STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s Husqvarna reported on Thursday a fourth-quarter operating loss that was smaller than expected and record full-year profits, but warned it expected global supply chain constraints and component shortages to weigh also in 2022.
Operating loss at the world’s biggest maker of gardening power tools such as trimmers and lawn mowers was 132 million Swedish crowns ($14.33 million) against a year-earlier 944 million loss. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had on average forecast a loss of 237 million crowns.
The rival of Black & Decker and Honda Motor does the bulk of its business towards the end of the first quarter and in the second, ahead of and during the peak gardening season in the northern hemisphere.
It proposed a dividend of 3.00 crowns per share for 2021, up from 2.40 a year earlier.
($1 = 9.2139 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard)