Brexit dents Swiss engineer ABB's orders and outlook

* Orders down 14 pct, unclear when they will rise again

* UK orders down 56 pct

* Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) down 6.8 percent

* Profitability up for 8th quarter on cost cuts

* New CFO appointed (Adds Cevian comment)

By John Miller and Jens Hack

ZURICH/MUNICH, Oct (Shenzhen: 000069.SZ - news) 27 (Reuters) - ABB (LSE: 0NX2.L - news) 's orders slipped for a sixth quarter and are not forecast to rise soon as Brexit, the U.S. elections and July's attempted Turkish coup compounded hesitation among customers of its Power Grids business, knocking its shares.

Third-quarter orders at the Swiss engineering group fell 14 percent to $7.53 billion, ABB said on Thursday, lagging even the lowest of 17 estimates in a Reuters poll of analysts that on average expected $8.5 billion.

Orders last rose on a year-on-year comparison in early 2015.

The Zurich-based company, which also poached Nokia (Milan: 23568.MI - news) 's finance chief to be its CFO, reported net profit of $568 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, down from $577 million a year earlier. The figure beat forecasts of $555 million in the poll.

European demand was dented by Britain's decision to exit the European Union as well as "considerable investment delays" that ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer pinned on the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

"We face continued adverse market conditions. That will not go away quickly," Spiesshofer said on a conference call. "Brexit had a massive dampening effect," he said, as orders in Britain fell 56 percent.

Spiesshofer added he was unable to predict when ABB would return to growth, cautioning "it will take a while".

ABB shares were down 6.8 percent at 1222 GMT.

"The headwinds have become even stronger," Bank Vontobel analyst Panagiotis Spiliopoulos said. "We fear the inflection point has been further delayed and all operations improvements are eaten up by top-line headwinds for more quarters."

Orders in Power Grids, which makes everything from microgrid equipment to big HVDC converters, were also hurt by the hesitation of customers in the months leading up to ABB's October announcement it would keep the division.

INVESTOR PRESSURE

ABB rejected pressure from Sweden's Cevian, its second- biggest investor with a 6.2 percent stake, to unload Power Grids. Its profitability has been improving, in part as ABB partners with others including Fluor, to cut risks that led to large losses on projects like North Sea wind parks.

On Thursday, Cevian renewed its criticism of ABB's move to keep the unit, saying the results show the company had made a mistake and now faces an even tougher task to reach Spiesshofer's goal of a 35 franc share price.

"The board should reconsider the incorrect decision to keep the complex and outdated conglomerate structure," said Cevian managing partner Christer Gardell. "My feeling is that a clear majority of the shareholders share this view."

Spiesshofer, who on Thursday declined to give a timeframe to reach the share price goal, said his "White Collar Productivity" cost-cutting program, now targeted saving $1.3 billion by the end of next year, had helped boost overall profitability for an eighth straight quarter.

The company's margin on operating earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation rose to 12.6 percent from 12.5 percent.

ABB named Nokia's Timo Ihamuotila as CFO to replace Erik Elzvik, who is leaving in April after more than three decades to "pursue career opportunities outside of ABB".

"We change the shape of the company and you have to look at the shape of the team," Spiesshofer said. "We saw that it is time to move on and bring in new additional talent." (Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Alexander Smith)