Reporting season is heating up in the Nordic markets. In a day of mixed fortunes in the region, on aggregate markets closed relatively unchanged. New jobless claims and durable goods orders in the United States printed far worse than expected. S&P cut Japan’s debt rating.
H & M’s (Hennes & Mauritz) sales increased by 15 percent in local currencies (far less in SEK terms) during fourth quarter. Gross margin was down to 63.3 percent from 66.3 and profit after financial items of 7.17 billion SEK decreased by 10 percent due to among others the currency rate issue, transportation etc. cost pressure and own marketing expenses. Markets were expecting over 8 billion profit. The company touted a good start in Turkey. H & M closed down 7.3 percent compared to yesterday.
Nokia’s market share and guidance for the beginning of 2011 were disappointments and Nokia backed nearly 7 percent after announsing quarterly results. NSN and Navteq along with the fact that sales did grow and earnings came above expectations were apparent silver lining. After the conference call, investors began seeing more of those glimmers of hope and Nokia share rebounded back to yesterday’s closing level. Short supply of components will persist well into 2011. Few months ago Nokia was hinting increased dividend but it stays at 40 cents per share. Rumours of restructuring to follow ran rampant as new CEO Stephen Elop appeared to have grasbed the magnitude of challenges the company currently faces. Nokia’s board will become even more multidisciplinary with Stora Enso President & CEO Jouko Karvinen, President & CEO of Sampo Group Kari Stadigh and Statoil CEO Helge Lund set to join Stephen Elop as new members in the Board Of Directors.
AstraZeneca and other big pharma companies reporting today all have been facing government pricing pressure and are staring at impending patent expirations. AstraZeneca reported sales in line with 2009 with emerging markets growth offsetting the negative impacts. Crestor and Seroquel both grossed over 5 billion USD and Nexium was very close to that. Seroquel patent expiry issues will be on the table soon enough but further launches are expected in 2011. The result and guidance were rather strong.
Paper and hygiene product company SCA (Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget) reported pre-tax profit of 2.274 billion SEK for Q4. It was pretty much what the markets had been expecting. Royal Caribbean Cruises plummeted 5.5 percent after giving dovish guidance. The company profit actually beat expectations handily. Mekonomen is acquiring Norwegian spare parts chain Sørensen og Balchen from Otto Olsen Invest using close to 2 million new shares and 273 million NOK in cash. Sørensen og Balchen operates the BilXtra spare parts chain in Norway.
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