FINANCIAL RESULTS
Cutbacks help to lift Volvo earnings
Volvo is starting to reap the benefits of a completed cost-cutting drive designed to boost margins and improve flexibility
Swedish truck maker Volvo has reported a bigger than expected increase in first-quarter core earnings as robust demand and years of cost cutting boosted turnover and profitability. Volvo also raised its forecast for construction equipment demand in China after a lengthy period of lacklustre sales but left its outlook for truck markets on both sides of the North Atlantic unchanged. Shares in the maker of trucks, construction vehicles, buses and engines leapt as much as 12% to their highest in nearly a decade and were 8% higher at 144.7 Swedish krona on Tuesday morning. "These are fantastic numbers," Handelsbanken Capital Markets analyst Hampus Engellau said. "This is the result of Volvo’s cost-cutting efforts, but also that they run the business much tighter these days, focusing on profitability, productivity and sales." Volvo is starting to reap the benefits of a completed cost-cutting drive designed to boost margins and improve flexibility. The company said its adjusted operating p...
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