By John Revill
ZURICH--ABB Ltd. (ABBN.VX) warned on Wednesday world-wide
economic uncertainty makes forecasting business performance
difficult as the company reported first-quarter earnings that
missed analyst expectations.
The Zurich-based maker of everything from industrial robots to
power stations said order growth in the Americas and big European
economies like Germany and Italy slowed. Asia remains bright with
orders growing 20% in China.
ABB--which competes with General Electric Co. (GE) of the U.S.
and Germany's Siemens AG (SIE.XE)--said cost controls helped. It
saved $260 million through sourcing and productivity improvements,
the company said.
"We'll continue to focus on the cost-growth balance," Chief
Executive Joe Hogan said in a statement. He called the results "a
satisfactory start to 2013."
In the three months ending March 31 net profit fell 3% to $664
million from $685 million a year earlier. Economists polled by Dow
Jones forecast earnings of $723 million.
Revenue rose 9% to $9.715 billion--below the $11.14 billion
analysts forecast.
Orders in the Americas rose 4% as the company included revenue
from Thomas & Betts, a Memphis, Tenn.-based maker of
low-voltage products ABB purchased for $3.9 billion last year.
ABB is spending more than $1 billion to buy Power-One Inc., a
California-based maker of solar power equipment, it said earlier in
the week.
-Andrew Morse in Zurich contributed to this article
Write to John Revill at john.revill@dowjones.com
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