Focus on efficiency improvement in continued tough market
Vattenfall is reporting an underlying operating profit for the nine-month period 2012 that is nearly on par with 2011 for continuing operations – despite a challenging market. The industry is under continuous pressure from overcapacity, low prices and low margins, especially for electricity generation based on natural gas. Vattenfall has therefore recognized impairment losses of SEK 8.6 billion for the book value of goodwill and production assets in the Thermal Power business unit during the third quarter.• Net sales decreased by 12.0% to SEK 33,679 million (38,276) for the third quarter