Stable start for Skanska

Swedish-based Skanska enjoyed a steady start to the year with a 7% increase in revenue for the first quarter, at SEK28.2 billion (€3.3 billion), up from SEK26.4 billion (€3.1 billion) in the same period in 2012.

Order bookings for the contractor amounted to SEK24.3 billion (€2.8 billion), down slightly on 2012’s SEK25.1 billion (€2.9 billion). Total order backlog amounted to SEK142 billion (€16.6 billion) - again a drop on the previous year, which saw backlog at SEK152.9 billion (€17.9 billion). 


Skanska reported strong gains in operating income for the first quarter of 2013, which amounted to SEK518 million (€60.6 million), up from SEK148 million (€17.3 million) in 2012. The increase was primarily a result of higher profitability in construction and residential development operations.

Johan Karlström, Skanska’s president and CEO, said, “Although we continue to note uncertainty in our business environment, Skanska had a stable first quarter with strong earnings in the US operations and a continued positive development in our Norwegian and Finnish Construction operations.

“The first quarter is always seasonally weak in construction and in the beginning of 2013, several of our construction units were negatively impacted by the long winter.”

He concluded, “Last year, we faced major challenges in our Latin American construction operations and our Nordic residential development operations. We restructured the businesses, improved risk management processes and reduced costs. The result of these measures had a positive impact on the profitability in the first quarter.”