Ingersoll Rand blames US housing slowdown for disappointing Q3 performance

Ingersoll Rand has admitted that it was “disappointed” with its performance in the third quarter of 2006, as it felt the slowdown in the US housing market bite.

Pre-tax profit climbed slightly from £166m in the same period last year to just over £172m, while turnover rose 6% from £1.4bn to almost £1.5bn. But Ingersoll Rand chairman, president and chief executive officer Herbert L Henkel said: “our overall performance was unsatisfactory by our standards.”

Henkel blamed the results on a “sharp deterioration in the North American  market for compact equipment, slowing growth in out North American road machinery business and a reduction in security products demand,” caused by a struggling US residential market.