September 06, 2008

Metso announces Q1 results

Finnish engineering company Metso Oyj has reported first quarter sales and profits. Highlights of the first quarter

1. New orders worth EUR 1,509 million were received in January to March.
2. At the end of March, the order backlog was EUR 4,340 million.
3. Net sales totaled EUR 1,400 million as compared to EUR 1,366 million in Q1 of 2007
4. Earnings before interest, tax and amortization were EUR 133.7 million as compared to EUR 121.9 million in Q1 of 2007
5. Operating profit was EUR 119.6 million as compared to EUR 108.4 million.

Mr Jorma Eloranta president & CEO of Metso Corporation said that "Our first quarter profitability improved across Metso despite currency headwinds and cost increases. Capacity constraints are still a fact in some of our units, and we have focused on projects and products with higher margins. We have also initiated several projects to meet the growing demand, especially in the emerging markets."

He added that "Overall our markets continue to be active. Delays in the decision-making in some larger pulp and paper projects and timing issues in some new mining projects under negotiations led to a relative weak order intake in the first quarter. We expect a recovery in the coming quarters based on our strong prospects list and letters of intent. He continues that he is not pleased with the cash flow development during the past couple of quarters but he is confident that the actions taken will turn the trend.

Mr Eloranta also points out that at comparable exchange rates Metso’s order backlog was 14% stronger than a year before, providing a solid basis for continued net sales growth. The financial development in January to March supports our guidance for the full year 2008. Our target is to achieve, at comparable exchange rates, net sales growth of about 10% on the previous year and to improve our operating profit margin level to about 10 percent.