Sweden's Hexagon tops profit forecast, but market uncertainty clouds outlook

(Reuters) -Swedish industrial technology group Hexagon reported a smaller than expected drop in its quarterly operating profit on Friday, but said the continued market uncertainty made it difficult to forecast results for the remainder of the year.

The maker of measurement and positioning systems said its adjusted operating earnings fell 10% to 360.6 million euros ($423.6 million) in the quarter, but beat the 358.1 million euro estimate from 12 analysts polled by LSEG.

"Organic growth in the second quarter was 3%, as the divisions mitigated delays in customer decision making due to ongoing geopolitical uncertainty," Anders Svensson, who took over as CEO earlier in July, said in the earnings statement.

The market environment was most challenging in the Geosystems unit, which develops digital solutions used by customers in the construction sector among others, he added.

In April, Hexagon said that tariff-related uncertainty had impacted demand in key countries, hitting its volumes and operating margins. It warned at the time that the second-quarter earnings would take a hit of up to 15 million euros before mitigation actions.

In order to accelerate organic sales growth, Svensson said Hexagon was working on a cost improvement programme that would be implemented as soon as possible.

($1 = 0.8513 euros)

(Reporting by Marta Frąckowiak in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)