Lundbergs: Interim Report January - June 2002


STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug. 22, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Lundberg:

-- Profit after full tax amounted to SEK 483 m. (1,943), which corresponds to SEK 7.78 (30.42) per share. Profit for the first half of 2001 included an extraordinary dividend of SEK 1,307 m. from Holmen.

-- On June 30, 2002, net asset value per share amounted to SEK 263 (Dec 31, 2001: 247) and SEK 233 (Dec 31, 2001: 220) after deferred tax. The corresponding values on August 21, 2002 were SEK 246 and SEK 221, respectively.


L E Lundbergforetagen AB (publ) 
Phone: +46-8-463 06 00/+46-11-21 65 00
Fax: +46-8-611 66 09/+46-11-21 65 65 
lundbergs@lundbergs.se
www.lundbergs.se

Company registration number: 556056-8817 Registered Head Office: Stockholm

The accounts are made up in accordance with the Swedish Financial Accounting Standards Council's recommendations. No accounting principles that have an effect on this report have been changed from the principles that were applied in the last annual report. This interim report has been prepared in accordance with the Swedish Financial Accounting Standards Council's Recommendation RR20 (Interim Reporting). Unless indicated otherwise, the figures presented below within parentheses pertain to comparative results for the corresponding period in the preceding year.

SALES AND PROFIT

The Group's net sales amounted to SEK 1,091 m. (2,330). Profit after financial items amounted to SEK 521 m. (1,852). Profit after full tax was SEK 483 m. (1,943), which corresponds to SEK 7.78 (30.42) per share. Sales and profit for the first half of 2001 were affected by an extraordinary dividend of SEK 1,307 m. from Holmen.

REAL ESTATE

Interim period Operating profit for the Real Estate business area amounted to SEK 184 m. (181).

Rental revenues from housing and commercial premises, which increased by 5.2% to a total of SEK 407 m. (387), developed well, with housing revenues rising by 2.8% to SEK 197 m. and revenues from commercial premises, etc. rising by 7.5% to SEK 210 m. Housing accounted for 48% of total rental revenues and commercial premises, etc. for 52%.

The average vacancy rate for the period was 2.4% (average 2001: 2.3), of which the vacancy rate for housing was 0.6% (average 2001: 0.9) and the vacancy rate for commercial premises was 4.0% (average 2001: 3.6). The overall vacancy rate in August 2002 was 2.9%, whereby the rate for housing was 0.8% and that for commercial premises was 4.9%.

Property costs rose to SEK 212 m. (197). The increase was due to higher maintenance and tenant-oriented property improvement costs, which totaled SEK 70 m. (50). Other property costs were at the same level as the first half of the preceding year.

The operating net amounted to SEK 232 m. (231).

A net amount of SEK 12 m. (10) was invested in wholly and partly owned properties during the period.

The Group's completed properties, which have a book value of SEK 2,638 m. (2,674), generated an annualized yield (operating net in relation to book value) of 17.5% (17.2). The book value of properties held for future development was SEK 125 m. (141).


   SEK m.
                     Floor                        Book Operating
                  space  Rental  Operating         value,    net
                  thousand revenues   net       June 30,  net as a
                    m(2)                          2002 % of book
                                                        value
                                               (annualized yield)
Completed properties    1,010   405   231        2,638      17.5
Properties held for        11     2     1          125          
future development
TOTAL                   1,021   407   232        2,763  

Current report period April - June 2002 Rental revenues increased by 5.7% to SEK 204 m. (193), with housing revenues rising by 2.5% to SEK 98 m. and revenues from commercial premises, etc. rising by 8.8% to SEK 106 m.

Property costs rose by SEK 8 m. to SEK 98 m. (90). The increase was due to higher maintenance and tenant-oriented property improvement costs, which totaled SEK 34 m. (25).

The average vacancy rate during the second quarter was 2.3% (2.7), of which the vacancy rate for housing was 0.6% (1.0) and the rate for commercial premises was 3.8% (4.2).



             Results per quarter
 Quarter            I     II   III    IV   Full year
  Rental revenues                               
   etc, SEK m.
   2002             203  204                   
   2001             194  193   197   197    781
   2000             182  182   186   190    740
  Operating net,                                
  SEK m.
   2002             108  125                   
   2001             110  122   130   115    477
   2000              83   86    93    89    351
  Vacancy rate, %                               
   2002             2.5  2.3                   
   2001             2.7  2.7   1.9   2.1    2.3
   2000             4.6  4.2   3.4   3.1    3.9

INVEST

The Invest business area reported operating profit of SEK 397 m. (1,721) for the first half of the year and of SEK 99 m. (140) for the second quarter.

Profit includes dividends of SEK 423 m. from major shareholdings in publicly traded companies (1,716, including extraordinary dividend of 1,307). During the second quarter, dividends totaling SEK 112 m. (133) were received from Cardo and NCC.

The subsidiary L E Lundberg Kapitalforvaltning, whose results are reported in Invest's earnings, reported a loss of SEK 36 m. (0). After financial items, the loss amounted to SEK 38 m. (0). On June 30, 2002, gross exposure to shares and interest-bearing paper amounted to approximately SEK 125 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 203).

Major shareholdings in publicly traded companies The tables below show the voting rights, percentage shareholding, book value and market value of the Group's shares. The percentage shareholding and voting rights in NCC have been affected by NCC's repurchase of its own shares and restamping of shares.


          August 21, 2002       June 30, 2002     December 31, 2001
              Voting    Share-   Voting   Share-  Voting    Share-
                rights   holding   rights  holding  rights   holding

Cardo           33.5      33.5     33.5     33.5    33.5      33.5
Holmen          52.0      27.2     52.0     27.2    52.0      27.2
Hufvudstaden    87.6      44.2     87.6     44.2    87.6      44.2
NCC             16.9      13.6     16.9     13.6    16.7      13.3

                    August 21,      June 30,        December
                      2002            2002            31, 2001
                   Book  Market    Book Market      Book Market
    SEK m.          value value(1)  value value(1)   value value(1)
                                    
Cardo              1,890   1,989    1,890  2,085     1,890  1,589
Holmen             2,547   4,458    2,547  5,376     2,547  5,153
Hufvudstaden       2,828   2,604    2,828  2,663     2,828  2,485

NCC                1,076     857    1,076    907     1,076    967
TOTAL              8,341   9,908    8,341 11,031     8,341 10,194
 (1) Publicly traded assets are entered at current market price or
     at the exercise price for written options in the event that
     the latter price is lower.

Portfolio Investments In addition to the major shareholdings in publicly traded companies, the Group owned publicly traded shares with a book value on June 30, 2002 of SEK 462 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 305) and a market value of SEK 495 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 323). On August 21, 2002, the book and market values were SEK 675 m. and SEK 648 m., respectively.

Other shareholdings

The item Other shareholdings includes shares in the unlisted associated company Stadium in an amount of SEK 250 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 250).

Financial items

Financial items amounted to an expense of SEK 57 m. (expense: 46), of which net interest items accounted for an expense of SEK 28 m. (expense: 46) and write-downs of shares for SEK 30 m (0). Net interest items during the second quarter amounted to an expense of SEK 18 m. (expense: 16).

Financial position

Liquid assets (excluding credit facilities) decreased by SEK 106 m. to SEK 4 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 110). Interest-bearing liabilities decreased to SEK 1,744 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 2,023). On June 30, 2002 the average period of fixed interest was approximately 2 month and the average interest rate was 4.5% (4.8).

The Group's interest-bearing net debt decreased to approximately SEK 1,700 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 1,800) and the debt/equity ratio to 0.18 (Dec 31, 2001: 0.19). The Group's reported shareholders' equity on June 30, 2002 was SEK 9,561 m. (Dec 31, 2001: 9,447). The equity/assets ratio rose to 80% (Dec 31, 2001: 78).

Net asset value

On June 30, 2002, net asset value 1) per share amounted to SEK 263 (Dec 31, 2001: 247) and SEK 233 (Dec 31, 2001: 220) after a deduction for deferred tax 2). Reported shareholders' equity accounted for SEK 154 (Dec 31, 2001: 152) of net asset value per share.

On August 21, 2002, estimated net asset value per share was SEK 246 and SEK 221 after deferred tax.


                           June 30, 2002      December 31, 2001
                           SEK m.   SEK/share   SEK m.    SEK/share
                   
Real Estate                6,853       110      6,844       110
Invest                                                              
 Cardo                     2,085        34      1,589        26
 Holmen                    5,376        87      5,153        83
 Hufvudstaden              2,663        43      2,485        40
 NCC                         907        14        967        15
 Stadium                     250         4        250         4
 Other publicly 
  traded shares              495         8        323         5
Other assets, provisions 
 and liabilities          -2,280        -37    -2,280       -36
liabilities
NET ASSET VALUE BEFORE    16,349       263     15,331       247
DEFERRED TAX (1)
Deferred tax (2)          -1,911        -30     -1,666       -27
NET ASSET VALUE AFTER 
 DEFERRED                 14,438        233     13,665       220
TAX
Market value              11,422        184      9,819       158
Price/NAV, %                  79                 72

 (1) Net asset value has been computed as follows: Publicly traded
     assets are entered at current market price or at the exercise
     price for written options in the event that the latter price 
     is lower. Properties are entered at the estimated market value 
     on December 31, 2001, based onindependent and internal
     valuations. The only corrections made during the first six months
     of 2002 have been for investments and sales. Other assets, pro-
     visions and liabilities are entered at book value on December
     31, 2001 and June 30, 2002, respectively.

 (2) Deferred tax has been computed on the basis of the difference 
     between the book and market value of properties and publicly
     traded shares.

Repurchase of own shares

The Annual General Meeting on April 4, 2002 approved the cancellation of the 6,146,900 Series B shares that had previously been repurchased. The meeting also renewed the Board's authorization to repurchase up to 10% of the total number of shares in Lundbergs during the period up to the next Annual General Meeting 2003. The Board has decided to exercise the authorization received from the Annual General Meeting, which will permit the repurchase of up to 6,214,000 shares. As at June 30, 2002, 70,400 shares had been repurchased for a total of SEK 12 m., or an average of SEK 178 per share. The repurchased shares correspond to 0.11% of the share capital and 0.03% of the voting rights. No additional shares were repurchased during the period up to and including August 22, 2002.

The average number of shares outstanding during the first half of 2002 was 62,100,226. The number of shares outstanding on June 30, 2002 was 62,075,083.

Parent Company

L E Lundbergforetagen AB (publ) reported net sales of SEK 370 m. (1,647). Reported profit after financial items amounted to SEK 320 m. (1,634).

Stockholm, August 22, 2002

FREDRIK LUNDBERG President

This interim report has not been subject to specific examination by the auditors of L E Lundbergforetagen AB (publ).

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