YIT Corporation’s Annual General Meeting on March 16, 2018: President and CEO Kari Kauniskangas comments on the first quarter’s development

YIT Corporation will hold its Annual General Meeting in Helsinki, Finland today, March 16, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. Kari Kauniskangas, President and CEO, will present a review at the General Meeting of YIT’s Financial Statements for 2017 as well as the outlook for the present year. In addition, CEO Kauniskangas will briefly comment on the development during the first quarter.

“We had the opportunity to witness a historic moment, as the merger of YIT and Lemminkäinen took place at the beginning of February after months of preparation. The merger is a strategically important step for YIT, one which will create a balanced and stable foundation for the company to grow into one of the leading urban developers in the Northern European construction market. Immediately after the merger, we started integrating the organisations, and our aim is to build a unified approach and organisational structure for YIT as quickly as possible. Together as one YIT, we provide companies, public administration and consumers with even more diverse and sustainable solutions when it comes to living, mobility and business premises. Visionary urban development ties our business areas together and generates growth. In the future, we will develop cities and society also through ownership, as we set up the Partnership Properties segment focusing on project ownership at the turn of the year.

The year 2017 was successful for YIT. In terms of the Group’s profitability, the final quarter was one of the best in YIT’s entire history. I am especially pleased about the fact that all of our segments showed positive development in 2017. Our earnings per share multiplied compared to the previous year. When we published the financial statements bulletin we stated that we see the year 2018 as bright. However, the adjusted operating profit in the first quarter is expected to be low due to the normal seasonal variation of the merged companies and the low number of units being completed,” says President and CEO Kari Kauniskangas.

The estimate of self-developed consumer sales during the first quarter is around 650 apartments in Finland (Q1/2017: 695), including Lemminkäinen’s consumer sales also for January, around 700 apartments in Russia (Q1/2017: 546) and around 200 apartments in the CEE (Q1/2017: 250).  In addition, YIT estimates to sell further to consumers around 100 apartments (Q1/2017: 30) from the projects earlier sold to YCE Housing I fund.

The invitation to the Annual General Meeting and the Board of Directors’ proposals to the Annual General Meeting were published in a stock exchange release on February 15, 2018. The Board of Directors proposes that dividends of 25 cents (EUR 0.25) per share be paid from the unrestricted equity and that the rest of the profit be carried forward to the distributable equity.

The Annual General Meeting material and the presentation of the review of the President and CEO Kari Kauniskangas are available on the company website at www.yitgroup.com/agm2018

For further information, please contact:

Hanna Jaakkola, Vice President, Investor Relations, YIT Corporation, hanna.jaakkola@yit.fi tel. +358 40 5666 070
Ilkka Salonen, CFO, YIT Corporation, tel. +358 45 359 4434, ilkka.salonen@yit.fi

YIT CORPORATION

Hanna Jaakkola

Vice President, Investor Relations

Distribution: Nasdaq Helsinki, major media, www.yitgroup.com   

YIT is the biggest construction company in Finland and a major player in Northern Europe. We construct and develop apartments, business premises and entire residential areas. Furthermore, we are specialists in infrastructure construction and paving. Together with our customers, our 10,000 professionals create increasingly functional, appealing and sustainable cities and living environments. We have operations in 11 countries: Finland, Russia, Scandinavian and Baltic countries, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. The new YIT was created by the merger of YIT Corporation and Lemminkäinen Corporation, both over 100 years old, on February 1, 2018. In 2017, our combined annual revenue amounted to over EUR 3.8 billion. YIT Corporation’s share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.yitgroup.com