€186 million windfall for Philips thanks to U.S. import tariff refunds

Refunds of United States import tariffs were a major windfall for Philips in the second quarter. The healthcare technology group received €186 million back from the U.S. government after the Supreme Court declared a large portion of the Trump Administration’s import tariffs unlawful in February.

Including the refund, Philips booked an income from operations of €609 million in the second quarter and a profit margin of 16.4 percent. The U.S. tariff refund accounted for 4.2 percent of the profit margin.

This was a once-off windfall, largely due to the rapid paperwork Philips submitted after the Supreme Court ruling, CEO Roy Jakobs said when commenting on the results of the second quarter, ANP reported. In the third quarter, Philips will receive at most a few more million from that repayment.

According to Jakobs, Philips is one of the first companies to be refunded. “I am very happy to have that in the bank.”

Thanks to the windfall, Philips raised its forecast for this year. Philips now expects a profit margin of 13.5 to 14 percent. Previously, this was 12.5 to 13 percent.

The company is struggling with higher costs for plastic, energy, and transport due to the war in the Middle East. The costs of chips are also rising due to high demand from the AI boom.

Jakobs could not provide an exact figure for these additional costs, but said they run into the millions of euros. Philips says it is offsetting these costs with efficiency and productivity improvements.