NCC's CEO comments on the beginning of the year

NCC's CEO comments on the beginning of the year

NCC expects another challenging year in 2010, with lower volumes and intense
competition. The long and cold winter in the Nordic region resulted in increased
costs. Orders received recovered from low levels and amounted to SEK 14 billion
in the first three months of the year, according to preliminary figures. This
news will be presented in CEO Olle Ehrlén's address to the Annual General
Meeting today, April 14. 


In his address, Olle Ehrlén will give an account of operations in 2009, but will
also present the following comments regarding the market scenario in 2010 and
the early part of the year. 

“We successfully managed the financial crisis and adapted our operations to
lower demand. We must now deal with the recession. The construction sector is
late cyclical, which means that it will take time before we notice any change,
and I believe that it will take time before we experience any sustainable
growth.

“However, there are some rays of light, by which I am primarily referring to the
recovery in orders received in late 2009 and early 2010. According to
preliminary figures, orders received amounted to SEK 14 billion in the first
three months of the year, which was significantly higher than a year earlier.
This may appear to be a strong rebound, but it is based on extremely low levels.
In our assessment, sales will be lower in 2010 compared with 2009, since orders
received include a number of large projects that will be implemented over
several years and the order backlog was lower at the beginning of the year. 

“When it comes to the earnings trend, we will experience increased costs due to
the long and cold winter that prevailed in the Nordic region.”

Olle Ehrlén will also comment on housing sales and housing starts in early 2010.


“According to preliminary figures, sales of proprietary housing units amounted
to 530 in the first quarter and 1.000 housing units were started. In other
words, we sold approximately as many housing units as in the year-earlier
period, although there were more housing starts this year. Despite this, we have
relatively few housing units under construction. 

“The effect of having relatively few projects for sale, combined with NCC's
adaptation to international accounting policies for profit recognition will have
an impact on earnings in 2010. The rules that NCC has chosen to comply with
regarding housing sales entail that earnings will be deferred by between one and
two years compared with the previous percentage-of-completion policy. As of
2010, earnings from housing sales will not be recognized until the buyer has
taken over the property.” 

The complete address will be available on NCC's website, www.ncc.se after the
close of the Annual General Meeting.

NCC's interim report for the first quarter of 2010 will be published on May 10.

For further information, please contact:
Ann-Sofie Danielsson, Chief Financial Officer, NCC Group,  +46 (0)70-674 07 20.
Annica Gerentz, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, NCC Group, +46
(0)70-398 42 09.
Johan Bergman, Investor Relations Manager, NCC Group, +46 (0)70-354 80 35.
NCC's media line: +46 (0)8-585 519 00


All of NCC's press releases are available on www.ncc.se

NCC is one of the leading construction and property development companies in the
Nordic region. In 2009, NCC had sales of SEK 52 billion, with 18,000 employees