* Q2 operational EBITDA falls to 294 mln DKK, above forecast
* NKT says sees EBITDA at high end of full-year guidance
* CEO says Q2 and restructuring were better than expected
* Shares 5.4 percent higher in declining market
(Adds quotes, details, updates share price)
By Teis Jensen
COPENHAGEN, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Danish industrial group NKT Holding posted a smaller-than-expected drop in second quarter earnings, helped by cost cuts and strong sales in China, and said full-year profit would be at the high end of its forecast range.
The company, which makes power cables and professional cleaning machines, reported second-quarter operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 294 million Danish crowns ($56.5 million), down from 461 million crowns in the year-ago quarter. The operating EBITDA figure excluded non-recurring charges of 57 million, which reduced EBITDA to 237 million crowns in the quarter, beating the average forecast of 180 million crowns in a Reuters survey of seven analysts.
NKT shares were up 5.4 percent at 246 crowns at 0852 GMT, against the trend of the Danish blue-chip index, which was down 0.4 percent.
The company repeated its forecast for full-year 2009 operating EBITDA of between 700 million and 900 million crowns, but added: "Based on developments in recent months, a profit in the top half of this interval is realistic."
Chief Executive Thomas Hofman-Bang told Reuters that the second quarter had been better than expected on both the top and bottom lines.
"Our cost-cutting initiatives have worked effectively, and they have also given us more than we had expected," he said.
The cables business had better sales than expected, which compensated for a slightly lower-than-expected figure for the cleaning machines business Nilfisk-Advance, he said.
Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen said the cable division's better-than-expected performance stemmed from a near tripling of sales of overhead wires for Chinese railways.
"It is because of the speeding up of infrastructure projects in China," Pedersen said.
Hofman-Bang said Nilfisk-Advance had had a good start to the third quarter and was gaining share in a market that had declined considerably in 2009.
NKT stood by its earlier forecast for 2009 core sales to shrink by around 10 percent from a level of 13.8 billion crowns in 2008. Second-quarter sales fell 17 percent to 3.14 billion crowns from 3.79 billion in the year-ago quarter, while analysts had on average expected 3.09 billion. (Additional reporting by Karin Jensen; Editing by Will Waterman)