29.10.2010

EU leaders have been discussing how to avoid future crises at a two-day summit in Brussels. Franco-German plan to amend the Lisbon treaty received some tentative nods and a lot of scepticism considering it took eight years to get the treaty approved. Finally there appears to be a consensus that a small tweak of the treaty is necessary. Talks of the EU budget were, if possible, even more heated. Global de-risking has been underway in the fringe markets; cyclical stocks have been leading the way down prior to the summit and US GDP number. When the macro data came out pretty much in line with expectations, Nordic exchanges regained most of the losses.

High-tech engineering giant Sandvik’s profit and cash flow improved markedly. The half a billion loss from year ago reversed into a two million kroner profit. The company says that the market situation keeps improving sequentially. The expectations were for more and the somewhat mystifying game of good reports turning into a negative stock market reaction on heavy volume, that befuddles small investors, continued.
Fred Olsen Energy’s result before tax was 770 million NOK. That was somewhat better than expected. Neste Oil’s report was well received. Comparable operating profit was 57 million Euro. Singapore renewable diesel plant ought to come to service during Q4. Oil retail profitability was improved as well. Given the news yesterday that ST 1 is buying Shell’s filling stations in Finland, there is room for some more improvement in the retail via reduced competition.
Packaging paper and pulp producer Billerud ended the reporting day on the same level as it started after reporting 258 million SEK Q3 result. Car sales firm Bilia reported 104 million SEK profit.Transporting company DSV lost a little more than 2% of its stock market value after missing expectations with its before tax profit of 461 million DKK. Seco Tools Q3 revenue rose by 32% at fixed exchange rates. This led to a strong growth in operating profit as well. The company sees particularly strong growth in South America and in USA.


Biotie is ditching preclinical work and focusing solely on advancing clinical development assets. Biotie will spin-off its site in Germany and will take a minority interest in the spin-off company, biocrea GmbH. Biotie gained the German assets (then Elbion NV) in 2008 in a share exchange acquistion. After the spin-off, Biotie will have Ronomilast (formerly ELB353), which has just completed phase 1, left to show for that transaction. In my opinion the most likely reason for this is to be able to go into phase 2 with two clinical candidates alone, after failing to secure a partner.

SalMar’s profit before adjustments for biomass valuation was its highest ever. There is strong demand for farmed salmon despite record high prices, which prompts the company to expect more of the same in the future. Whitefish catching, processing and sales company Aker Seafoods improved in comparison to Q3 2009. In the highly seasonal industry, the company tends to have a poor H2. Should Q4, which the company labels will be ”challenging” mirrors 2009, the full year result would just about break par. The fishing quotas for 2011 have been increased. The company is considering fleet improvements and hopes to be able to be involved in processing sector consolidation in some way. Up-listing the processing area is an option in the future. Norway Pelagic is the largest player in processing. Its quarterly earnings were relatively strong on strong mackerel demand from Japan in Q3. Quotas are down for herring and mackerel for 2011 (2010 quotas were exceptional due to remaining quota from 2009). Company believes higher prices will offset the impact.


Equipment rental services company Cramo said that the improvement which was starting to be visible from Q2 continued in Q3. The result was still negative but cash flow strongly positive, which is rather imperative concerning the solvency ratio of the company.

Former member of the board of Bank of Finland Sinikka Salo seems to be backing on her statements that she was bullied whilst on the board. Renowned feminist Salo was a controversial choice by President Halonen over suggestions from the Parliamentary Supervisory Council and the Minister in charge at the time. A new member was not named into the board after Salo retired last month.