Kvaerner ASA announced a record 1999 pre-tax loss, hit by restructuring costs and weak non-core operations, but forecast an upturn at its core businesses in 2000. London-based Kvaerner recorded a pre-tax loss of $667 million from $205.5 million a year earlier after a sweeping restructuring plan was launched in April, which aimed to sell off non-core activities. "We have all seen that the goal is within sight. It is far away but still in sight," Chief Executive Kjell Almskog said. "We will see setbacks also this year, but hopefully smaller and fewer (than in 1999)." Almskog said a planned restructuring into a "New Kvaerner," to include only core business areas, would take another one to two years.
