Investors
Interim Report for 1 January - 31 March 2013
Juho Nummela, President and CEO:
(April 23, 2013)
The picking up of detached house construction in North America was visible in increased machine sales in the United States as well as Canada. The demand for new machines was close to normal in Russia as well. Sales of new machines in Russia, however, typically concentrate towards the end of the year. Of our main markets, Central Europe and Sweden in particular were soft during the period under review. Compared to other markets, the demand for new machines in Finland was at higher level, but remained approximately 25% lower than for the reference period.
Trade-in machine sales increased considerably during the period under review, which was mainly due to the picking up of the Finnish trade-in machine market. The net sales of maintenance services also increased as our customers’ work situation was mainly good in several of our markets. The demand for new machines remained low during the period, and quantitative sales fell 46% short of the reference period.
Due to the weak demand for new machines, adjustments had to be made to the factory capacity. The company’s order books continued to recover compared to the order books at the turn of the year, amounting to EUR 49.1 (67.3) million, or 27% less than for the reference period. The order books were not sufficient for operating in two shifts throughout the period under review. Early in the year, the factory operated in one shift and returned to two shifts in mid-February. The factory has been operating in one shift since the beginning of April.
Net sales for the period under review amounted to EUR 61.6 (76.8) million, representing a change of -19.7 per cent compared with the corresponding period. The operating result amounted to EUR 0.1 (4.5) million during the quarter. The result was burdened by considerably lower invoicing for forest machines compared with the reference period.
Cash flow from business operations amounted to EUR 12.2 (-1.9) million in the period under review. The stock of new products decreased to a level higher than normal when some of the invoicing for new machines was postponed to the second quarter. The stock of trade-in machines decreased, mainly due to good trade-in machine sales in Finland.
The hybrid loan, which has been included in the company’s equity on the balance sheet for four years, was paid back as planned at the end of the period under review. The repayment of the hybrid loan can be seen as lower equity and the company’s equity ratio consequently decreasing to 32.3 per cent.
Our investments in R&D continued normally. Maintenance services, sales and the subsidiary network also operated normally throughout the period under review.