OUTLOOK ABB seen hiking EBIT margin guidance to 13-16 pct at strategy meeting

ZURICH (Thomson Financial) - ABB LTD is expected to announce a new EBIT-margin target of 13-16 pct during its strategy meeting on Wednesday when it will announce its new financial targets until 2011.

Analysts expect the Swedish-Swiss engineering group to hike its organic growth target to a range of between 6-8 pct, while the new net margin guidance is seen at somewhere between 8.0-10.5 pct.

'ABB has reached two years in advance most of its 2009 financial targets. We expect it will upgrade most of them', said UBS analyst Christel Monot.

JP Morgan analyst Andreas Willi said he believes that 'ABB will try to find a balance between ambitious targets to challenge its businesses but also recognising the cyclical risk inherent in giving a target for 2011 at this point in the cycle.'

The Swedish-Swiss engineering group's previous targets set until 2009 -- including an organic sales growth of 5 pct, an EBIT margin of above 10 pct and a net profit margin of above 5 pct -- have already been exceeded.

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