Husqvarna Group Capital Markets Day

Husqvarna Group today holds its capital markets day, with presentations to the financial community and media. The capital markets day includes presentations by the Group’s CEO, CFO, the business area heads and other members of Group Management, with special focus on strategic priorities and activities.

At the event, Hans Linnarson, President and CEO, comments on the Group’s financial targets. Three of the four targets remain; to achieve an operating margin of more than 10% over the course of a business cycle, the seasonally adjusted net debt in relation to EBITDA should not exceed a multiple of 2.5 in the long term, and that the dividend shall normally exceed 40% of income for the year. The Group will no longer have a financial target for sales growth. Medium term, initiatives to improve the Group’s operating margin will have higher priority than growth. The operating margin will be supported by growth in selective areas.

The Group aims to strengthen the operating margin by a sustainable improvement of the gross margin, enabled by reduction of product cost and complexity, as well as lower cost to serve and sales channel and product mix improvement. To further cement the Group’s leading position in the global chainsaw market, around SEK 1bn will be invested in core technologies, including manufacturing of saw chain (see separate press release dated February 13, 2013).

It is also communicated that the near term operating environment is expected to remain challenging, especially in the European markets. Due to the macroeconomic uncertainty, demand in Europe is expected to remain soft.

“The Husqvarna Group has a unique set of assets; dedicated employees, strong global brands, a competitive product offering with leading global market positions and distribution through leading retailers and more than 25,000 independent dealers. We will continue to build on these strong assets, investing in core technologies to develop products with market leading innovative features. Nonetheless, we also need to manage our resources carefully in order for us to reach our targets. Mid-term we will therefore focus on initiatives to reduce product cost and complexity to ensure sustainable margin improvement,” says Hans Linnarson, President and CEO of Husqvarna Group.

For additional information, please contact
Cathrine Stjärnekull, Corporate Communications Manager, +46 8 738 90 80 or press@husqvarnagroup.com
Tobias Norrby, Investor Relations Manager, at +46 8 738 93 35

The above information has been made public in accordance with the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was published at 8.30 on February 14, 2013.

Husqvarna Group
Husqvarna Group is the world’s largest producer of outdoor power products including robotic lawn mowers, garden tractors, chainsaws and trimmers. The Group is also the European leader in consumer watering products and one of the world leaders in cutting equipment and diamond tools for the construction and stone industries. The Group’s products and solutions are sold via dealers and retailers to both consumers and professional users in more than 100 countries. Net sales in 2012 amounted to SEK 31 billion, and the Group had 15,400 employees on average in more than 40 countries.