Against the background of the war in the Ukraine, thyssenkrupp is putting on hold the plan to spin-off its steel business into a standalone unit, Kallanish notes.

The plan to create an entity separate from the listed thyssenkrupp AG was confirmed earlier this year, although executives could not provide a timetable for the process. Now, “implementing the stand-alone solution in this current unstable environment is not possible,” says chief executive Martina Merz. “We cannot yet foresee how the war and the business environment will continue to develop and we are unable to influence this.”

The group has also suspended its profit forecast for the 2021/2022 fiscal year, which runs from October 2021 through September 2022, in particular due to rising raw material prices. It earlier said it was expecting a net income of at least €1 billion ($1.1 billion) on an adjusted Ebit from €1.5 billion to 1.8 billion. It has not provided new forecast figures.

Although the group’s sales in Russia and Ukraine are negligible, at significantly less than 1% of total sales, executives assume that business performance will be impacted by the far-reaching macroeconomic and geopolitical consequences of the war.

Until the start of the war, business development at thyssenkrupp AG in the current quarter was going according to plan. In March, initial negative effects occurred primarily in the steel and automotive supply businesses, it notes.