Electrolux shares surge as North America pick-up drives strong third quarter profit

By Greta Rosen Fondahn

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Electrolux's profit more than doubled in the third quarter, driven by a recovery in its North American business and as it mostly managed costs related to U.S. tariffs, sending its shares up sharply.

The Swedish home appliance maker said its North American business, which struggled for years with high costs, underperformance at its factories and tough competition, gained market share in the quarter.

Its shares were 15% higher at 0837 GMT on track for their biggest daily rise since April 2023. They are down 28% year to date.

Electrolux has faced sluggish demand and competition from lower-priced rivals over the past few years and has been restructuring, cutting costs and putting focus on more premium categories to boost profitability.

The company, whose brands include Frigidaire and AEG, said operating profit rose to 890 million crowns ($94.5 million) from a year-earlier 349 million on 5% organic sales growth, mainly driven by double-digit organic sales growth in North America.

Analysts had on average forecast a profit of 875 million crowns, according to a poll provided by Electrolux.

The North American division, which last year accounted for a third of sales, swung to a profit of 25 million crowns from a 249 million loss.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan said profit in the region lagged its expectations but that overall results nevertheless showed sequential improvement. "This will keep the self-help story intact," they said in a note to clients.

The company said demand in the U.S. was largely unchanged in the quarter, noting however that inflation concerns related to tariffs weighed on consumer confidence.

"Despite a pressured pricing environment, in the third quarter we managed to compensate for the majority of U.S. tariff-related cost increases," CEO Yannick Fierling said in a statement.

Electrolux has neutral full-year market outlooks for Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and a neutral to negative outlook on North America.

($1 = 9.4155 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Greta Rosen Fondahn, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Jane Merriman)