Assa Abloy: posts lower quarterly profit and sales

(CercleFinance.com) - Swedish lock company Assa Abloy reported lower quarterly profit and sales on Friday, but said it expects its financial performance to gradually pick up.


The Stockholm based firm said that operating profit (EBIT) fell by 44% to 2.1 billion Swedish kronor in the second quarter, corresponding to an operating margin of 10.5%, down from 15.9% one year ago.

Its net profit fell to 1.4 billion kronor, from 2.6 billion kronor in the same period one year earlier.

Meanwhile, quarterly net sales fell 15% to 19.9 billion kronor, down 18% in organic terms.

On a brighter note, Assa Abloy cited "improvements in demand" since lockdown restrictions have been gradually eased.

"If there are no significant new negative events, we expect the financial performance to continue to gradually improve," the firm said in a statement.

Its shares were down 1.5% on Friday morning, underperforming the Swedish blue-chip OMXS30 index, which was up 0.8%.

Copyright (c) 2020 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.