How have Finnish public firms and SMEs performed in Q2 2023 & outlook forward

By Olli Lehtonen

25.8.2023

As the leading local strategy consultant, August Associates is publishing a report that summarizes the financial performance of Finnish publicly listed firms and SMEs during Q2/2023. The report focuses on analyzing industry-specific trends in revenue and profitability development. For SME companies, the analysis is based on Accountor’s real-time financial data from approximately 10 000 SMEs. For large caps, we use financial information reported by publicly listed companies listed in Nasdaq Helsinki. 

Download the report (in Finnish) by clicking here.

Overall: 

  • The aggregate revenue generated by Finnish listed companies in 2023 is expected to decline by -3 % compared to the previous year which was a high watermark  
  • The aggregate operating profit in 2023 is expected to remain close to record highs, despite a substantial downward correction of analyst consensus estimates  
  • In the longer term, analysts expect operating profits to grow at a faster rate (11 % CAGR 2024-2025) than revenues (2 % CAGR) which seems optimistic 

Highlights from H1 2023: 

  • Many industries have suffered from declining revenues and profitability during the first half of 2023 
  • Industries which have been hit by declining revenues include Energy, Basic Materials, Consumer Goods, Industrial Goods, and Forestry sectors 
  • Especially Construction and Media are suffering from zero operating profits and stagnating revenue growth 
  • Positive performance has been in Mechanical Engineering and Electronics industries with growing revenue and profits 
  • Especially Transportation and Hospitality sectors have had a strong recovery after COVID-19 
  • Based on the Q2 2023 results published thus far, operating profits have fallen significantly behind (-17 %) the previous year 

Accountor provides software solutions and outsourcing services for finance and HR. Thanks to its digital finance and accounting solutions, Accountor is uniquely positioned to accumulate real-time data on Finnish Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). More on their website. 

Olli Lehtonen, Partner 
+358 50 371 4110 
firstname.lastname@august.fi