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Investing.com -- Shares of Alfa Laval (STO:ALFA) fell by 5.2% as the company reported financial results that missed analysts’ expectations on several key performance indicators.
The Swedish industrial company noted that adjusted EBITA and EPS fell short of the Visible Alpha consensus by 11% and 9%, respectively. Group revenue reached SEK18.3 billion, a 4% miss, primarily due to a 7% shortfall in the Marine division.
The reported adjusted EBITA margin was 16.0%, which was 130 basis points below consensus. This figure included a SEK200 million restructuring charge for the Marine and Food & Water divisions. Without this charge, the EBITA margin would have been 17.0%, still slightly below the consensus of 17.3%.
In terms of division performance, Energy orders were up 7% organically year-over-year (YoY), driven by strong datacenter and gas production business, but offset by weaker demand in HVAC, semiconductors, and refineries. Food & Water orders decreased by 12% organically YoY, with Desmet order momentum slowing as anticipated.
However, Marine orders saw a significant increase, up 39% organically YoY and beating expectations by 7%. Despite this, Marine profitability only aligned with forecasts and increased 280 basis points YoY. The Energy margin was 100 basis points below expectations, while Food & Water margin was 170 basis points under consensus, with management citing increased project business, capacity expansion costs, inflation, and higher SG&A expenses as contributing factors.
The SEK360 million adjusted EBITA miss, attributed to lower revenues in Marine and the SEK200 million charge, impacted the bottom line. Looking ahead, management expects demand in the first quarter to be approximately the same as in the fourth quarter, with Q4 orders having increased by 8% organically YoY. Although ship contracting demand is anticipated to remain firm, management predicts that the exceptional conditions in the tanker market observed in 2023-24 are not expected to repeat in 2025.
RBC analysts commented on the results, stating, "the miss on P&L metrics might burden the share today. Even if we adjust for the SEK200m restructuring, we see a slight margin miss and we note increased commentary on cost inflation and higher SG&A. This raises the question on whether pricing can keep compensating for cost."
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