Hexagon did a profit before tax of EUR 166 million in the fourth quarter, better than expected 159 million according to SME Direkt survey. Net sales landed at € 743 million, compared with waiting 730 million, and also the organic growth exceeded expectations at 7 percent.
– We are growing organically by 9 percent, which you can say is strong in the current economic situation. We are making record profits and cash flow is very strong, says CEO Ola Rollen.
The investors sued into the chorus of praise and bought up shares by 6.5 percent at the clock 14:10 on Friday, while the Stockholm Stock Exchange rose by 0.4 percent. During the morning rushed rate by more than 8 percent.
Several factors are behind the optimism according to Danske Bank analysts Bjorn Enarson, who has a buy recommendation on the stock.
– They have very strong growth in the quarter while increasing their margins. There has been some concern about the oil price is very low when their most profitable part has a fairly large exposure to oil. But that part is growing and there is much more positive noises from the company, he said.
Nearly 20 percent of Hexagon’s business is oil and gas related, but half of it has no connection to oil. That oil prices have collapsed have not had a negative effect on the company, says Rollen, when one has much greater exposure to the downstream, refining of crude oil, than the upstream, ie exploration and crude oil production.
– The refineries are usually actually increase their capacity utilization when oil prices fall. Americans have never driven a car as much as in the fourth quarter. Demand for petroleum products goes up, and it benefits us while it obviously is a dead stop on oil extraction, says role, and describes the effect as double-edged.
Hexagon provides no specific prospects, but writes in the report that it remains secure in their ability to achieve profitable growth during the 2015th
– January has begun in line with the fourth quarter. We look really no change, but it’s roughly the same trends early in the year that prevailed during the fourth quarter.
when the role of access MD 15 years ago, he took over a sprawling conglomerate with businesses in diverse industries. Through a variety of sales and acquisitions, Hexagon has since been turned into the market leader in metrology.
Hexagon CEO notes that the cash flow strong performance enables further acquisitions to strengthen the company’s position in the market.
– I think we can buy for between 1 and 1.5 billion euros. That’s about what we have to concern ourselves with, he says with reference to the balance sheet.
Recent currency movements mainly involves positive effects of Hexagon, but the Swiss franc gain has consequences that need countered.
– Switzerland negative impact, but China and the United States beat positively. The net is positive but since we only have costs in Switzerland becomes our operating margin slightly worse. There we are currently working on by looking at how we can reduce our costs in Swiss francs, says the role.
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