ABB: quarterly profit falls 21% on Covid impact

(CercleFinance.com) - ABB on Wednesday reported second-quarter profit that is down 21%, as the world's largest maker of power grids saw its sales badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.


The power equipment maker said operational earnings before interest, tax and amortization (EBITA) dropped to 651 million dollars in the past quarter, from 825 million dollars a year ago.

Meanwhile, second-quarter sales fell by 18% to 6 billion dollars, with comparable sales down 14%.

However, the Zurich-based ABB said operational margins turned out "better than (it) had anticipated," with an EBITA margin of 10.6%, down just 90 basis points year-on-year.

ABB also said that it will launch its previously announced share buyback program on 23 July, initially planning to buy 10% of its share capital, for a total of 4.2 billion Swiss francs (about 4.5 billion dollars).

The shares were trading up 2% on Wednesday morning following all these announcements.

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