Oce posts Q3 operating loss as slowdown
Wednesday October 1 2008 AMSTERDAM, Oct 1
(Reuters) - Dutch photocopier and printer maker Oce NV said on Wednesday it made a third-quarter operating loss of 11.2 million euros ($16.03 million) because of market turmoil and one-off items.
This compared with a 21.2 million euro operating profit in the same quarter last year.
"The current turmoil in the world economy continues to put pressure on our revenues and margins," Oce's Chief Executive Rokus van Iperen said in a statement.
It made a quarterly net loss of 23.7 million euros compared to 12.6 million euros in profit last year, pressured by one-off items totalling 28 million euros.
One-off items included a 4.6 million euro book loss on the divestment of its coating-related activities and a 13.2 million euro negative currency impact.
The mid-cap company, which makes printers, copiers and scanners and offers document-management and maintenance services, said excluding one-off items it had a third quarter net profit of 1.7 million euros.
Oce, which competes against Canon, Ricoh and Xerox, refrained from giving an outlook for the full year because of the current economic turmoil, but said it expected a positive fee cash flow.
Its shares have lost 60 percent so far this year.
(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde; editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
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