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William Demant said it expects industry unit growth slightly
below its target of 4-6 percent a year and its shares were down
3 percent at 181.60 Danish crowns ($28.38) 1302 GMT.
Following in the footsteps of market leader Sonova and Danish
rival GN Store Nord, William Demant said last month it would
launch a product that enabled users to stream phone calls and
music from their hearing aids.
"Smart features don't sell hearing aids, but real user benefits
for either our distributors or the end-user do and that is what
we focus on," Chief Executive Soren Nielsen said.
"Everyone wants to grow and the underlying market growth is
insufficient. On the bottom line it's a zero-sum game and no
business will survive by not winning market share," he said,
adding that competition was tough.
Swiss Sonova earlier this year launched a new hearing aid
microchip capable of streaming audio directly from wireless
devices and now aims to compete on direct-streaming with a 2.4
GHz chip, which GN Store Nord was first to present years ago.
Danish peer GN Store Nord's shares fell more than 5 percent last
week as weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue stoked fears that
rivals were catching up with its technology.
"William Demant doesn't stand out from peers in any crucial
way," Sydbank analyst Morten Imsgard said, noting that all
producers now have technologies with small differences but none
had entirely unique products.
Imsgard has a 'sell' recommendation for the shares.
($1 = 6.3984 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Julie Astrid Thomsen; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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