Steady quarter for NCC

NCC has posted steady results for its third quarter and year up to September 30, 2014.

The Scandinavian contractor posted total orders received of SEK12.4 billion (€1.33 billion) for the third quarter of 2014, up from SEK12.2 billion (€1.31 billion) for the third quarter of 2013.

Net sales sat at SEK14.8 billion (€1.6 billion) for the quarter, up from SEK13.1 billion (€1.4 billion) for the same period in 2013. Profit after tax was SEK696 million (€75 million), an increase on SEK614 million (€66 million) for 2013.

Year-to-date figures up to September 30, showed orders received totalling SEK42.9 billion (€4.62 billion), up from SEK42.6 billion (€4.59 billion) for the same period in 2013.

Net sales achieved SEK38.1 billion (€4.1 billion) for the first three quarters of 2014 compared with SEK36.7 billion (€3.9 billion) in 2013. Profit after tax was SEK960 million (€103 million), an improvement on SEK759 million (€81.8 million) recorded for the same period in 2013.

The group’s order backlog as at September 30, 2014, stood at SEK 54.6 billion (€5.88 billion).

CEO Peter Wågström said that although he was largely satisfied with the trend for the quarter, the performance of the company's industrial business and property development operations was weaker than expected.

“While the increase in orders received for the year has not had a major impact on sales in our construction operations, earnings and sales are slowly moving in the right direction," he said.

“The Danish and Norwegian construction operations delivered favourable results for the quarter, while earnings for the Swedish operations were impacted by impairment losses in small projects and by slightly lower sales."

He added that despite a challenging market, earnings for the Finnish operations matched the same period a year earlier.