Stockholm, Oct 21: AB Electrolux, the world's biggest home appliances maker, reported on Tuesday a smaller-than-expected dip in third-quarter profit, but a sharp drop in U.S. sales delivered a blow to its share price. Shares in the company, whose brands also include AEG, Zanussi and Frigidaire, shed more than 6 percent on concerns over its U.S. performance, and investors found little cause for optimism in the company's forecast for the fourth quarter.

"We expect market demand for appliances in the fourth quarter to be flat or slightly up in both Europe and North America," the company said in a statement.

Electrolux's pre-tax profit was 1.664 billion crowns ($218.6 million), beating the 1.4 billion expected in a Reuters poll of 14 analysts, but below the year-earlier figure of 1.703 billion.
Analysts and brokers said there was particular concern about Electrolux's U.S. consumer durables unit, which saw sales down to 11.2 billion crowns ($1.44 billion) from 13.2 billion in the second quarter. The unit's operating profit more than halved to 544 million crowns from 1.14 billion in the second quarter.

"North America is the big disappointment. I thought we had seen the worst of it, but it deteriorated in the third quarter, said Handelsbanken analyst Carl Holmquist.

Electrolux also said it was considering closing a U.S. plant, which could cost the company about 1.2 billion crowns. Bureau Report