27.10.2010

It was another down day on the Nordic markets. Today Copenhagen was the lone exchange on the plus.

Talvivaara Mining Company announced a significant increase in mineral resources. The total Mineral Resources increased by 54% as a result of infill drilling campaign at the Kolmisoppi deposit. This increases the lifetime of the mine to over 50 years. Talvivaara is currently evaluating options for growth through a further expansion of production capacity at the mine. The stock price appreciation was somewhat curtailed by their third quarter production update. The ramp-up of production is still facing “technical issues”. Lundin Mining's sales and earnings were below expectations and the company lowered production forecasts for copper, zinc and nickel. This resulted in over 4% drop for the stock.

Renewable Energy Corporation ASA’s Q3 EBITDA amounted to 827 Million NOK and operating profit to 155 Million. These numbers were somewhat better than expected. Financial items included currency rate losses and a fair value adjustment of a convertible bond 1.158 Billion NOK thus pushing the profit before tax a Billion to the minus. Company saw continued strong demand across the board but says in their presentation that demand uncertainty remains, in particular concerning H2 2011. Market reaction was slightly negative in the beginning and escalated as the day worse on.

Nordea Bank had record levels of income and an operating profit of 960 Million Euro, approaching all time highs. They see continued growth in customer business and decreasing loan losses. Nordea has gained over 150 000 new customers so far this year. The markets were impressed enough to add a little more than 2% into valuation. Sparebanken Vest’s result improved by 21%.


Telenor Group reported third quarter revenues of 24.1 Billion NOK. Third quarter EPS from continuing operations was 1.20 NOK. Telenor added seven million subscriptions during the quarter. The company had strong organic growth in India and mobile data growth in Nordic region. The company revised 2010 outlook upwards and is now expecting higher organic revenue growth and EBITDA margin, as well as a somewhat reduced capex to sales ratio according to company CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Stockmann’s words for Q3 were that it went “roughly as planned”. There were delays in autumn deliveries from China and Bangladesh. Many textile factories were closed in the region following the financial crisis and not enough capacity is yet back online to meet current overheated demand, and there are also some raw material shortages. Operating profit increased a little to 18.4 million Euro. Most of the big investments that were on the agenda are now just about concluded.

Atria is planning to invest in Kauhajoki slaughterhouse. Improved efficiency will allow for some personnell cuts; according to the company up to 120 man-years. The annual cost savings are estimated at 5 million Euro. The company wrote down goodwill in Russia and as a result lowers forecast for the remainer of the year. The company now expects EBIT and net-sales to be below 2009 levels.

Staffing firm Poolia reported an operating profit of 27 million SEK for first nine months of 2010. CEO Johan Eriksson noted how the global economic downturn has impacted temporary staffing and permanent hiring. By the end of third quarter the company is noticing improvement.

IT service company Tieto lowers profit guidance for 2010 due to one-off cost in Q4. Its Q3 operating profit was 27.7 million Euro. Company plans to reorganize operations in Tieto international, which results in the lowered guidance to ”about same profit as in 2009” from ”higher than in 2009”.

Cargotec got over 50% more orders than a year ago. Operating profit turned out to be 42,8 million Euro. Cargotec maintains expectations for 2010. CEO Mikael Mäkinen commented that all segments are improving although uncertainties remain.


Norsk Hydro’s operating income tfor Q3 2010 was 965 million NOK and net income slightly on the minus. The group blamed seasonally low sales volumes and Qatalum joint venture losses but also sees improving fundamentals.

Electrolux had a ”strong result in a volatile market”. Increased raw material costs and investments resulted in earnings dipping slightly year on year. The goal is 6% operating margin is ”within reach” according to president and CEO Hans Stråberg. Raw material cost pressures will continue and Mr. Stråberg, who is leaving the company soon, sees stagnant growth in Europe in 2011. Despite blowing away profit estimates, markets were bitterly disappointed by the cautious outlook and missed sales targets and the stock came down 4.5%.

Stora Enso continues to beat expectations. A 255 million quarterly operating profit was over 50 million more than highest analyst estimate. This has happened a few quarters in a row with the company. At the same time, Stora announced it is acquiring 51 of the Chinese packaging company Inpac International. M-Real fared a lot worse and lost nearly 10% of its market valuation during the day.

Novo Nordisk reported a before tax result of 4.656 Billion DKK. The company raised 2010 outlook and expects further improvement in 2011. The report on setbacks for competition on Victoza (20.10.2010) was not the only reason for this. Novo’s share gained over 1% in the day’s trading.