ABB's operating profit (ebita) fell 21 percent to $ 651 million (equivalent to SEK 5.2 billion) during the second quarter of the year. This can be compared with the profit of 825 million dollars during the corresponding period last year.

Order intake fell 18 percent

However, the decline was not as deep as feared. Analysts had on average estimated that this result would fall to 446 million dollars, according to Reuters.

At the same time, revenue fell 14 percent in the quarter to $ 6.15 billion, which was also slightly better than expected. Order intake fell 18 percent to $ 6.05 billion.

In a separate press release, ABB states that it is launching a program for repurchasing shares, a form of dividend to the owners.

"As part of the plan to return the net proceeds from the sale of Power Grids to shareholders of $ 7.6-7.8 billion, ABB intends to initially repurchase 10 percent of the company's share capital through the share repurchase program," writes ABB.

Uncertainty remains

Ahead of the repurchases, which are planned for the spring of 2021, ABB has 2.13 billion outstanding shares.

The outlook for the future is described at the same time as uncertain by CEO Björn Rosengren.

“A lot of uncertainty remains and we continue to see that we have some challenging quarters ahead of us. At the same time, we have a clear way forward. We will continue to roll out our new operational model, review our portfolio and begin our share repurchase program, ”he writes in a comment.