Beijer Electronics - Financial Statement 2016: Positive end to the Year, With Higher Order Intake and Improved Profit

MALMÖ, Sweden, Jan 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Fourth quarter   

• Order intake amounted to 331.1 MSEK (343.1).
• Net sales were 286.6 MSEK (333.0).
• Operating profit increased to 7.3 MSEK (-10.7).
• Profit/loss after tax was -8.7 MSEK (-12.5).
• Earnings per share were -0.47 SEK (-0.66).
    

Full year 2016

• Order intake amounted to 1,142.5 MSEK (1,332.6).
• Net sales of 1,121.5 MSEK (1,374.6).
• Operating profit/loss -39.4 MSEK (52.2). Profit was charged with non-recurring costs of 50 MSEK (7.3).
• Profit/loss after tax was -126.1 MSEK (23.8).
• Excluding non-recurring costs and impairment, profit/loss was -4.5 MSEK (31.1).
• Earnings per share were -6.61 SEK (1.26).
• The Board of Directors is proposing a dividend of 0 SEK per share (1.25).

Comments From President And Ceo Per Samuelsson

"Beijer Electronics finished the year on a positive note. The fourth quarter was the best of the year in terms of order intake, sales and operating profit. I'm especially pleased that order intake was up by over 20% on the average of the three preceding quarters. As expected, sales decreased, mainly due to the partnership with Mitsubishi Electric being discontinued at the beginning of the year. But despite this, we were able to improve operating profit, which went into the black in the quarter compared to 2015.

But we're not satisfied. Our sales and profit numbers are still too low. Despite this, progress in the final quarter demonstrates that we're going the right way and have good potential of achieving our targets of growth of 7% and an operating margin of 10% during 2018.

Essentially, we have now concluded the major realignment of the IAS business area which began in early 2016. The measures we took had the intended effect.

The reduction of our overheads has proceeded as planned. The number of employees within IAS is down by 15%. The organization has moved in a more customer-oriented direction and production has been rationalized.

For the full year, the loss of IAS's sales was nearly 200 MSEK, most being products from Mitsubishi Electric. We executed substantial change in the year, and reported positive profit rate in the latter part of the year. This demonstrates the goal-oriented nature and adaptability of our organization. And simultaneously, we are retaining our development resources. An all-new series of operator terminals has been launched, and there will be more introductions of hardwareand software in 2017.

In the IDC business area, Westermo achieved its best quarter yet in terms of order intake, with several new project orders, mainly in the Train segment. Korenix also made good progress, with order intake increasing by over 20%. Sales in IDC were down in the quarter due to order intake previously decreasing. Operating profit is at an unchanged level, due to improved gross margin and lower costs.

IDC's sales for the full year were lower due to a fairly sluggish market and fewer invoiced projects. These operations have a high project content, which means that order intake and sales vary between quarters. In the long term, this market is in good growth, and we maintained development activities at a high level, but adapted the rest of our operations to regular sales. Westermo has expanded its production capacity, and advanced its market positioning. Korenix's wireless communication initiative in surveillance and security progressed positively in the second half-year.

With the impairment of our holding in Altus Sistemas of Brazil of 72 MSEK in the third quarter and non-recurring costs of 50 MSEK in the first quarter totaling 122 MSEK, the group's loss for the full year was 126 MSEK. This has weakened our Balance Sheet. The Board of Directors has decided not to pay a dividend for the financial year 2016, the reason being the need to strengthen our Balance Sheet. We also want to retain room to act for ongoing development initiatives, which we regard as the most beneficial and positive for our shareholders for the long term.

The Beijer Electronics group has emerged stronger from the past year, with a significantly downscaled cost base, new, sharper product range and more customer-oriented sales organization. Accordingly, we expect the group to be able to achieve higher sales and better underlying operating profit in 2017 than achieved in 2016."  

Invitation To Conference Call

Today, a conference call will be held for press and analysts, where President and CEO Per Samuelsson and CFO Joakim Laurén present the company and comment on the report.

Time: Friday January 27, at 2.00 p.m. CET

To participate in the conference please dial:

From Sweden: +46 (0)85 664 2691
From UK: +44 (0)20 3008 9801

To access the presentation please use this link:
http://www.anywhereconference.com?UserAudioMode=DATA&Name=&Conference=131682006&PIN=17252987 

The report and the presentation will be available at Beijer Electronics' website www.beijerelectronics.com/ir. A recording of the conference call will also be available here after the event.

Welcome!

For more information please contact:

Per Samuelsson,
President and CEO,
Tel 46 (0)40 35 86 10,
Mobile 46 (0)708 58 54 40

Joakim Laurén,
CFO,
Ttel 46 (0)40 35 84 96,
Mobile 46 (0)703 35 84 96.

This information is such that Beijer Electronics AB (publ) is required to disclose in accordance  with the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act and EU's Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). The information was submitted for publication by Annika Johnsson at 13:00 CET, January 27, 2017.    

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