RUEIL-MALMAISON (dpa-AFX) – The French industrial group Schneider Electric is raising its annual targets after a recovery in the third quarter. Sales should now drop by 5 to 7 percent instead of 7 to 10 percent, the group announced on Thursday in Rueil-Malmaison near Paris. Acquisitions and sales as well as exchange rate effects are excluded. Adjusted for special effects, the operating margin of earnings before interest, taxes and goodwill amortization (Ebita) is expected to fluctuate between 15.1 and 15.4 percent – in the previous year a value of 15.3 percent was achieved. So far, Schneider had expected a decline of up to 0.9 percentage points.
The reason for the optimism for the group, which competes with the German Siemens group in some areas such as energy management or industrial automation, is the development of the third quarter. Although total sales of 6.5 billion euros were 2.8 percent below the previous year’s figure, this was mainly due to exchange rate fluctuations due to the strength of the euro. The French said it would have been a plus of 1.3 percent on their own. In terms of proceeds, Schneider clearly exceeded analysts’ estimates.
The group scored particularly well in Asia, both in terms of the automation of production processes and energy management. The company did not have any profit figures after nine months, as is customary in France./men/mis
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