STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish radiation therapy equipment maker Elekta (ST:EKTAb) reported a bigger than expected first-quarter profit on Wednesday, citing improved profitability even as sales declined because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Operating profit jumped 42% from a year earlier to 335 million crowns ($38.2 million) despite a 5% sales drop to 2.98 billion crowns. Four analysts polled by Refinitiv had on average forecast a profit of 172 million crowns.
The operating profit before amortisation, which is closely watched by investors, widened to 18.5% from 13.9%.
Elekta, which is looking for a new chief executive after the CEO's unexpected resignation in June, said sales were still affected by restrictions leading to delayed installations and so far only China had returned to a normal level of installation.
Order intake, too, was hampered by the pandemic but grew 4%.
"A key driver was the GenesisCare partnership, which enabled us to show strong growth in the U.S. market," acting CEO Gustaf Salford said on the order intake.
"Most other regions experienced a large decline in order volumes, especially EMEA, where large parts of the healthcare systems were focusing on dealing with the pandemic."
The rival of U.S group Varian Medical Systems (N:VAR) said it booked several orders for its new radiation therapy system Unity in the quarter.
Unity received clearance in China this month.