Q3: -4% organic sales y-o-y, adj. EBITA margin flat at -2.9%
Headline numbers for Projektengagemang (PE) looked worse than the underlying development in Q3 as it decided to speed up its cost savings program for optimising its use of office space, and booked IAC costs of SEK 15.6m. If we adjust for that, the EBITA margin was flat y-o-y, despite one less working day in the quarter and with a utilisation rate drop of 3.9pp y-o-y. It signals that PE is much more lean in its cost structure than before. Unfortunately sales of SEK 170m (181m) were down 6% y-o-y and 4% below ABGSCe as the challenging market is taking its toll. Despite coming from a smaller base, it looks like the company will have to make additional adjustments as the weak demand from the construction market is spreading to new areas of the market.