HELSINKI (AFX) - Lift and escalator maker Kone Oyj reported a year-on-year jump in fourth-quarter pretax profit, beating market expectations, driven by strong sales, and said it expects to achieve 20 pct EBIT growth year-on-year in 2007.
Pretax profit came in at 123.9 mln eur, against 92.5 mln eur a year ago, helped by an uplift in sales to 1.145 bln eur.
The liftmaker's quarterly diluted EPS was 0.63 eur, up from 0.42 eur last year, and matching the average analyst estimate of 0.63 eur, as recorded by a Kauppalehti/SME survey.
The consensus projections were for a pretax profit of 120 mln eur and sales of 1.125 bln eur. azer.sawiris@afxnews.com afs/cmr COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited