SKF Half-year report 2015


Alrik Danielson, President and CEO:

”Demand in the quarter was largely in line with guidance, with reported sales in
local currency declining with 1.5 percent, excluding structural change. We saw a
good growth in railways except for China and in energy except for Europe. A
weaker demand was seen in heavy industry and the distributor segment in North
America as well as an underlying weaker demand in China. The automotive business
in North America was also slow during the quarter.

The operating margin increased to 12.9 percent excluding one-time items and the
balance sheet strengthened during the quarter. The cost-reduction programme
progressed well and at the end of the quarter agreements have been reached
covering 60 percent of the concerned individuals.

Within the Automotive Market a profit improvement programme was launched. A
number of activities were initiated with the aim to improve productivity and the
competitiveness of the business. The structure has been simplified and focused
initiatives are being carried out through the value-chain.

In line with our ambition to focus efforts and resources on bearings, our main
business and to strengthen our balance sheet, we have divested three non-core
businesses: Erin Engineering and Research Inc., Purafil, and Kaydon Custom
Filtration with a total consideration close to SEK 1 000 million on a cash-free
and debt-free basis.

During the first-half year we saw a weak development of the global industrial
production. Lately the uncertainty regarding the market demand in China has
increased further. Entering the third quarter we all in all experience a
relatively weak industrial production. Looking forward we expect demand to be
sequentially slightly lower and relatively unchanged year-over-year.’’

Key figures                                           Q2      Q2     YTD     YTD
                                                    2015    2014    2015    2014
Net sales, SEKm                                   19 961  17 955  39 415  34 689
Operating profit, SEKm                             2 383   2 096   4 104   4 120
Operating margin, %                                 11.9    11.7    10.4    11.9
One-time items, SEKm                                -194    -119    -849      -2
Operating profit excl. one-time items, SEKm        2 577   2 215   4 953   4 122
Operating margin excl. one-time items %             12.9    12.3    12.6    11.9
Profit before taxes, SEKm                          2 241   1 761   3 833   3 548
Net profit, SEKm                                   1 706   1 187   2 871   2 462
Basic earnings per share, SEK                       3.65    2.54    6.11    5.26
Net cash flow after investments before financing   1 654  -1 402   2 642  -1 465

Operating profit in Q2 included one-time items of -194 million (-119), whereof
-224 million (-98) related to the ongoing cost-reduction programme and the
remainder +30 million
included profit on sold businesses as well as impairment and write-off of
assets. In Q2 2014, the cash flow after investments before financing excluding
the EU payment
was +1 423 million.

Key figures         30 June 2015  31 March 2015  30 June 2014
Net working                 30.9           32.1          32.7
capital, % of
annual sales
ROCE for the 12             12.6           12.6           8.7
-month period, %
Net debt/equity, %         113.4          122.2         143.7
Net debt/EBITDA              2.8            3.2           4.7

Net sales change y-o-y, %:  Organic  Structure  Currency  Total
Q2 2014                        -1.5       -0.2      12.9   11.2
YTD                            -0.2       -0.1      13.9   13.6

Organic sales change in local     Europe    North    Latin  Asia  Middle East
currencies, per region y-o-y, %:          America  America           & Africa
Q2 2015                              0.7     -5.7      4.6  -3.7          15.7
YTD                                  0.8     -4.1      1.5   0.6          15.0

Outlook for the third quarter 2015

Demand compared to the third quarter 2014
The demand for SKF’s products and services is expected to be relatively
unchanged for the Group, Europe and Asia. For North America it is expected to be
lower and for Latin America higher. For all business areas it is  expected to be
relatively unchanged.

Demand compared to the second quarter 2015
The demand for SKF’s products and services is expected to be slightly lower for
the Group. For Europe it is expected to be lower and for all other regions it is
expected to be relatively unchanged. For Industrial Market and Specialty
Business it is expected to be relatively unchanged and for Automotive Market it
is expected to be lower.

A teleconference will be held on 15 July at 09.00 (CEST), 08.00 (UK):

SE: +46 8 5065 3936
UK: +44 20 3427 1912
US: +1 646 254 3362

You will find all information regarding SKF Half-year report 2015 on the IR
website.
investors.skf.com/quarterlyreporting (http://www.skf.com/group/investors/reports
/ 
year-end-report-2014)

AB SKF is required to disclose the information provided herein pursuant to the
Securities Markets Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The
information was submitted for publication at around 08.00 on 15 July 2015.
For further information, please contact:
MEDIA HOTLINE: 46 31 337 2400

PRESS: Theo Kjellberg, Director, Press Relations
tel: 46 31 337 6576, mobile: 46 725-776576, e-mail:
theo.kjellberg@skf.com (rebecca.janzon@skf.com)

INVESTOR RELATIONS: Marita Björk, Head of Investor Relations
tel: 46 31-337 1994, mobile: 46 705-181994, e-mail: marita.bjork@skf.com
SKF is a leading global supplier of bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication
systems, and services which include technical support, maintenance and
reliability services, engineering consulting and training. SKF is represented in
more than 130 countries and has around 15,000 distributor locations worldwide.
Annual sales in 2014 were SEK 70 975 million and the number of employees was 48
593. www.skf.com

® SKF is a registered trademark of the SKF Group.
™ BeyondZero is a trademark of the SKF Group.

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