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| BSkyB posts strong first quarter earnings Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:30 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Pay-TV group BSkyB reported first quarter earnings up 16 percent on Thursday as price rises and the sale of additional products to subscribers helped mask an otherwise steady performance in signing up new customers. BSkyB, which sells pay-TV, broadband and telephony, has launched an online offering and promoted new products to existing customers in the last year as it struggles to sign up new subscribers in the tough economic conditions. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sony posts small second-quarter profit, keeps full-year forecast Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:25 AM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp booked a small operating profit in the second quarter, after a loss a year ago, helped by the sale of a chemicals business that offset weak demand for its TVs and other devices, and it kept its full-year profit guidance. July-September operating profit of 30.3 billion yen ($379 million) compared with a 1.64 billion yen loss a year ago, and was close to the average 33.8 billion yen profit estimated by five analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shell Q3 drops on oil price, charges Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:24 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - World No. 2 oil company Royal Dutch/Shell suffered a 15 percent fall in current cost of supply profits in the third quarter as the impact of lower crude prices and charges outweighed stronger margins in refining. Shell reported CCS net profit of $6.1 billion, down from $7.2 billion a year ago. Stripping out the charges for weak U.S. gas prices, UK tax changes and other factors, the result was $6.6 billion. Analysts had predicted a result of $6.3 billion. (Reporting by Andrew Callus) Full Story | Top |
| Lloyds dragged to quarterly loss after 1 billion pounds PPI hit Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:22 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group took another 1 billion pound hit to compensate UK customers mis-sold loan insurance, taking its charge for the scandal to 5.3 billion pounds and dragging it to third quarter loss. Britain's biggest retail bank on Thursday reported a pretax loss of 144 million pounds for the three months to the end of September, compared to a loss of 607 million pounds a year earlier. Lloyds said its bad debts this year are expected to fall to about 6 billion pounds, about 1. ... Full Story | Top |
| Glencore sees "healthy improvement" in marketing in Q3 Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:21 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Trader Glencore said its closely watched marketing operations performed "strongly" in the third quarter, boosted by trading in agriculture and metals, though it warned tough global economic conditions would not improve any time soon. "(The third quarter) saw a healthy improvement both year-on-year and sequentially," Glencore said of its marketing operation, which accounts for a smaller portion of profit than its industrial arm, but is less easily forecast. "Glencore's outlook for the remainder of the year in marketing remains positive. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spanish bad bank faces struggle to lure property investors Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:04 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Spain's "bad bank" will struggle to find buyers for swathes of empty land, unfinished housing projects and doubtful loans left over from a property crash, hindering Madrid's attempts to overcome the wider economic crisis. Real estate consultants predict that almost two-thirds of assets that the government's newly-created bad bank is due to take over from commercial banks will fail to attract investors, at least in the short term and possibly ever. Spain is setting up the bad bank, known by the acronym SAREB, under a plan to cleanse the banking system of toxic property ... Full Story | Top |
| Fiat may start Italy car plant investments in coming weeks Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:52 PM PDT MILAN (Reuters) - Fiat's Mirafiori and Melfi plants will be among the first to be re-tooled for new models in the Italian carmaker's plan to fix its struggling European business, and work may begin within weeks, a union source said. A sharp downturn in Europe has forced Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne to focus on bolstering the company's European activities instead of buying more shares in U.S. automaker Chrysler Group LLC, which it also controls. Shares in Fiat closed 4. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fiat will start investments at Melfi plant by end-2012: press Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:44 PM PDT MILAN (Reuters) - Italian car maker Fiat's Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Thursday the company will start investing to build new sport utility vehicles (SUV) at its Melfi plant by year-end. "Next week we will send our technicians down (to the plant)," he told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview. "By the end of the year we will start spending." Fiat's Melfi plant will therefore be the first to be re-tooled for new models outlined in the Italian carmaker's plan to fix its loss-making European business. ... Full Story | Top |
| Asian shares fall, China shares buck trend Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:43 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Thursday but losses were curbed as the region's factory activity surveys mostly improved, with China's official and private sector manufacturing PMIs confirming a recovery in the growth trend even if it lacked punch. European shares were seen rising modestly. Financial spreadbetters expect London's FTSE 100 , Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX to open as much as 0.2 percent higher. U.S. stock futures were down 0. ... Full Story | Top |
| Toyota China sales tumble in October, hit by islands row Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:16 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp's sales in China fell 44 percent in October from a year earlier as the Japanese auto maker remains pressured under the impact of a territorial row between the two countries. Toyota said on Thursday it and its two local joint-venture partners sold a total of about 45,600 cars. The year-on-year decline followed a nearly 50 percent slide it saw in September. ... Full Story | Top |
| Twin China PMI surveys show economy perking up Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 11:08 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's economy is finally regaining some traction, official and private sector factory surveys showed on Thursday, although they pointed to a sluggish recovery with the latter recording its 12th straight month of slowing growth. The surveys add to other signs of economic revival in October after domestic credit curbs and weak demand from overseas markets pushed down third-quarter growth to its lowest rate since the depths of the global financial crisis. The National Bureau of Statistics reported the official October Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 50.2 from 49. ... Full Story | Top |
| Panasonic cleans house with writedowns, sees $9.6 billion loss Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 10:57 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp said it will lose almost $10 billion this business year as it cleans house of poorly performing operations, writing down billions of dollars of goodwill and assets in its mobile and energy units while its new boss readies for a fresh bout of restructuring. Shares in Panasonic, founded in 1918, plunged by nearly a fifth on Thursday to their lowest in more than three decades. A day earlier, it forecast a 765 billion yen ($9.6 billion) net loss for the year to March, nearly matching last year's record loss of 772 billion yen. ... Full Story | Top |
| Energy, mining set to help Niger to 8.6 percent growth in 2013 Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 10:50 PM PDT  NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's economic growth will ease to 8.6 percent in 2013 from an 11.6 percent surge in 2012 driven by the start-up of oil production and refining, Finance Minister Gilles Baillet said on Wednesday. He said the 2013 target was based on expectations of improved agricultural output and revenues from energy and mining in the West African state, which remains one of the world's poorest countries despite its rich minerals resources. "Our assumption for the 2013 budget includes GDP growth of 8.6 percent, after an 11. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tanzania sacks head of state-run power firm over graft Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 10:47 PM PDT DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's state-run power company said on Wednesday it had sacked its managing director over allegations of embezzlement of public funds and abuse of office. The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) board said an audit report confirmed Managing Director William Mhando flouted company regulations and was guilty of conflict of interest in awarding a tender to his own private company. "The Auditor and Controller General has found clear evidence of abuse of company procedures and abuse of office against the managing director," the company said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lonmin job cuts could bring more unrest in South African mines Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 10:43 PM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Lonmin management and workers appeared on Wednesday to be shaping up for a new battle after the strike-hit mining company said jobs would be cut. The world's third largest platinum producer, Lonmin is scrambling to get back on its feet after a violent six-week strike at its Marikana mine that crippled production and led it to ask shareholders for $800 million in a rights issue on Tuesday. It also gave unions notice of a restructuring, with proposed job losses in its 25,000-strong work force expected to be implemented in early 2013. ... Full Story | Top |
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