Finnish international rental giant Ramirent posted a 17.7-percent year-over-year net sales increase for the first six months of 2012 and a 13.5-percent year-over-year jump for the first quarter.
For the first six months, Ramirent posted net sales of €334.1 (about U.S. $411.1 million), compared with €283.9 million for the same period in 2011. For the second quarter, net sales totaled €169.7 million (about U.S. $208.8 million), compared with €149.5 million a year ago.
EBITDA was €93.5 million for the first six months, compared to €68.2 million a year ago, a 37-percent increase, while EBITDA leapt 27.1 percent for the second quarter, from €40.6 million to €51.6 million.
“Our first half of 2012 has progressed well,” said Magnus Rosen, Ramirent CEO. “Margins have developed positively over the period and in the second quarter we delivered EBIT of 13.4 percent. Growth in net sales slowed during the second quarter compared to the first, due to a smaller positive effect from previous year’s acquisitions and slower underlying organic growth.
“Both net sales and profits improved in the Nordic countries and in Europe East segment where market conditions continued to be favorable. In Europe Central, where the market activity weakened further, we saw a decrease in net sales and profit to unsatisfactory levels. Actions have been and will be taken to restructure operations to improve cost efficiencies and synergies across the four countries Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.”
Rosen said the company is operating cautiously in capital expenditure and is carefully monitoring the trading environment because of general economic uncertainty.
According to forecasts by Finnish and Swedish construction groups, construction output is expected to decrease 2 percent and 1 percent respectively in 2012. However Norway and Denmark expect increases of 4 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Euroconstruct expects construction growth of 15 percent in Estonia in 2012, 0 to 5 percent in Russia, 9 percent in Latvia, 12 percent in Lithuania, 6 percent in Poland, with drops of 3 percent, 3.6 percent and 7.2 percent in Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic.
Ramirent has 394 branches in 13 countries in the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe.
