Ski resort company Skistar more than doubled its pre-tax profit during the Christmas and sports holiday season. The result was higher than both the stock market and Dagens Industri had predicted, and the stock was rightfully among Thursday's stock market winners.
The lifts have been in full swing at Skistar's facilities on both sides of the Norwegian-Swedish border. Turnover during December-February increased by a whopping 64 percent to SEK 2.2 billion, while profit before tax rose by 106 percent to SEK 920 million.
An improvement in profits was expected since last year was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. But even compared to the completely coronavirus-free 2019/2020 ski season, the figures were impressive, with a 36 percent increase in sales and a 14 percent improvement in earnings.
It is primarily the Swedish destinations that had strong growth, while the Norwegian operations in Trysil and Hemsedal were affected by the winter's omicron variant.
When Today's Industry recommended to buy Skistaraktien In August last year, ahead of the important Christmas and sports holiday season, we believed in a really big profit increase for the important second quarter, but not a doubling of profits. The result from the company's operational first half of the year is approximately 15 percent higher than what Di forecasted.
Furthermore, the winter season is not yet completely over for Skistar, as Easter is approaching. Considering that in recent years Skistar has managed to fill the slopes, cabins, hotels and restaurants increasingly well outside the peak season weeks, while Easter is quite late this year, the next quarterly report could reasonably also be good.
Skistar's CEO Stefan Sjöstrand was very satisfied with the interim report and the way the staff has managed to carry out the season despite restrictions.
Ahead of next season, Stefan Sjöstrand will invest 550 million SEK in two lifts in Åre and snow machines at all destinations to further extend the season.
Despite the fact that the Skistar share rose by 7 percent in the interim report, Skistar is trading around 5 percent lower than in Di's stock analysis in August, while the Stockholm Stock Exchange has risen by 2 percent.
But considering that positive price reactions usually last for a while even after the initial rise, a profitable Easter and increasing summer activity in the mountains, Di has good hope that the Skistar analysis will have beaten the stock market index by the summer's evaluation.
Source: DI.SE
