Electrolux plunges on mounting loss in North American business

Bloomberg

Electrolux AB fell the most in six months in Stockholm trading after the Swedish appliance product maker reported a loss that was about four times
bigger than estimated.
The Stockholm-based company expects a fourth-quarter operating loss of about 2 billion kronor ($190 million), according to a statement. That compares with an average loss estimate of 575 million kronor in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The shares fell as much as 8.1% in the Swedish capital, the most since July 21.
Electrolux blamed weaker consumer demand, inventory reductions and higher costs as it said it will book non-recurring items of 1.4 billion kronor in the three-month period. The largest contributor to the drop in earnings was the North American business, Electrolux said. It will publish its full fourth-quarter report on February 2.
The preliminary results are “clearly disappointing,” Mads Rosendal, a Danske Bank credit analyst, said in a note.
In October, Electrolux said it will cut 3,500 to 4,000 employees, or about 8% of its workforce, citing a scale back of its North American operations due to a slump in demand. The company said the program to cut costs and turn the North American operations around “started to gain traction”
towards the end of the year and confirmed its estimates for
expected savings in 2023.