COMMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO
The real sales growth including acquisitions continued to be strong and reached 9 percent for the first quarter, while the organic sales growth was slow at 1 percent. Some contract losses and reductions in existing customer contracts, but also our own cancellations of low margin contracts, impacted the quarter. The price increase negotiations takes time due to our need to achieve balance between price adjustments and wage cost increases. The operating margin was 0.3 percent behind previous year mainly for these reasons.
I am confident that we will be able to achieve price increases on par with wage costs increases in the Group in 2012, supported among others by a so far successful price campaign in France and by an agreement of a revised collective bargaining agreement in Spain.
We will continue to be restrictive on acquisitions until we have restored the financial target of free cash flow to net debt of 0.20. In spite of that, we made one major and important acquisition of the technology company Chillida in Spain. With this acquisition we create a technology hub that will strengthen our operations in Spain and Portugal, and allow us to offer higher value solutions to our customers.
We have had a relatively weak start of the year, however I remain optimistic about 2012, supported by the actions taken and the acquisitions made in 2011, the ongoing work on managing the price/wage balance and by the pipeline of won or expected projects in quarters to come, even if the macro economic environment remains unpredictable.
Alf Göransson
President and Chief Executive Officer
FINANCIAL INFORMATION
PRESENTATION OF THE INTERIM REPORT
Analysts and media are invited to participate in a telephone conference on May 7, 2012 at 14:00 p.m. (CET) where Securitas CEO Alf Göransson will present the report and answer questions. The telephone conference will also be audio cast live via Securitas web. No information meeting will take place at Securitas headquarters at Lindhagensplan in Stockholm.
To participate in the telephone conference, please dial in five minutes prior to the start of
the conference call:
The United States:+ 1 866 458 4087
Sweden: + 46 (0) 8 505 598 53
United Kingdom: + 44 (0) 203 043 2436
To follow the audio cast of the telephone conference via the web, please follow the link www.securitas.com/webcasts.
A recorded version of the audio cast will be available at www.securitas.com/webcasts after the telephone conference.
For further information, please contact:
Micaela Sjökvist, Head of Investor Relations, + 46 10 470 3013
Gisela Lindstrand, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, + 46 10 470 3011
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Securitas AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Markets Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 13.00 p.m. (CET) on Monday, May 7, 2012.
