2,513 million (2019: €2,654 million).
Adjusted CFBIT came in at €2,513 million (2019: €2,654 million). The adjusted cash conversion rate (CCR) was 3.7 (2019: 1.0). Sales by Daimler Trucks fell by 27% to 358,300 vehicles (2019: 488,500). Daimler Buses sold 20,100 vehicles (2019: 32,600) – a decrease of 38%.
At Daimler Mobility, new business decreased by 9% to €67.8 billion (2019: €74.4 billion). Contract volume was €150.6 billion (end of 2019: €162.8 billion). Revenue was €27.7 billion (2019: €28.6 billion).
The division’s EBIT amounted to €1,436 million (2019: €2,140 million). At 9.8%, return on equity was lower than the figure of 15.3% in the prior year. Adjusted EBIT was €1,595 million (2019: €1,827 million) and adjusted return on equity was 10.9% (2019: 13.1%).
Outlook for Daimler and divisions
With the expected rise in availability of effective vaccines to combat the COVID-19 virus and in the absence of further unexpected pandemic-related setbacks, Daimler assumes that the global economy will recover strongly in 2021.
Based on the expected market development and the current assessments of the divisions, Daimler anticipates Group sales, revenues and EBIT in 2021 to be significantly above the prior-year’s level.
Although bottlenecks in the semiconductor industry will impact sales mainly in the first quarter it is currently anticipated that lost production volume can be compensated for by the end of the year.
The divisions expect the following adjusted returns in the year 2021:
Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans: adjusted return on sales of 8 – 10%
Daimler Trucks & Buses: adjusted return on sales of 6 – 7%
Daimler Mobility: adjusted return on equity of 12 – 13%.
The business plan of Daimler covers the full year 2021 and is based on the existing Group structure, including Daimler Trucks & Buses. The spin-off of Daimler Truck, including significant parts of the related financial services business, will be examined before the end of 2021.
Before the spin-off, Daimler will reclassify Daimler Truck as discontinued operations. The expected considerable positive effects in the second half of the year cannot be reliably determined at present.
The adjusted cash conversion rate (ratio of cash flow to EBIT) for the Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans division in 2021 is expected to be between 0.7 and 0.9 and for Daimler Trucks & Buses between 0.8 and 1.0.
After exceptionally strong free cash flow in 2020 triggered by various successful measures to reduce costs and safeguard liquidity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Daimler for 2021 anticipates a healthy free cash flow of the industrial business on a normalized level. CFBIT adjusted from the industrial divisions is expected to be on the prior-year-level.
However, free cash flow adjusted includes higher tax payments and therefore will be below last year’s figure. Additionally, the reported free cash flow includes the payments agreed in September 2020 in the context of the settlement with the US regulators in civil law proceedings relating to diesel emissions.
Therefore, Daimler expects reported free cash flow to be significantly below the 2020’s figure.
In 2021, Mercedes-Benz Cars will push the xEV strategy forward and introduce four all-new EV models with the EQS, EQA, EQB and EQE as well as increase the proportion of PHEVs. Therefore, the division expects European passenger car CO2 emissions to be significantly below the previous year’s number.
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