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World's leading maker of braking systems for trains and trucks, also supplying rail HVAC and door systems.
World's leading maker of braking systems for trains and trucks, also supplying rail HVAC and door systems.
Sells braking systems as original equipment to makers of trains and trucks, then supplies spare parts and servicing for decades afterward, which gives steadier aftermarket income. The Thiele family, through a holding company, controls the majority of shares. Rail tends to move on public investment, trucks on freight demand.
In one line: A pure-play WABCO/Wabtec braking-systems specialist.
Moat: wide (customer qualification, installed base, IP / patents). Safety-critical braking systems require long qualification cycles and dominate global rail/truck aftermarket.
Headquarters: Munich, Germany · Founded: 1905 · Employees: 30,913
Size Knorr-Bremse (KBX.DE) is a Germany Consumer Discretionary company (Auto Parts: OEM) with a market value of $17.1B, the 38th largest of 205 Germany companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at €94.45 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 9.4%, against -3.9% for the median peer and +2.6% for the Germany market (cap-weighted) — 9th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 3.6% over the last twelve months (peer median +13.6%); the operating margin is 12.9% (peer median 9.3%).
Valuation It trades at 20.7× forward earnings against a peer median of 20.6× (11th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 9% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is +4 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 5.3 points above its cost of capital (8.4% WACC).
Credit Knorr-Bremse has 3 bonds outstanding ($2.00B), rated A- by the agencies and trading like AA- at a weighted spread of 62 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 18 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €8.11B | €7.82B | €7.88B | €7.93B | €7.15B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | -1% | +11% | — |
| Gross profit | €1.98B | €1.69B | €1.70B | €1.60B | €1.32B |
| EBITDA | €1.46B | €1.26B | €1.19B | €1.22B | €1.03B |
| Net income | €618M | €534M | €445M | €553M | €489M |
| Free cash flow | €985M | €831M | €802M | €623M | €323M |
| Capital expenditure | €355M | €331M | €346M | €375M | €352M |
| Total debt | €3.18B | €3.08B | €3.95B | €2.76B | €2.85B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knorr-Bremse KBX.DE | $17.1B | -9% | +4% | 13% | 20.7× | 8.6% |
| Wabtec WAB | $47.6B | +7% | +13% | 18% | 23.8× | 17.0% |
| Nabtesco 6268.T | $2.77B | -28% | -8% | 9% | 17.6× | 7.8% |
| Saf-holland SFQ.DE | $1.11B | +9% | 0% | 8% | 13.2× | 0.9% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | KBX.DE | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -3.4% | 0.0% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -9.4% | -3.9% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -18.3% | -23.8% | 9th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +3.6% | +13.6% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 12.9% | 9.3% | 8th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 20.7× | 20.6× | 11th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 8.6% | 8.9% | 11th least demanding of 21 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.9% | +9.3% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +3.7 pp | -4.4 pp | 8th most demanding of 21 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +5.3 pp | +1.5 pp | 6th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 11.7× | 10.1× | 8th most expensive of 16 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.2× | 0.9× | 4th most indebted of 16 |
| Bond spread | 62 bp | 117 bp | 2nd tightest of 6 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knorr-Bremse KBX.DE | Germany | $17.1B | -9% | +4% | 13% | 20.7× | 8.6% | +4.9% |
| Samvardhana Motherson International MOTHERSON.NS | India | $17.9B | +22% | +14% | 6% | 30.2× | 30.9% | +17.0% |
| Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic 601100.SS | China | $17.9B | -15% | +31% | 24% | 38.2× | 24.0% | +6.9% |
| Magna International MG.TO | Canada | $16.1B | +4% | 0% | 6% | 8.2× | 0.1% | +6.0% |
| ITT ITT | United States | $18.4B | 0% | +28% | 17% | 21.6× | 20.9% | +9.7% |
| Bosch BOSCHLTD.NS | India | $15.8B | +34% | +14% | 12% | 49.7× | 46.8% | +15.7% |
| Mobis 012330.KS | South Korea | $22.3B | -18% | +4% | 6% | 8.3× | -1.0% | +10.8% |
| Shenzhen Inovance Technology 300124.SZ | China | $23.0B | -17% | +19% | 10% | 27.0× | 21.3% | +31.4% |
| Weichai Power 2338.HK | Hong Kong | $24.0B | -50% | +14% | 7% | 11.0× | -7.0% | +2.6% |
| Cummins India CUMMINSIND.NS | India | $11.9B | -25% | +15% | 19% | 43.5× | 39.5% | +22.7% |
| Ningbo Tuopu 601689.SS | China | $11.7B | -26% | +11% | 9% | 29.9× | 15.3% | +35.4% |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries 5802.T | Japan | $27.3B | -47% | +14% | 9% | 11.4× | 13.3% | +11.9% |
| Trelleborg TREL-B.ST | Sweden | $10.1B | +19% | +2% | 19% | 22.9× | 9.6% | +2.6% |
| Aisin 7259.T | Japan | $9.78B | -14% | +6% | 4% | 10.0× | -0.3% | +7.7% |
| Donaldson DCI | United States | $9.77B | -2% | +5% | 16% | 19.5× | 8.3% | +6.4% |
| Allison Transmission ALSN | United States | $9.65B | -6% | +71% | 20% | 11.0× | 2.6% | +7.7% |
| Niterra 5334.T | Japan | $9.01B | +5% | +16% | 19% | 9.9× | 4.0% | +11.3% |
| Denso 6902.T | Japan | $32.5B | -1% | +7% | 7% | 12.1× | 3.4% | +8.8% |
| Autoliv ALV | United States | $8.89B | +2% | +4% | 10% | 11.0× | 2.6% | +7.7% |
| HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA HLE.DE | Germany | $8.26B | -7% | -1% | 5% | 34.7× | 2.4% | +6.1% |
| UNO Minda UNOMINDA.NS | India | $8.11B | +16% | +19% | 8% | 53.6× | 46.9% | +25.0% |
Knorr-Bremse has 3 bonds outstanding with $2.00B face value. The agencies rate it A-; its bonds trade like AA-. Weighted yield 3.63%, a spread of 62 bp over government bonds.