Profits down at YIT

Finnish contractor YIT reported declines in profit for both its fourth quarter and year-end results for 2013, as the company completed its demerger year.

October to December 2013 figures saw revenue decrease 6% to €521.3 million from 2012’s €555.4 million. Construction Services Finland reported a 5% decline while and International Construction Services saw figures drop 6%.

Fourth quarter operating profit dropped 39% to €41.2 million from €68 million in the same quarter of, 2012.

The contractor also saw its order backlog decrease, down 2% to €2.713 billion from €2.765 million in 2012.

Year-end figures showed a revenue decline of 5% to €1.86 billion from €1.96 billion in 2012. Construction Services Finland reported an 8% drop for the year while International Construction Services reported a 4% increase in revenue.

Operating profit for 2013 decreased 24% to €152.8 million from 2012’s €201.1 million.

Kari Kauniskangas, president and CEO, said that the figures showed that actions to improve sales, cash flow and capital efficiency had started to bear fruit.

“I am in many respects satisfied with our achievements in the challenging market environment of 2013. Housing sales in Russia continued to grow, and in the Baltic countries and Central Eastern Europe the favourable development continued while the focus of operations turned to own-developed residential production,” he said.

“However, the weakness of the business premises market and the caution of consumers in the Finnish housing market had a negative impact on our results and balance sheet.

“2014 is also the first year in our three-year strategy period. According to our strategy, we seek growth in all our business areas through own-developed projects, increased capital efficiency and improved resistance to economic cycles.”

Looking ahead, YIT forecast a 0 to 10% increase in revenue for 2014 and an operating profit margin of 7.8 to 8.5%.