NWG // CEO COMMENTS
April - June
The second quarter turned out considerably
better than I feared. Some countries recovered
faster than we expected, the trading
business reported a very good result and
showed good growth.
Sales
Sales during the quarter decreased by 22% in
local currencies. The outcome differed quite
a lot between countries and companies, and
worst affected were our US companies with
a decrease of 62% and with several of our
companies shut down well into May. Sales in
Sweden, other Nordic countries and Central
Europe also dropped between 29-43%.
Southern Europe and Other countries
experienced growth of 77% and 19%
respectively, mainly due to trading orders.
Result
Operating result amounted to SEK 110.1
million compared to SEK 119.6 million
for the previous year – a result which I
am satisfied with and proud of given the
current circumstances. During the period,
the Group received SEK 44.1 million in
government support in several countries
related to COVID-19. We managed to
strongly cut back on costs, with a SEK 142.5
million decrease in external costs and a
SEK 81.4 million decrease in personnel
costs. These actions, together with a lower-
than-expected drop in sales, actually
resulted in an improved operating margin.
Result
Under the circumstances I am satisfied with
an operating result of SEK 86.0 million.
For quite some time I was worried that the
result would end up considerably worse.
Cash flow and balance sheet
In addition to lowering costs, I am very
satisfied with the work being done to
improve cash flow. The first six months
improved by SEK 422.1 million compared
to the same period last year and amounted
to SEK 366.0 million. Total credit limit
amounts to SEK 3,165 million and the net
debt to credit institutes amounts to SEK
1,898.8 (2,168.6) million, which gives an
available credit of SEK 1,266 million. During
the period, we have continued to strengthen
the balance sheet and increased the equity
ratio with 3.2 percentage points to 47.9%.
The future
It is very hard to assess the coming quarters,
but I am entirely convinced that we will come
out of the crisis stronger than ever within
all our areas. In the short term, however, it
can certainly continue to go up and down
depending on how COVID-19 develops.
Q2
Torsten Jansson
CEO
January - June
Sales
Net sales for the first six months of the year
decreased by 14% to SEK 2,755.4 million. The
development in the regions was about the
same as for the second quarter. The largest
drop was in the US with 36%, where it is
worth noting that several of our warehouses
were shut down for a relatively long period
of time.
5 // Q2