H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (STO: HM B) November 2011 sales decreased by 1% in comparable units. Total sales were up by 9%. In one year the company added 266 new stores to bring the number up to a total of 2472. Fourth quarter sales were over 36.1 billion SEK including VAT (unaudited, 30.9 billion VAT excluded). The numbers were below expectations. Retailers have blamed warmer than expected weather for sluggish sales as of late. H&M gained 1% in today’s session on high volume.
CEO Magnus Hall of Swedish paper firm Holmen (OMX: HOLM B) told Reuters news agency that orders for paperboard and printing paper remain weak and may fall further in the short term, where as market for timber is already so weak that Hall does not think it can get much worse.
Metso Corporation (OMX: MEO1V) will supply world’s first commercial installation of LignoBoost technology to Domtar’s Plymouth North Carolina pulp mill in USA. LignoBoost separates and collects lignin from pulping liquor and Metso feels this order is an important breakthrough for the adobtation of the technology.
Biotechnology company NorDiag ASA (OSE: NORD) more than doubled its stock market value in a day. The news that its US subsidiary NorDiag Inc entered into a five-year distribution agreement with AutoGen Inc, wherein AutoGen will distribute NorDiag’s products to North American Life Science market was the catalyst. Financial details weren’t disclosed but NorDiag expects a significant sales impact from 2012 and beyond.
As a continuation of the news from the other day on confirmed Pancreas Disease in Central Norway, Salmar ASA (OSE: SALM) said a confirmed detection of the disease has been made in one of its sites. The site has 2 million fish, with around half a million of them vaccinated against PD, and a book value of 50 million NOK. Salmar’s stock price was down slightly.
Scana Industrier (OSE: SCI) shot down 20% after a trading halt this morning. The company announced plans for a fully guaranteed rights issue for 120 million new shares. The existing shareholders shall have pre-emptive rights with non-tradable rights. Eight largest shareholders and two other shareholders are behind the full guarantee. The company is also negotiating on a new three year bank facility to replace the outstanding multi-currency term loan and revolving credit facility from 2007 with maturity in October 2012. The price action in the past couple of months suggests this did not come as a terrible surprise. Scana recovered in late trading to finish the day down by 4%.
Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (OSE: EMGS) and world’s largest oilfield service company Schlumberger intend to enter into a cooperative agreement from January 3 2012 onwards. The parties will offer their expertise in marine electromagnetic related fields of processing, advanced modelling and earth model building and Schlumberger will withdraw from the ongoing patent disputes. The companies will cross-license patents relevant to the CSEM acquisition business. EMGS ended the day up by more than 12%.
Christmas sales reports from Nordic countries are mixed, with some chains already offering discounts that traditionally start after holidays. Finnish retailing conglomerate Kesko (OMX: KESB) managed to grow sales by 7.4% in November.
Showing posts with label Holmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holmen. Show all posts
Friday, 16 December 2011
Friday, 9 December 2011
Warnings and closures continue @ Nordic Pulp & Paper sector
Pulp & paper companies were under pressure after M-Real (OMXH: MRLBV) issued a profit warning, in which the company said that fourth quarter result will be clearly weaker than the previous quarter. The earlier guidance assumed that Q4 results would be on par with Q3 results. The company will start statutory negotiations for working time arrangements and possible layoffs affecting up to 1200 workers. M-Real’s stock retreated 11%. Moodys joined the party shortly after that and revised outlook for global paper and forest products to negative. The rating agency says that declining demand leading to weakened pricing will not be fully offset by cost cutting measures of the companies and declining input prices.
Norske Skog’s (OSE: NSG) stock price held up better today as its corporate assembly agreed with the board of directors that the historic Norske Skog Follum mill shall be closed, removing some of the redundant newsprint capacity. The mill has two remaining machines, PM1 and PM7, after the closure of PM2 in 2008. The capacity of the two machines is 290 000 tonnes. The mill has long been considered as uncompetitive in the future market environment.
The tensions got high after the announcement amongst the workers union and the 356 employees, as forest owners association Viken Skog had an outstanding offer for the purchase of Follum rejected by Norske Skog . The initial offer was in fact completely unreasonable, given that even the resalable energy contracts from Follum are worth more than that. The appreciation of the Norwegian Krone has made the situation even more dire for companies producing in there. Norske Skog’s stock price has been up since the third quarter results raised hopes that the company will be able to weather the storm out.
After market close Swedish company Holmen (OMX: HOLM B) noted that it has finished a forest revaluation process, which will positively impact operating prodit by 3.6 billion SEK and profit after tax by 2.6 billion SEK on Q4. Press conference is scheduled for tomorrow December 9th at 10.00 CET.
Norske Skog’s (OSE: NSG) stock price held up better today as its corporate assembly agreed with the board of directors that the historic Norske Skog Follum mill shall be closed, removing some of the redundant newsprint capacity. The mill has two remaining machines, PM1 and PM7, after the closure of PM2 in 2008. The capacity of the two machines is 290 000 tonnes. The mill has long been considered as uncompetitive in the future market environment.
The tensions got high after the announcement amongst the workers union and the 356 employees, as forest owners association Viken Skog had an outstanding offer for the purchase of Follum rejected by Norske Skog . The initial offer was in fact completely unreasonable, given that even the resalable energy contracts from Follum are worth more than that. The appreciation of the Norwegian Krone has made the situation even more dire for companies producing in there. Norske Skog’s stock price has been up since the third quarter results raised hopes that the company will be able to weather the storm out.
After market close Swedish company Holmen (OMX: HOLM B) noted that it has finished a forest revaluation process, which will positively impact operating prodit by 3.6 billion SEK and profit after tax by 2.6 billion SEK on Q4. Press conference is scheduled for tomorrow December 9th at 10.00 CET.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
UPM's Myllykoski and Rhein Papier deal approved
EU commission unconditionally approves UPM Kymmene's (OMX: UPM1V) Myllykoski and Rhein Papier GmbH deal discussed in detail in 21.12.2010 blog item. Competitors Stora Enso (OMX: STERV) Holmen (OMX: HOLM B) Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) (OMX: SCA B), M-Real (OMXH: MRLAV, OMXH: MRLBV) and Norske Skog (OSE: NSG) are also up strongly on the news.
EU commission conducted an in-depth investigation and concluded that the combined entity will face enough competition so as to that consumers are not hurt. Competitors also have significant spare capacity left. Nevertheless some of the excess capacity in the field may now be cut by UPM. Analysts had been suggesting to buy European pulp & paper sector companies ahead of the approval as it was speculated that a ruling would be positive.
Combined Myllykoski and Rhein Papier have even paper mills with annual capacity of around 2.8 million tonnes. Myllykoski is a family business with long traditions. The owners have been rueing post initial announcement that situation had to come to this and now the most likely cuts should be from its assets. Rhein Papier has a couple of prime assets. UPM has now cleared all regulatory hurdles and expects final closing of the 900 million Euro per enterprise value deal within a month. UPM Kymmene's release is available here.
EU commission conducted an in-depth investigation and concluded that the combined entity will face enough competition so as to that consumers are not hurt. Competitors also have significant spare capacity left. Nevertheless some of the excess capacity in the field may now be cut by UPM. Analysts had been suggesting to buy European pulp & paper sector companies ahead of the approval as it was speculated that a ruling would be positive.
Combined Myllykoski and Rhein Papier have even paper mills with annual capacity of around 2.8 million tonnes. Myllykoski is a family business with long traditions. The owners have been rueing post initial announcement that situation had to come to this and now the most likely cuts should be from its assets. Rhein Papier has a couple of prime assets. UPM has now cleared all regulatory hurdles and expects final closing of the 900 million Euro per enterprise value deal within a month. UPM Kymmene's release is available here.
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