Translation: Original published in Finnish on 04/03/2025 at 07:49 am EEST

Last night, Norwegian contract manufacturer Kitron raised its guidance for this year. The company now expects 2025 revenue to be 640-710 MEUR (was 600-700 MEUR) and EBIT to be 47-65 MEUR (was 42-63 MEUR). Consequently, the midpoint of the revenue guidance range increased by 4% and the midpoint of the EBIT guidance by 7%. Kitron justified the moderate guidance increase, especially with the strong outlook for the defense and space sectors, as well as the stable outlook for other customer sectors. Kitron expects demand in other sectors to recover this year despite tariffs. Kitron’s other customer segments are related to communications technology, electrification and industry. 

The earnings revision from the peer is also slightly positive news for Finnish contract manufacturers

We consider Kitron a fairly good peer to Scanfil, while Incap has been developing at a somewhat different pace than most of its peers already for a longer time. Although Scanfil's and Incap's weight in the defense sector is clearly lower than Kitron's share of some one-fifth of revenue, the companies' portfolios are closer to each other in other customer sectors. Therefore, we feel Kitron's raised guidance and comments on the stabilization of demand and recovery expectations are a slightly positive signal, especially for Scanfil but also for Incap. In addition, we believe that the very strong growth outlook for the Western defense industry and the need to increase production also open growth opportunities for Scanfil and Incap.