Sweden’s Electrolux skidded to a loss in the fourth quarter, suffering a hangover from the collapsed purchase of General Electric’s white goods business that has left the home appliances maker needing a strategy reboot.

Looking at the current year, Electrolux, which had hoped to add GE Appliances to a stable of brands that include Frigidaire, AEG and Zanussi, forecast growing demand on both sides of the North Atlantic and nudged its US market outlook slightly higher.

The company, vying for market leadership with the likes of US rival Whirlpool, swung to a fourth-quarter operating loss of 202 million crowns (€22.3 million), compared with a profit of 1.4 billion crowns last year. The mean forecast from analysts polled by Reuters was for a loss of 300 million crowns.

Results were dented by 1.66 billion crowns in costs related to the collapsed GE Appliances deal, mainly stemming from a termination fee payable to GE even though the it was the US company that pulled the plug following opposition from antitrust regulators.

The collapse of the $3.3 billion deal last month upended the Swedish company’s plans to double its US sales with its biggest ever acquisition.

Compounding Electrolux’s woes, GE then struck a similar deal with China’s Haier, if at a higher price, adding another potent rival to the mix.

With little scope for other big-ticket acquisitions, Electrolux will need to explore alternative avenues to growth, with many analysts pointing to expansion of the group’s highly profitable professional business as a potentially lucrative option.

“The company needs something of a ‘ctrl-alt-delete’ after the GE debacle,” DNB analyst Christer Magnergard said.

“I think they should, and will, buy more companies within Professional Products. If they succeed with that, it will generate higher profitability, more stable profits, better organic growth and less price pressure.”

Reuters