The company posted a pretax profit of 4.78 billion Swedish crowns ($470.76 million) up from 3.59 billion crowns a year earlier. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had on average forecast a 3.87 billion crown profit.

($1 = 10.1538 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, editing by Stine Jacobsen)