STOCKHOLM — Appliance giant Electrolux announced higher-than-expected profits and healthy growth for the second quarter, despite its recent U.S. acquisition setback.
“During the second quarter 2015, Electrolux achieved an organic growth of 7%, to which all six business areas contributed positively,” company chairman Keith McLoughlin said in a statement announcing quarterly profits of 608 million krona ($70.85 million) compared to a 92 million krona ($10.72 million) loss the previous period. “The financial performance in the group’s largest business area, Major Appliances EMEA, continued to strengthen year-over-year.”
Electrolux’s second quarter operating profit, meantime, rose to 921 million krona ($107.32 million), far surpassing the 800 million krona ($93.22 million) average forecast by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The positive financial announcement contrasts the negative news that Electrolux received earlier in July, when U.S. anti-trust authorities filed suit to block the company’s planned $3.3 billion purchase of General Electric’s appliance division.
The legal opposition by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) represents a formidable threat to Electrolux’s plans to muscle-up with a huge North American acquisition.
The company said it will fight the move in U.S. courts, and on Friday, McLoughlin — an American citizen — renewed that pledge.
“Electrolux does not agree with the DOJ’s assessment that the acquisition will harm competition and will vigorously contest this effort by the DOJ to oppose the transaction,” McLoughlin said. “The review of the proposed acquisition will now continue in a court procedure.”
Traders on the Stockholm stock market responded to the effervescent second quarter result by sending Electrolux share prices up 2.76% in mid-morning deals.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2015
