PARIS: French electronic engineering company Schneider Electric posted a 27 percent rise in first-quarter sales, helped by emerging markets, and confirmed its sales and profitability targets for the full year.
Quarterly revenue reached 4.94 billion euros ($7.18 billion), compared with a forecast of 5.0 billion in a Reuters poll of 10 analysts.
The company said it expected raw material costs to rise by about 350 million euros this year and said it planned to make 400 million euros of industrial productivity savings.
Schneider, which has been in the spotlight in recent weeks because of speculation it could bid to acquire U.S. security and safety systems maker Tyco International Ltd, said nothing in its earnings statement about reported talks between the companies.
Schneider shares have been battered in recent weeks by worries that it could need to resort a dilute capital increase to finance such a takeover, which could be in the area of $30 billion.
The maker of power consumption systems said last week that it was "not currently in discussion" with Tyco about a deal.
Its shares are down 5.3 percent so far this month, although they have still rallied 28 percent over the past year, compared with a sectoral rise of 18 percent.
The company left its 2011 outlook unchanged, forecasting organic sales growth of 6 to 9 percent earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (EBITA) margin of 15 to 15.5 percent.
Schneider said its Asia-Pacific region had a strong quarter, with an organic rise of 18 percent, with the sole exception of Japan, which it said was stable after absorbing the initial hit from the devastating earthquake that in turn triggered a tsunami and nuclear crisis.
Sales in Schneider's Industry unit, helped by strong demand from machine builders, showed the biggest acceleration, rising 22 percent.
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