New CEO for NCC

Former president of NCC Housing, Peter Wågström, has assumed the role of group president and CEO, replacing Olle Ehrlén, who is retiring.

Mr Wågström was chosen for the role in December last year, and he took the reins after the Swedish contractor's annual general meeting on 13 April, 2011.

Mr Wågström said the company had seen "superb development" in the past 10 years and had become a leader in the Nordic region.

"My intention is for us to retain the leading positions that we have - and to capture leading positions in areas that we for some reason do not currently hold," he said.

The news came as NCC said it expected to report lower first quarter earnings in 2011 as a result of growing competition and the ongoing impact of 2009's weak business climate.

In his last annual general meeting address, Mr Ehrlén said, "The construction industry is late in the economic cycle and our order backlog still contains a number of contracts signed during tough times. As a result of an upturn in the economy, we are experiencing cost pressure in several markets and for several products. This situation had limited effects during 2010 - but we noted its impact on margins in early 2011, primarily for NCC Construction Sweden."

Nevertheless, Mr Ehrlén described market conditions for 2011 as "favourable", adding that the company had received a healthy level of orders during the first three months of the year.