Frequently asked questions

Questions on KONE’s business

  • As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for service and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Elevators and escalators make up the majority of KONE’s sales. KONE operates in all customer segments in the elevator and escalator industry, such as the residential, commercial, infrastructure and special buildings as well as the marine and offshore segments.

    More information on the solutions offered by KONE

  • In 2023, New Building Solutions accounted for 45%, Service for 38%, and Modernization for 17% of KONE’s total sales. By region, sales in EMEA accounted for 41%, in Americas for 23%, and in Asia-Pacific for 36% of KONE's 2023 total sales.

  • KONE operates in more than 60 countries around the world, serving close to 600,000 customers. It has authorized distributors and agents in close to 100 countries. KONE has 10 manufacturing units and seven global R&D centers.

    More information on KONE’s global presence and production

  • In 2023, the sales in China was approximately 26% and in the United States 19% of the Group’s total sales. KONE’s ten biggest geographical market areas in terms of sales (in addition to the aforementioned) included Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, India, Finland and Canada.

  • The ten largest countries, measured by number of personnel, are China, the United States, India, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

  • Every day, around 200,000 people move into cities across the globe. At KONE, our mission is to improve the flow of urban life. We understand urbanization and help our customers make the best of the world’s cities, buildings and public spaces. Our vision is to create the best People Flow® experience. We believe our vision can be best achieved by working together with our customers and partners in every step of the process. Our strategy guides us towards our vision.

    KONE's strategic phase 2021-2024 is called 'Sustainable success with customers'. During the four-year strategy period, KONE will focus on increasing the value it creates for customers with new intelligent solutions and will embed sustainability even deeper across all of its operations.

    To bring the strategy to life, we have introduced four Ways to Win with our customers. Each of the Ways to Win has a number of development programs within them, which will be the practical way to make progress in our daily work.

    More information on KONE’s strategy.

  • There are four global large elevator and escalator companies. These are, in addition to KONE: Otis, Schindler, and thyssenkrupp Elevator. There are also many more local competitors. The new equipment business has a much higher degree of consolidation than the service business.

  • KONE’s management consists of a Board of Directors and an Executive Board. KONE is divided into four geographical areas (Americas; Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa; Europe; and China), whose success is supported by seven global functions (Commercial & Operations; Technology & Innovation; Supply Chain; Strategy & Transformation; People & Communications; Finance; and Legal). KONE applies the Finnish Corporate Governance Code.

    More information on KONE’s organization
    More information on KONE’s governance

  • KONE provides solutions and services to close to 600,000 customers.

    New Building Solutions: Developers, builders, consultants, architects, building owners

    Service: Building owners, housing corporations, facility managers

    Modernization: Building owners, housing corporations, facility managers

  • Measured by new elevator and escalator units, KONE estimates its market share to have been around 19% in 2022. KONE estimates the market size and KONE's market share annually in the first quarter of the year.

    KONE’s estimate of the size of the global market

  • The raw materials with the most significant financial impact for KONE are steel, stainless steel, copper, aluminium and rare earths, which are used in elevator and escalator parts. Fuel prices have an impact on KONE as well, with KONE’s large service fleet of service vehicles.

Questions on KONE shares & shareholders

  • KONE's Extraordinary General Meeting on 2 December, 2013 approved the proposal by the Board of Directors on a share issue without payment and an extraordinary dividend. In the share issue without payment, the number of shares in the company is increased by issuing new shares to the shareholders without payment in proportion to their holdings so that one class A share will be given for each class A share and one class B share will be given for each class B share. The company’s share capital does not change following the share issue.

    The share issue will be implemented in the book-entry system and does not require measures by the shareholders. Shareholders who are registered in the company’s shareholder register on the record date, December 5, 2013, are entitled to the shares. New shares will produce shareholder rights as of the registration of the share issue; however, the new shares will not entitle their holders to the dividend approved by the Extraordinary General Meeting on December 2, 2013.

  • The share issue without payment will be implemented in the book-entry system and does not require any measures from the shareholder.

  • KONE has two classes of shares, of which class B shares are publicly traded. At shareholders’ meetings, each class A shares yields one vote. Ten class B shares yield one vote, with the provision that all shareholders have at least one vote.

  • KONE is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. Stock Exchange in Finland. KONE has been listed since 1967. KONE’s shares are also traded on various alternative trading platforms.

    More information on KONE's shares

  • A monthly updated table on KONE’s largest shareholders is available here. Please note that the table excludes foreign nominee registered shareholders. You can also see flagging notifications here.

  • Information about KONE's management shareholding can be found here.

  • KONE does not have a specific dividend policy. The dividend proposal by the Board is determined on the basis of the overall business outlook, business opportunities, as well as the present capital structure and the anticipated changes in it.

    More information on KONE's dividend history

  • All shareholders on the dividend record date are entitled to a dividend.

Updated: November 2023

Questions on the war in Ukraine

On October 24, 2023, we announced that we completed the sale of our Russia operations to Russia-based S8 Capital diversified Holding. The closing of the deal means that KONE is now fully divested from Russia. The value of the transaction is not disclosed. At the time of closing the deal, KONE employed around 300 people in Russia and the business accounted for less than 1% of KONE's global sales.

  • We have a country organization in Ukraine and have appr. 40 employees working for KONE in the country. Of course, the safety of all our employees, their families, and customers is the number one priority for us.

    We are supporting our colleagues and customers in Ukraine and will continue to follow the situation closely. We have formed global and local crisis coordination teams and are working together, cross borders, to manage the situation.

    Conflicts like this create uncertainty in the markets, our priority now is the safety of our employees and customers.

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