04.06.2024

Steady start for Alimak

Hoist, mastclimber, suspended platform and façade access group Alimak has published its first quarter results, with flat sales but higher profits.

Group result
Total revenues for the three months to the end of March were SK1.73 billion ($166 million) half a percent lower than the same quarter last year, although order intake dropped 7.5 percent.
Pre-tax profit for the quarter was SK178 million ($17.1million), up 7.5 percent on last year.
Net debt SK3.1 billion ($297 million) a further 14.5 percent reduction on the same point last year.

Breakdown by division
Construction Revenues - SK371 million ($35.6 million) -21.4% with operating profit falling 55% to SK39 million ($3.7 million).

Height Safety & Productivity Solutions Revenues SK354 million ($33.9 million) -2.2% with an operating profit of SK61 million ($5.8 million) -18.5%

Wind Revenues of SK153 million ($14.7 million) +1.2% with an operating profit of SK30 million ($2.25 million) +21.5%.

Façade Revenues were flat at SK485 million ($46.5 million) while operating profit jumped 60% to SK46 million ($4.4).

Industrial SK397 million ($38.1million) +27.4% with an operating profit of SK106 million ($10.2million) +20.6%

Chief executive Ole Kristian Jødahl said:“We had a mixed start to the year with variations between the divisions, as we are still facing a challenging market affected by the persistently high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty. This continues to impact investment decisions in parts of our business.”

“Order intake was down seven percent organically in the quarter, mostly driven by Facade Access that continued to see delays in the decision making for high complexity projects in North America. However, the group order intake was on par with our revenue, meaning that our order book remains on a high level. In all divisions, we see that service, spare parts and refurbishments continue to grow and remain a significant and important part of our resilient and sustainable business model. Our focus on cashflow continues, and we delivered an increase of 99 percent year over year.”

“As to the future, we continue to execute on the New Heights programme. We invest in sales, marketing and product development, while we also drive several initiatives to reduce costs and become even more resilient to volume changes. In a challenging market, I am satisfied that we continued to perform well in the quarter and that we are well under way on delivering on our financial and sustainability targets.”

Vertikal Comment

Not a bad result from Alimak even though most divisions posted lower sales number, some due to slow order intake in the fourth quarter and some due to delayed projects. In spite of this the company continues to drive down debt and on paper at least looks to be heady towards a sustainable future - financially - with solid growth potential across a diverse customer base.

A reasonably positive start.