ABB Switzerland pleased with 1999 result

The Swiss subsidiary of the engineering group, ABB, has announced a four per cent drop in net profits to SFr251 million last year. However, that follows the spin-off of its electricity production division into ABB Alstom Power.

The Swiss subsidiary of the engineering group, ABB, has announced a four per cent drop in net profits to SFr251 million last year. However, that follows the spin-off of its electricity production division into ABB Alstom Power.

Taking a comparable group structure, ABB Switzerland said the year-on-year profit was up 26 per cent to SFr286 million. Turnover remained static at SFr2.6 billion.

“The result shows that we’re on the right track,” the company’s chairman, Alois Sonnenmoser, told a news conference at their headquarters in Baden. Sonnenmoser put the improved performance down to better operational and cost management.

Excluding electricity production, the group saw its order intake grow by four per cent last year to SFr2.7 billion. Automation is the group’s principal division with 47 per cent of orders, followed by transport and electricity distribution with 21 per cent.

ABB Switzerland said it was reaping the benefits of the Three Gorges Dam project in China, which had earned the company SFr148 million.

Sonnenmoser was also optimistic about the current year, saying ABB was poised to take advantage of the increasing deregulation of the international electricity market. He said the company’s industrial sector would benefit from the recovery in the world economy, especially in Asia.

ABB Switzerland is a subsidiary of the Swiss-Swedish multinational, ABB, which posted record net profits at the beginning of last month. ABB Switzerland employs more than 8,200 people.

By Tom O’Brien