Swedish giant Electrolux said Thursday that net profit plummeted by nearly a third last year, wrapping up a year marked by the failed acquisition of General Electric's appliance business with a final-quarter loss. The company announced a 30-percent drop in net profit to 1.57 billion kronor (169 million euros, 184.5 million dollars) while in the fourth quarter alone it saw a loss of 394 million kronor.
Electrolux abandoned a $3.3-billion deal to buy the appliance business of US rival General Electric in December after it ran into opposition from US competition authorities. Most of the financial impact of the failed bid fell in the fourth quarter, with the company announcing a 1.66-billion-kronor charge that took it into the red.
Electrolux announced earlier this month that its American chief executive Keith McLoughlin, who orchestrated the GE deal, would be replaced by Jonas Samuelsson of Sweden as of February 1. For the full-year, "growth was particularly strong in the Nordic countries, Spain and the UK," Electrolux said, in contrast to Russia and Brazil where demand fell most rapidly.