Annual report 2019 Technologically, our world is in flux. New developments are fundamentally changing the way we live. In times like these, there is an urgent need for technology that is “Invented for life.” We aim to satisfy this need. Keeping areas of future importance firmly in our sights, we are drawing on our company’s wealth of knowledge and pro- found technological expertise to develop life-enhancing innovations. The digital magazine that accompanies our latest annual report highlights just some of them. annual-report.bosch.com Contents Foreword 2 Board of management 4 Supervisory board report 8 Supervisory board, industrial trust, 10 and international advisory committee Highlights 12 2019 Robert Bosch Stiftung 16 Group management report management Group Group management report 18 of the Bosch Group Consolidated financial statements 62 of the Bosch Group Auditor’s report 158 List of graphs and tables 162 Publishing details 163 Ten-year summary 164 of the Bosch Group BUSINESS SECTORS Mobility Industrial Consumer Energy and Building Solutions Technology Goods Technology Powertrain Solutions Packaging Technology 2 Power Tools 4 Building Technologies Chassis Systems Control Drive and Control Technology 3 BSH Hausgeräte GmbH Thermotechnology Electrical Drives Bosch Global Service Solutions Car Multimedia Other businesses: Automotive Electronics Bosch Connected Industry Other businesses: Automotive Aftermarket Robert Bosch Manufacturing Robert Bosch Smart Home GmbH Automotive Steering Solutions GmbH Connected Mobility Solutions Bosch eBike Systems1 Other businesses not allocated 1. New division from January 1, 2020 Other businesses: to business sectors: 2. Until December 31, 2019: Bosch Engineering GmbH Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH Robert Bosch Packaging Technology GmbH 5 ETAS GmbH Bosch.IO GmbH 3. Bosch Rexroth AG (100 % Bosch-owned) ITK Engineering GmbH grow platform GmbH 4. Robert Bosch Power Tools GmbH Two-Wheeler and Powersports Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH 5. Until December 31, 2019: Bosch Software Innovations GmbH Figures in millions of euros 2019 2018 Sales revenue 77,721 78,465 KEY DATA percentage change from previous year –0.9 0.5 percentage of sales revenue generated outside Germany 80 79 Research and development cost 6,079 5,963 as a percentage of sales revenue 7.8 7.6 Capital expenditure 4,989 4,946 as a percentage of depreciation 146 159 Associates average for the year 407,538 407,485 as of December 31 398,150 409,881 Total assets 89,030 83,654 Equity 41,079 39,176 as a percentage of total assets 46 47 EBIT 2,903 5,502 as a percentage of sales revenue 3.7 7.0 Profit after tax 2,060 3,574 Unappropriated earnings (dividend of Robert Bosch GmbH) 119 242 Energy and Building Technology The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 400,000 asso- ciates worldwide (as of December 31, 2019). The company generated sales of 77.7 billion euros in 2019. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT provider, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, Industry 4.0, and connected mobility. Bosch is pursuing a vision of mobility that is sustainable, safe, and exciting. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Group’s strategic objective is to facilitate connected living with products and solutions that either contain artificial intelligence (AI) or have been developed or manufactured with its help. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is “Invented for life.” The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 440 subsidiary and regional companies in 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. Bosch employs some 72,600 associates in research and development at 126 locations across the globe, as well as roughly 30,000 software engineers. The company was set up in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch (1861–1942) as “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering.” The special ownership structure of Robert Bosch GmbH guarantees the entrepreneurial freedom of the Bosch Group, making it possible for the company to plan over the long term and to undertake significant upfront investments in the safeguarding of its future. Ninety-two percent of the share capital of Robert Bosch GmbH is held by Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, a charitable foundation. The majority of voting rights are held by Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG, an industrial trust. The entrepreneurial ownership functions are carried out by the trust. The remaining shares are held by the Bosch family and by Robert Bosch GmbH. bosch.com facebook.com/BoschGlobal bosch-press.com twitter.com/BoschGlobal youtube.com/BoschGlobal 2 Bosch annual report 2019 Foreword Foreword “The prospects for Bosch are scintillating, even if the upheavals in markets and technology pose huge challenges for our company.” 3 Bosch annual report 2019 Foreword Dear readers, the more so with competition becoming tougher and profits being squeezed harder. This will Bosch is both a company at the cutting edge and a company in place considerable demands on our executives upheaval. and our associates. We will have to pursue our vision for the future while observing strict cost We are working on areas that will affect all our futures, and discipline. We will have to establish new fields of investing billions in such work. We are turning our visions activity while also restructuring existing ones. of sustainable, safe, and exciting driving into reality. We are We will need motivated executives and associates, shaping the factory of the future – a factory that is highly flexible, yet will also have to make adjustments, some of productive, and eco-friendly. Thanks to our solutions, buildings them difficult. are becoming more energy efficient, secure, and comfortable than ever. And our electronic devices and household appliances What makes this delicate balancing act so challeng- are offering users optimum ease in their daily lives. To achieve ing is that we must also be prepared to readjust this, we are connecting our electronic products with the internet, our strategy again and again over the course of making them smart, and offering additional services. We are the coming decade. The unknown quantities are developing novel microchips, fuel cells, production methods, manifold – whether geopolitical circumstances and software, extending our expertise in artificial intelligence or the actual form the connected world will take. and the internet of things – and modifying already successful But we firmly believe that this challenge is worth products. In this context, we have drawn up guidelines for our rising to. The opportunities for the Bosch Group work on AI. Our maxims are that artificial intelligence should are enormous. Our nearly 400,000 associates serve people, that it should be safe, robust, and explainable, also play their part here, with their profound and that people should retain control over it. As our contribution expertise and boundless ingenuity. to climate action, we want all Bosch locations worldwide to be carbon neutral from 2020. With all this in mind, we have given our annual report the title “Innovation for times of transition.” The On behalf of the board of management, I would many examples profiled in the digital magazine make our pioneer- like to thank our business partners for their report management Group ing work tangible, and our “factbook” documents the progress we support and the trust they have placed in us have made in the area of sustainability. as well as our associates for their tremendous commitment and hard work. We would also like Our prospects are scintillating. Yet the technological and market to thank the employee representatives for their upheavals they entail present our company, its executives, and its willingness to engage in constructive dialogue, workforce with huge challenges. At the present time, this applies even in difficult times, and the shareholders and especially to Mobility Solutions, our biggest business sector. the supervisory board for their support. There, we are having to steel ourselves for changes, some of them painful, in such successful areas of activity as powertrain With best regards, technology. For our associates in these areas, our aim is to make any adjustments as socially acceptable as possible. In addition, we are having to readjust some parts of our company portfolio. That said, a broad footprint will always remain a Bosch strength. Dr. Volkmar Denner Both this pioneering work and these upheavals demand a lot Chairman of the board of management of money, and will initially be a burden on our result. Yet as a company, Bosch – whose ownership structure with the Stiftung and the Bosch family allows it a high degree of independence – depends on strong profitability and the ability to finance itself, in order to turn visions of the future into concrete success. Especially on the cost side, therefore, we have a formidable task ahead, all 4 Bosch annual report 2019 Board of management Board of management 5 Bosch annual