OTISOtis Worldwide Corporation

Otis makes lifts but earns not from them but from servicing those already installed.

Selling a new lift brings almost no profit: developers negotiate hard and there are several competitors. The point of the deal lies elsewhere — an installed lift is serviced for decades, and the service contract goes to whoever supplied it. Hence the industry's logic: new equipment is sold for the right to service it.

Service requires mandatory periodic inspections, carries a high and stable margin and barely depends on the construction cycle — a lift in an occupied building cannot be left unserviced. The weak point is China, where the collapse in housing construction sharply cut new unit deliveries and, with a lag, the future service base. The company pays a dividend and buys back stock actively.