Setra Group AB, the Swedish sawmill giant formed last August from the merger of AssiDomän Timber and Mellanskog Industri (Mindab), reports profits of just SKr100,000 for 2003. But the company highlights that the figure would be higher calculated on the basis of the merger taking place at the beginning of the year.
The so-called “legal” profits figure of SKr100,000 includes a year of earnings from Mindab and the profits of AssiDomän Timber since the merger. Mindab’s profits for the previous 12 months were SKr58.2m.
“But the pro forma profit figure, estimated as if the merger took place in January 2003, is SKr37.1m for last year compared to SKr36.1m in 2002,” said Setra Group finance director Stefan Lundin.
Setra’s “legal” turnover for 2003 was SKr3.86bn compared with SKr2.34bn in 2002. The pro forma figures were respectively SKr5.5bn and SKr5.06bn.
The best performing part of the business was sawn wood, with 2.3 million m3 delivered. Increased pine supplies resulted in prices falling, but they still averaged 3% higher than 2002.
The Setra sawmills achieved pro forma profits of SKr214m on sales of SKr4.34bn compared with SKr128m and SKr3.9bn respectively.
The interior and building products division made a pro forma loss of SKr9m, compared with profits of SKr6m. Turnover was SKr1.36bn compared with SKr1.39bn.
Mr Lundin would not comment on the outlook for 2004, but said that the integration of the AssiDomän and Mindab businesses continued.
