By Greta Rosen Fondahn
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Assa Abloy, the world’s largest lockmaker, reported third-quarter operating profit above market expectations on Tuesday, as overall sales rose despite continued weakness in the North American residential market.
Shares in the company, which competes with Allegion and Dormakaba, rose by around 3.5% by 1000 GMT, hitting an all-time high earlier in the session.
The group makes around 47% of its revenues in the U.S., and has said it is increasing prices in the country to mitigate tariff costs.
However, CEO Nico Delvaux said on Tuesday that the need for further hikes had eased after the company renegotiated with suppliers and rerouted some products and components.
“We have seen that suppliers were open to give us better prices to … solve the problem together with us,” he told Reuters.
He said prices remained 3% to 4% higher than pre-tariff levels, down from earlier estimates of 4% to 5%.
Third-quarter operating profit at the Swedish group rose to 6.43 billion Swedish crowns ($682.92 million) from 6.21 billion a year earlier. Analysts polled by LSEG had, on average, expected a profit of 6.37 billion crowns.
Delvaux said in a statement that sales declined in the North American residential division, as high interest rates continued to hold back demand for new construction.
But overall sales grew organically by 3% to 38.1 billion crowns, in line with analysts’ expectations, with the company saying it had seen strong growth in electromechanical products.
($1 = 9.4155 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Greta Rosen Fondahn, editing by Stine Jacobsen and Louise Heavens)
