ABB Q2 Profit Surges, Orders Down; Sees Challenging Quarters Ahead - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd.(ANN.L, ABB) reported Wednesday that its second-quarter Group net income attributable to the company was $319 million, up 398 percent from last year's $64 million. Basic earnings per share were $0.15, higher than $0.03 a year ago.

Net income from continuing operations was $395 million, compared to prior year's loss of $54 million, mainly due to the absence of the solar inverters charge.

Operational earnings per share were $0.22, compared to $0.34 a year ago. On average, three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $0.10 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Operational EBITA declined 21 percent to $651 million from $825 million last year.

Revenues dropped 14 percent to $6.15 billion from prior year's $7.17 billion. On a comparable basis, revenues fell 10 percent. Analysts expected revenues of $5.63 billion.

Orders declined 18 percent on a reported basis and 14 percent on a comparable basis to $6.05 billion.

The order backlog was 1 percent lower on a reported basis at the end of the quarter, while it grew 5 percent on a comparable basis.

As expected, the second quarter has been heavily impacted by COVID-19.

Looking ahead, the company said, "A lot of uncertainty remains and we still see some challenging quarters ahead. ….Potential easing of COVID-19 impacts remain subject to considerable uncertainties. Against this background, ABB expects some improvement in year-on-year order decline already in the third quarter. Revenues are expected to remain strongly impacted on a year-on-year basis, at best recovering somewhat in the fourth quarter."