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Statoil Enjoys Benefits of Higher Oil Prices

Sky — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:12:08 +0000

Due to the increase in oil prices, Norway’s largest oil and gas company–Statoil just reported fourth-quarter adjusted net income of 14.5bn Norwegian crowns, which makes a 34% increase on 2011.
According to Statoil’s chief executive–Lund, it is stated that Statoil delivered record financial results, further improved safety and made important strategic progress in last year. The company is said to have a good year for exploration in 2011, with discoveries in the North Sea as well as the Barents Sea.

HTC Expects Big Fall in Sales

Sky — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:48:32 +0000

The world’s fourth biggest smartphone maker by shipments–HTC, is getting prepared for another big fall in its sales in the first quarter of 2012 as the company scrambles to find its next hit phone.
The Taiwanese smartphone maker had already seen its sales fell by 22% from the third to the last quarter of 2011. According to the company, it is announced today that it expects the revenues to drop by a further 35.5% in the first quarter of the year.
HTC’s operating margins will drop to 7.5%, compared to 14.8% for the full year last year.

Unilever Faces Tougher Times in Emerging Markets

Sky — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:24:27 +0000

The maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice cream–Unilever, said that the company was facing a tougher trading environment in Russia and Brazil as it posted a pre-tax profit of €6.25bn for 2011.
The emerging markets operations of the group has witness the underlying year-on-year sales growth drop from 13% in the third quarter of the year to 12.3% in the last quarter, driving the annual growth rate to be 11.5% in these territories.
According to Unilever, it is said in the annual result statement that emerging markets in particular have seen a moderation in volume growth, albeit from high levels, whilst developed markets remain broadly flat.

Shell Outlines Aggressive Growth Strategy

Sky — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:54:28 +0000

The rise in crude prices helped Royal Dutch Shell, which is the largest oil company by market capitalisation in Europe. The Anglo-Dutch group just reported a rise in earnings for the fourth quarter in spite of weak refining margins and low natural gas prices.
In spite of the weaker quarter, the company set out an aggressive medium-term growth agenda, with new projects and higher exploration spending expected to increase the cash flow over the next 3 years by 30-50%. Shell also heralded a return to dividend growth in 2012 for the first time ever since 2009.

UniCredit Places Bulk of €7.5bn Cash Call

Sky — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:14:00 +0000

Italy’s largest bank by assets–UniCredit, which operations in 22 countries, has placed almost the entirety of its rights issue of €7.5bn. This has provided us with another sign of improved investor sentiment towards Italy as well as the eurozone.
As one of Europe’s largest bank, UniCredit had one of the more rocky starts to a rights issue in recent days with its shares falling more than 40% in the days after the pricing was announced this month.

Twitter Bows to Pressure Over Censorship

Sky — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:50:51 +0000

The microblogging service–Twitter has made a virtue of being used as an organising tool by political activists. Now the company has bowed to the realities that global businesses are taking a completely new approach to censorship.
The change for the network will pave its way for long-term expansion into many new countries, but at the cost of tarnishing the reputation for idealism that has surrounded Twitter. Disappointment over Twitter’s new sense of political realism has already widely spread over the Internet.

Tax-related Windfall Boosts Ford’s Profits

Sky — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:43:30 +0000

A tax-related windfall and strong US earnings boosted the net profit of Ford Motor for 2011 to its best level in 14 years. However, the fourth-quarter result of the US carmaker was weighed down by poorer performance overseas. As a result, it was weaker than the level a year ago.
According to Ford’s chief financial officer–Lewis Booth, it is announced that the company might need to dismiss some of its temporary workers in Europe if slowing demand for cars on the continent prompted the company to cut down its production.

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

Sky — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:13:26 +0000

The 42nd session of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting–Davos Forum is currently being held in the eastern Swiss town of Davos. The meeting, theme of which is “The Great Transformation: create a new model”, is held from 25th to 29th January.
Due to the tough global economic environment, this annual meeting has attract wide attention.

Lenders Show Faith in Nokia Siemens

Sky — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:14:39 +0000

The troubled telecoms equipment maker–Nokia Siemens Networks was forced to announce 17000 job cut in last November against a backdrop of poor corporate lending.
Though there were wide concerns within the banking community that Nokia would struggle to find sufficient finance in the difficult trading conditions, the mobile giant has still managed to raise over €1.2bn of finance from a consortium of 14 European and US banks in a vote of confidence from the lending market in the company’s strategic overhaul.

GE Profits Lifted by Finance Division

Sky — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:55:22 +0000

In 2012, the industrial and finance group–General Electric, is sticking with its prediction of double-digit operating earnings growth despite an expected recession in Europe as well as falling prices for some of its products like wind and gas turbines.
According to GE’s chief financial officer–Keith Sherin, it is said that the company would cut costs via more effective sourcing and the use of lean production techniques to raise margins on the industrial side of the group. The company was also cutting back at some of its health care, finance and energy businesses in Europe, and merging back offices, in preparation for an economic recession in the region.