Norwegian drinks-to-media group Orkla ASA said on Thursday it swung to a small pre-tax loss in the first quarter after lower beer sales and a big writedown on its share portfolio, lagging analysts' forecasts of a profit. The group was primarily hit by its 40% stake in the Danish brewer Carlsberg, which saw its profits fall well short of market expectations today.

It reported a January-March pre-tax loss of 9.0 million Norwegian crowns ($1.30 million), plunging from a 425 million crowns profit in the same 2002 period and underperforming analysts' forecasts of a 322 million profit in a Reuters poll.

"For Orkla's other industrial operations the trend was positive, taking into account the effects of a late Easter and structural changes in the Chemicals business," it said. Revenues fell to 9.87 billion crowns from 10.28 billion in the same 2002 period, weaker than the 10.24 billion forecast. It also booked a gain of 513 million crowns from the sale of its 22.5 percent interest in investment bank Enskilda Securities, in line with expectations.

12 May, 2003