For further information, please contact:
Jonas Wiström, CEO +46 (0)70-608 12 20
Jonas Ågrup, CFO +46 (0)70-333 04 95
Viktor Svensson, Director, Corporate Information +46 (0)70-657 20 26
First quarter 2011
* Net sales totalled SEK 1,240 million (Q1 2010: SEK 1,107 million)
* Operating profit, excl capital gain, was SEK 100 million (SEK 83 million)
* Operating margin, excl capital gain, was 8.1 percent (7.5 percent)
* Earnings per share before dilution: SEK 2.27 (SEK 15.27) *)
*) Profit for the first quarter of 2010 included a capital gain of SEK 458
million resulting from the sale of the ÅF Group's Inspection Division, ÅF-
Kontroll.
A few words from the President, Jonas Wiström:
The market for ÅF's services continues to improve, and the first quarter of
2011 shows an increased growth rate. The Technology Division reported organic
growth of almost 30 percent and an improvement in profitability. It was a
similar story of good growth rates and improved profits from the Industry and
Infrastructure Divisions, but earnings for the Energy Division have been
affected by postponements to deliveries in Russia and rising uncertainty with
regard to the nuclear power sector in Europe. On the positive side, however,
orders for Energy Division services in the first quarter totalled SEK 500
million.
Capacity utilisation rose for a second successive quarter as business emerged
from the economic downturn, and profits for ÅF improved. In March ÅF's operating
margin, adjusted to exclude the effect of costs relating to the integration of
Energo (acquired in December 2010), rose to 12 percent. As we have previously
indicated to the market, the result for the first quarter has been charged with
costs of some SEK 10 million for the integration of Energo.
Overall growth for ÅF in the first quarter was 12 percent and organic growth was
7 percent. Today ÅF has almost 700 more permanent employees than at this time
last year.
We reiterate our conviction that 2011 will be a better year for ÅF than 2010.
The company is well placed with a strong brand and a positive trend in terms of
capacity utilisation. Demand for ÅF's services is rising and operations in
Norway are once again reporting a profit after some protracted problems in this
respect.
Our overriding objective remains to ensure that ÅF continues to generate levels
of profitability that place us among the best performers in our industry, while
growing by around 15 percent a year. Our ambition is for approximately half of
this growth to be organic and half to come from acquisitions, and a strong
balance sheet provides a firm foundation on which to build towards this end.
The outlook for a sustained increase in organic growth is also good. During the
first quarter ÅF was ranked in overall seventh place (2010: twelfth place) among
Sweden's most attractive employers in Universum's survey of engineering
students. This means that ÅF is now the most popular employer in the technical
consulting industry among students of technology and engineering graduates. The
ability to attract the very best talents in technical consulting is a factor
that is absolutely critical to the continued success of ÅF.
Group Head Office:
ÅF AB, SE-169 99 Stockholm, Sweden
Visitors' address: Frösundaleden 2, 169 70 Solna, Sweden
Tel. +46 (0)10 505 00 00 Fax +46 (0)10 505 00 10
www.afconsult.com / info@afconsult.com
Corporate ID number 556120-6474
The information in this interim report fulfils ÅF AB's disclosure requirements
under the provisions of the Swedish Securities Markets Act and/or the Financial
Instruments Trading Act. The information was released for publication at 10:30
CET on 2 May 2011.
All assumptions about the future that are made in this report are based on the
best information available to the company at the time the report was written. As
is the case with all assessments of the future, such assumptions are subject to
risks and uncertainties, which may mean that the actual outcome differs from the
anticipated result.
The full report including tables can be downloaded from the following link:
[HUG#1511335]
