13.05.2009

Ramirent drops 25%

.Finnish based international rental company Ramirent has reported first quarter revenues down almost 25 percent to €122 million. Pre tax profits were 96 percent lower at €900,000, compared to €26.2 last year.

Capital expenditure was just €2.5 million, compared to €93 million in 2008.

Falling revenues are attributed to a slow down in construction activity in most of the groups markets, combined with weaker currencies in Eastern Europe translating into fewer Euros.

Chief executive Magnus Rosén said: “The market conditions continued to decline in the first quarter. 2009 will prove to be a challenging year and our near-term priority remains on safeguarding profitability and cash flow in order to amortize debt. The cost-saving actions initiated at the end of 2008 are progressing according to plan, but due to the slow start of 2009, the action program was reinforced during the review period. At the end of the first quarter our workforce had decreased by 535 persons since the start of the first cost saving program. Our focus lies on implementing cost saving actions, continuing to right-size our fleet and re-allocating fleet capacity between markets to support price level and utilisation. We have developed contingency plans to address the risk of
further market decline.”