Stable Profits as Trelleborg Appoints Nominations Committee

The Trelleborg Group has reported what it calls “stable profit trends” in its third quarter results. According to the company, profit after financial items, before goodwill amortization and for continuing operations, rose by 36 per cent. The only area where this stable profit trend did not apply was in the company’s Trelleborg Automotive division, where “a weak market trend and increased raw-material prices had a negative impact on profits.”

Net sales amounted to 5460 million Swedish krone (£420 million) during the third quarter compared to 3978 million krone the year before. Profits after tax totalled 137 million krone (165 million in 2002) and 1145 million (£88.13 million) in the first nine months.

Trelleborg’s operating profit in the quarter rose to 293 million krone (£22.56 million) compared with 219 million krone the year before. The company’s operating profit for the first nine months totalled 1033 million Swedish krone (£79.53 million) compared to 706 million krone at the same time last year.

Trelleborg has also announced the formation of a new nominations committee to prepare new proposals for the board. Following the company’s annual general meeting in April, the chairman of the board was commissioned to ask five representatives of the company’s major shareholders to form a nominations committee. Trelleborg has announced that the nominations committee has been confirmed and that Didrik Normark of the Henry and Gerda Dunkers Foundation, Mats Lagerqvist, Robur, Ramsay Brufer, Alecta, Torsten Johansson, Handelsbanken Fonder and Lars Öhrstedt, AFA/TFA will sit on the committee. The committee will present its proposed board by the 2005 annual general meeting on 26 April 2005.