Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Uponor's recovery painfully slow

Uponor (OMXH: UNR1V) is the pet stock for many retail investors due to its generous dividend policy of the past and the considerable ownership that Paasikivi family maintains, but the results of last couple of years have been so lacklustre, that the company cannot keep paying such a high yield for long. The company headlines the interim report notice with ’strong organic growth continues’. However right after that Uponor admits that growth in key market areas excluding Germany softened.

When compared to Q2 2010, net sales were still up 8.8% to 222.6 million Euro, with all segments slightly on the plus side when corrected for currency effects. Some of that comes from an acquisition in Germany. Building Solutions North America was lagging the most. Second quarter cash flow from business operations was -10.5 million Euro, down from a positive number of the same magnitude last year. Profit for the period was 9.3 million.

Uponor maintains guidance of improved operating profit and accelerating organic growth when compared to 2010. Uponor foresees efficient net working capital management help to retain a good cash flow and investments not to exceed depreciation. Uponor foresees significant regional variations, anticipates slowdown of growth rate in Germany and says such has already happened in the Nordic and that the current crisis may escalate. The stock has plummeted 15% in the aftermath.

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