SOLNA, Sweden, May 8, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- NCC Group:
- Excluding items affecting comparability, a loss of SEK 459 M loss of 301) was reported after financial items.
- Additional cost-saving and adaptation measures are required, due to an increasingly weak market.
Jan-March Jan-Dec
2003 2002 2002
Orders received, SEK M 10 044 9 613 43 098
Net sales, SEK M 8 631 8 675 45 165
Operating profit/loss, SEK M -391 96 1 820
excl. items affecting comparability1) -391 -205 1 519
Profit/loss after financial items, SEK M -459 0 1 306
excl. items affecting comparability1) -459 -301 1 005
Earnings per share, SEK -3,15 0,30 7,95
excl. items affecting comparability1) -3,15 -2,15 5,85
1) Items affecting comparability for 2002 pertain to a capital gain of SEK 301 M from the sale of NVS.
Comments by the CEO: "The gradually deteriorating market conditions and increased price pressure that characterized the beginning of 2003 contributed to lower first-quarter earnings. Results were also affected by the cautious profit-recognition policy now being applied by NCC, which had a more negative impact on earnings for the first quarter of 2003 compared with the corresponding quarter of the preceding year.
"We are currently more pessimistic than previously regarding the market trend. The downturn in the office market has been compounded and rent levels are falling, due to the higher vacancy rates. Housing markets, particularly in Stockholm and Oslo, are slackening, as a result of reduced demand and falling housing prices. Our assessment is that the Nordic construction market as a whole will develop less satisfactorily in 2003 than we previously expected and that the recession in the construction market will not bottom out until 2004, at the earliest.
"Against this background, we are already gradually implementing, or planning, additional cutbacks or cost-cutting measures in most of the Group's units. NCC Property Development's organization is currently being restructured to align it with the weak market conditions expected in the years ahead. Furthermore, we intend to divest the real estate holdings outside the Nordic region as soon as possible.
"In parallel with these forceful adaptations within the Group, proactive measures are also being made. With the aim of creating a platform for breaking the negative trend of construction costs, we intend to exploit the recession in order to implement changes in the construction process and to conduct significant activities in the fields of partnering, industrialized residential construction, purchasing and logistics."
This interim report is unaudited.
NCC's report on operations during the second quarter of 2003 will be published on August 21, 2003.
If you have any questions, please contact: Bjorn Andersson, Chief Financial Officer (Tel: +46-8-585 520 40, or +46-70-627 65 92); or Annica Gerentz, Investor Relations Manager (Tel: +46-8-585 522 04, or +46-70-398 42 09, annica.gerentz@ncc.se).
A telephone conference will be held on May 8, between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m. In order to participate in this conference, call +44 (0) 20 7162 0190 (English number) or +46 8 5052 0114 (Swedish number) , five to ten minutes before the start of the conference and state "NCC." It will also be possible to listen to a recorded version of the telephone conference +44 (0) 20 8288 4459, access code 731752. The telephone conference can also be followed on the Internet in real time at NCC Group's website www.ncc.info.
For those who intend to read the report in an electronic format, click the following link: http://www.genesysrichmedia.com/eventstream/ncc/030508.
The presentation material for the information meeting and telephone conference will be downloadable from NCC's www.ncc.info website.
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