Heidelberg Materials posts higher Q2 profit despite sales downturn
Rewrites, adds details, executive comment
ZURICH, July 30 (Reuters) -Heidelberg Materials HEIG.DE on Tuesday posted a 5% increase in second-quarter operating profit, despite a downturn in sales and what it called a "persistently challenging environment."
The group said its result from current operations (RCO) rose to 971 million euros ($1.05 billion) in the April-June period, although it missed analysts' forecast of 981 million euros as per a company-compiled consensus.
This was in contrast to the company's sales, which fell 2% to 5.51 billion euros. Analysts had forecast sales of 5.50 billion euros.
Heidelberg blamed the downturn on weak construction activity due to higher interest rates and inflation, and adverse weather in some countries like heavy rains which hit parts of Europe and the United States.
Still, the German company's profit margin rose to 23.4% from 22.1% a year earlier, helped by improvements in its North American business, where investments in new and more efficient production paid off.
"Especially our strong development in North America has contributed to increasing our result and margin in the second quarter again despite the continued slight decline in volumes,” said Dominik von Achten, chairman of Heidelberg's managing board.
Heidelberg confirmed its full-year guidance for RCO between 3.0 billion and 3.3 billion euros and a return on invested capital of around 10%.
The company said it expected construction demand to stabilise at a low level globally, with inflation and higher borrowing costs weighing on residential construction in particular.
($1 = 0.9240 euros)
Reporting by John Revill, editing by Rachel More and Varun H K
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
