Full-year operating profit nearly 4 billion yuan, lighting giant Acuity Brands announces latest results

Acuity Brands is a well-known lighting company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, focusing on the design, production and sales of indoor and outdoor lighting solutions. Currently, Acuity Brands' products and solutions are widely used in commercial, residential, industrial and agricultural fields.

According to TrendForce's latest report "2024 Global LED Lighting Market Analysis-2H24", in 2023, Acuity Brands ranked second on the revenue ranking list of the top ten LED lighting manufacturers in the world.

Recently, Acuity Brands released its fourth quarter and full-year performance report for fiscal year 2024. Acuity Brands said that the company's strong execution drove the company to achieve net sales growth, margin expansion and earnings per share improvement in the fourth quarter, and generated significant cash flow.

Specifically, as of August 31, Acuity Brands achieved net sales of US$1.03 billion (approximately RMB 7.332 billion) in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024; operating profit was US$157 million (approximately RMB 1.118 billion), a year-on-year increase of US$47.3 million.

Operating profit accounted for 15.2% of net sales, a year-on-year increase of approximately 430 basis points. Adjusted operating profit was US$179 million, a year-on-year increase of US$16.2 million, accounting for 17.3% of net sales, a year-on-year increase of approximately 120 basis points.

For the full year of fiscal 2024, Acuity Brands achieved net sales of US$3.84 billion (approximately RMB 27.34 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 2.8%, in line with expected goals. Full-year operating profit was US$553 million (approximately RMB 3.937 billion), a year-on-year increase of US$79.9 million, accounting for 14.4% of full-year net sales, a year-on-year increase of approximately 240 basis points. Full-year adjusted operating profit was US$640 million, a year-on-year increase of 4,220 million US dollars. million, accounting for 16.7% of full-year net sales, a year-on-year increase of approximately 160 basis points.

Acuity Brands said that in the fourth quarter, the company achieved net sales growth, profit margin expansion and improved earnings per share in both the lighting and lighting control business (ABL) and the intelligent space group (ISG) business. Looking back at fiscal year 2024, it is a year of improved operating performance for the company.

Looking at the performance of each business segment, the net sales of ABL business in the fourth quarter were US$955 million, a year-on-year increase of 1.1%. ABL's operating profit was US$161.5 million, a year-on-year increase of US$43.7 million, accounting for 16.9% of net sales, a year-on-year increase of approximately 440 basis points. Adjusted operating profit was US$171.9 million, a year-on-year increase of US$13.2 million, accounting for 18.0% of net sales.

For the full year of fiscal 2024, ABL’s net sales were US$3.6 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 4%. Operating profit was US$582.8 million, a year-on-year increase of US$73.3 million, accounting for 16.3% of net sales, a year-on-year increase of approximately 260 basis points. Adjusted operating profit was US$624.2 million, a year-on-year increase of US$33.7 million, accounting for 17.5% of net sales.

In terms of ISG business, its net sales in the fourth quarter were US$83.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 16.7%. Operating profit was US$16.7 million, a year-on-year increase of US$7.3 million, accounting for 19.9% ​​of net sales. Adjusted operating profit was US$21.5 million, a year-on-year increase of US$7.3 million, accounting for 25.6% of net sales.

For the full year of fiscal 2024, ISG’s net sales were US$291.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 15.5%. Operating profit was US$43.6 million, a year-on-year increase of US$11.5 million, accounting for 14.9% of net sales. Adjusted operating profit was US$63.4 million, a year-on-year increase of US$13.3 million, accounting for 21.7% of net sales.

Looking forward to fiscal year 2025, Acuity Brands expects net sales to increase slightly compared with fiscal year 2024, and is expected to reach US$3.9 billion to US$4.1 billion.

Summary

Although Acuity Brands' performance in the fourth quarter rebounded year-on-year, its performance for the whole year is still declining, which also reflects the current situation of the LED lighting market.

TrendForce Consulting pointed out in the "2024 Global LED Lighting Market Analysis-2H24" report that in the first half of 2024, market demand was suppressed due to end consumers reducing spending, and the LED general lighting market overall showed weakness.

However, as the general lighting market seizes the limited stock market with preferential prices, more manufacturers have begun to further promote lighting products based on human factors lighting, rhythmic lighting and healthy lighting, and further focus on the development of lighting subdivisions.

Therefore, Acuity Brands has also recently launched Nightingale, a new medical lighting brand, to seek more new opportunities in market segments.

Looking forward to 2H24, TrendForce predicts that the global economy will be affected by Weak and real estate market investment has slowed down significantly, and the terminal LED general lighting market demand is still not recovering well. On the other hand, the LED lighting product structure is differentiated by product demand in regional markets and the rise of emerging market demand is conducive to the continued increase in shipments of mid- to low-end products, partially offsetting the negative impact of poor demand in traditional regional markets. TrendForce estimates that lighting LED output value will decline slightly to US$3.518 billion in 2024 (-1.3% YoY).