Signify shares fell by more than 8% on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange on Friday, after the Dutch lighting specialist reported an accelerated decline in first-quarter sales.

In the first three months of the year, sales came in at less than 1.47 billion euros, down 12.5% on a reported basis and 10.1% on a like-for-like basis.

This downturn marks a deterioration on the decline in business that had characterized the 2023 financial year, marked by a 10.8% drop in sales on a reported basis and 8.3% on a like-for-like basis.

Although the Group succeeded in increasing its net profit to 44 million euros in the quarter just ended, compared with 28 million a year earlier, this positive dynamic is essentially due to its cost-cutting efforts.

In a press release, Signify said it expected a sequential improvement in like-for-like sales over the coming months, as well as an increase in its operating margin.

In the first quarter, however, its adjusted Ebitda margin fell to 8.3%, compared with 8.9% a year earlier.

At around 11:20 a.m., Signify's share price was down by almost 8%, the second biggest drop on the STOXX 600 index, while the index of European industrial stocks was down by 0.9%.

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