Haldex has posted second quarter operating income excluding one-off items down 11% to SEK78m (US$9.4m) from SEK87m, with the Swedish supplier warning of severe difficulties to run the company successfully given the uncertainty surrounding the bid from Knorr-Bremse.
“It has been extremely challenging to focus on and perform the day-to-day activities while at the same time dedicating large parts of our day to preparing divestitures,” said Haldex acting president and CEO, Åke Bengtsson.
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“I am proud we did as well as we did during Q2. We surrendered some of our market shares, but we did so under incredibly challenging conditions.
“We have continued to invest in all strategic projects. Haldex’ strong culture and loyal employees have played a large role in ensuring we have not lost more employees than what we have so far, but the concern in the organisation is noticeable.
“It will be difficult to successfully run the company much longer under the current conditions.”
A bidding process for Haldex started on 14 July last year and is still ongoing. Knorr-Bremse’s bid of SEK125m is conditional and dependent on authorisation from relevant competition authorities, noted Haldex.
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By GlobalDataOn 29 June, the board of directors announced withdrawn support for the bid from Knorr-Bremse due to what Haldex maintains is “the very low probability it will be approved by the competition authorities.”
Knorr-Bremse was not immediately available for comment, but is due to provide further details later.
