AUTOMOTIVE STUDY 2025 / Šaroch (ed.) et al.

slightly lower values. e average ROCE level in the period under review is 7.2% for PL companies and 7.8% for SK companies. Fig. 4.2 : Dendrogram of return on capital employed (ROCE) values of automotive companies in the countries considered between 2014 and 2023

It should be noted that the identi ed similarity in ROCE between these countries is driven by di erent value drivers. While PL and SK companies achieve comparable levels of ROCE, in the case of SK the key driver is the turnover of invested capital, which is the highest among the countries studied (see Table 4.4), while in the case of PL it is the operating pro t margin (see Table 4.3). e similarity of the ROCE of HU and DE rms also has di erent reasons. HU shows lower operating pro t margins than DE, although there is considerable volatility in both countries. A major di erence is the development in the post-covariance period, with DE reaching the highest level of pro tability in the whole period under review, especially in 2021. In contrast, Hungarian companies have not managed to return to the pre-2018 levels after 2020.

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