PARIS (Reuters) - Electrical gear maker Schneider Electric (PA:SCHN) confirmed its full-year targets on Wednesday after it posted a 3.2 percent rise in first-half sales and roughly flat earnings that missed expectations.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) increased 0.1 percent to 1.5 billion euros (1.18 billion pounds) on sales of 11.7 billion. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected first-half sales of 12.1 billion.
Revenue in the second quarter fell 1.1 percent on an organic basis as weakness in European utilities fuelled a 8.9 percent drop in Schneider's infrastructure business.
France's Schneider, the world's biggest maker of low-and-medium voltage equipment and a bellwether of European industry, stuck to its full-year targets for low single-digit organic sales growth and a slightly improved EBITA margin.
Asia-Pacific, now its leading source of revenue with 29 percent of sales in the quarter, remained a key driver with business up 3 percent. Schneider said trends in the United States remained favourable, that it saw slight growth in Spain and Germany but that the French construction market remained weak.
The depreciation against the euro of several currencies cut 5.5 percentage points - or 339 million euros - off sales growth in the first half, Schneider said.
It said it saw improvements in some currencies, mainly the U.S. dollar, Chinese yuan, Russian rouble and British pound and thus expected the currency impact to be lower in the second half, reducing revenue by 100 to 200 million euros.
(Reporting by Natalie Huet; Editing by James Regan)