ZURICH (Reuters) - ABB reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday as the engineering group aimed to benefit from its overhaul in what it called improving markets this year.
The maker of power transmission equipment and industrial robots said net profit fell to $393 million during the three months ended Dec. 31, missing the average estimate of $424 million of analysts in a Reuters poll. The figures were hit by a fourth-quarter charge of $76 million from restructuring its business.
Revenues rose 3 percent to $9.28 billion, short of the poll estimate of $9.5 billion, while orders rose to a weaker-than-expected $8.48 billion.
(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields)