Dutch companies quoted on the Amsterdam stock exchange realised net
profits of 9.8 billion euro in 2001, 33.5 billion euro (77 percent) down on 2000.
Non-financial companies even incurred losses totalling 0.7 billion euro. For financial companies the profits fell to 10.5 billion euro. The decreasing profits pushed down profitability. Total turnover of the listed companies did increase, according to provisional figures from Statistics Netherlands.
Losses for no- financial companies
Non-financial companies realised a negative result of 0.7 billion euro in 2001. In the previous year they realised profits of 26.4 billion euro. Companies in the transport and communications sector incurred losses amounting to 11.9 billion euro, mainly because of the increased losses in the telecommunications sector. The net results in the services sector were also disappointing. The small profit of 0.3 billion euro in 2000 dropped to a loss of nearly 1 billion euro. Financial institutions saw their results fall from 16.9 billion euro in 2000 to 10.5 billion euro in 2001.
The number of companies with increased profits is the same as the number whose profits fell, namely 63. Together companies in the first category booked 3.7 billion euro more profit. For the latter category profits fell by 37.2 billion euro. Four large companies contributed 31 billion euro to this loss.
Profitability down strongly
The declining results strongly reduced the profitability of the stock exchange companies. The profitability of non-financial companies was negative (-1 percent), down from a record 27 percent in the preceding year. The profitability of financial institutions fell from 27 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2001.
Turnover still up
The total turnover of stock exchange listed companies increased by more than 7 percent in 2001. The year before the increase was as high as 31 percent. Turnover increased by more for financial companies (+16.3%) than for nonfinancial companies (+4.9%). There are large differences between nonfinancial companies: turnover for manufacturing companies was down 2.5 percent, mainly caused by sharp falls for machinery and electronics companies (-14.6 percent) and the chemical branch (-6.3 percent). For all other sectors of industry turnover increased. The largest increase was for trade where turnover increased by 21.2 percent.
(source: Statistics Netherlands)
