Britain’s scandal-hit lender Barclays posted surging first-half net profits yesterday, sending its share price soaring, as it pushed ahead with a restructuring that will shrink its investment bank division.

Earnings after tax surged 68% to £1.13bn ($1.9bn, €1.4bn) in the six months to June.
That was up from £671mn a year earlier, Barclays said in a results statement. The group also bounced back into profit in the second quarter with a net figure of £161mn, after a loss of £168mn last time around.
Barclays, which has been plagued by a series of scandals in recent years, added that it was buoyed by its personal and corporate banking and its credit card unit, amid a major group-wide restructuring.
In response, the bank’s share price leapt to the top of the London stock market, gaining 4.08% to 228 pence on the capitals falling FTSE 100 index. Adjusted pre-tax profits however sank seven% to £3.349bn in the first half, hit by a 46% slump at its investment banking operations.
The lender also took a fresh £900mn hit to cover compensation for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, taking its total PPI bill to almost £5.0bn.
Barclays had launched plans in May to shrink its investment bank in a radical restructuring which will axe 19,000 jobs across the group over the next two years.
“We committed to simplify, focus and rebalance the group to deliver higher and more sustainable returns across the cycle, while structurally reducing our cost base and strengthening our capital position,” said chief executive Antony Jenkins in the earnings release.

Schneider Electric
French electrical equipment maker Schneider Electric yesterday posted weaker-than-expected first half results dragged down by weak European demand and unfavourable exchange rates.
Schneider is the world’s biggest maker of low-and-medium voltage equipment, products for cars and the water treatment industry, and is a key bellwether of European industry.
Net profit in the first six months of 2014 fell 1.0% from a year earlier to €821mn ($1.1bn).
Adverse currency movements lost the company some €339mn and is expected to cost up to €200mn in the second half, it said.
Group revenue rose 3.2%, boosted by the acquisition of British Invensys group, and 8.6% at constant exchange rates.

Sprint
Sprint Corp reported higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue yesterday, as the company expanded its high-speed coverage and came closer to completing a network overhaul that has caused more frequent dropped calls and subscriber losses.
Faced with growing competition from its rivals like T-Mobile, Sprint has slashed prices and offered customer guarantees in an attempt to offset those subscriber losses.
“It’s not as horrible as people feared. The company has done better than the really pessimistic expectations, but it is still not doing well,” said Roger Entner, lead analyst at Recon Analytics.
The company reported a growing customer defection rate, known in the industry as churn, of 2.05%, higher than the 1.83% Sprint reported a year ago, but down from last quarter’s 2.11%.
The company reiterated its forecast of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) between $6.7bn and $6.9bn for the calendar year 2014.
Revenue fell to $8.8bn from $8.9bn a year earlier, but beat the average analyst estimate of $8.7bn according to Thomson Reuters.

Thomson Reuters
News and information company Thomson Reuters Corp yesterday reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on a 1% rise in revenue, boosted by growth in its Tax & Accounting and Legal divisions.
The company also announced a plan to buy back up to an additional $1bn in shares through the end of 2015 after completing a $1bn program announced last October.
Shares of Thomson Reuters rose more than 3% in Wednesday morning trading. Still, market challenges remain, especially in Europe, as key customers at financial institutions and law firms reduce costs and trim staff. “It was another quarter of steady progress, but it’s still a challenging environment,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Smith said in an interview.
Revenue before currency changes at the company’s Financial & Risk division, which caters to banks and other financial institutions, fell 2% to $1.65bn. However, Thomson Reuters said net sales for the second quarter were positive, reversing negative net sales in the first quarter. Revenue rose 1% to $850mn at the Legal division and increased 14% to $324mn at the Tax & Accounting division. The company said second-quarter revenue from ongoing businesses was $3.15bn, compared with analysts’ expectations of $3.13bn.

Suez Environnement
Europe’s second-biggest water company Suez Environnement said yesterday its first-half net profit more than doubled, buoyed by the sale of a stake in a Chinese electricity company.
Net profit rose to €280mn ($375mn) in the first six months of the year, up from €132mn a year ago, the company said in a statement.
That was boosted by a €129mn gain from the sale of its indirect stake in Companhia de Electricidade de Macau (CEM) and confirmed its objectives for 2014. Weaker results from its international operations helped to drag group revenues down 2.1% from a year earlier to €6.9bn.
Its European water business, however, saw an organic 3.6 rise in revenue to €2.2bn thanks to price increases across all its markets.
“The first half results are broadly in line with expectations” with “strong growth due to capital inflows,” said analysts at Deutsche Bank. They predicted that adverse currency movements could continue to have a negative effect this year, but expect that earnings could start to grow faster into 2015.

Total
French oil group Total suffered a profit and production setback in the second quarter, it reported yesterday but said it expected output to rebound despite uncertainty over the impact of sanctions on Russia.
The key quarterly net profit on a current cost basis, excluding the effects of changes in inventory values, fell by 12.0% to $3.15bn (€2.3bn).
The headline net profit fell by 8.0% to $3.10bn, and sales rose by 2.0% to $62.56bn from the comparable figures last year.
The results fell short of analysts’ expectations, and the price of Total shares was down by 2.72% to €50.80 in late morning trading.
The group blamed weak refining conditions in Europe and a fall of output, but expressed confidence that production would rise following the launch of a project in June for a giant offshore field called CLOV off Argentina.
Output was also hit by the ending of a production licence in Abu Dhabi, maintenance operations, and worsening unrest in Libya.
Production of hydrocarbons in the quarter fell by 10.0% to 2.054mn barrels of oil equivalent per day, but finance director Patrick de La Chevardiere told a telephone press conference that this was “an absolute low point”.

KPN
Dutch telecommunications firm KPN reported a second-quarter net loss yesterday, attributed in part to a €700mn reduction in the value of shares it was acquiring in a German rival.
The year-on-year second-quarter loss amounted to €12mn ($16mn), compared to a net profit of €108mn a year earlier.
Overall revenue was 7% lower at €2bn, partly due to “competitive mobile markets,” a company statement said.
KPN said it had to revise downward the value of a 20.5% stake in Telefonica Deutschland that it will acquire in the sale of KPN subsidiary E-Plus to Telefonica of Spain.
Like other mobile and landline telephone operators, it faces stiff competition from free Internet call programmes such as Skype.
KPN is also up against growing rivalry at home. In January, American company Liberty Global, already present in the Netherlands with cable operator UPC, announced it would buy telecoms competitor Ziggo. KPN reaffirmed its goal to achieve “financial performance stabilizing towards the end of 2014”.

Telefonica Deutschland
Telefonica Deutschland reported a 14.5% drop in quarterly core earnings due to lower revenues from its wireless services and heavy investments aimed at winning market share, and warned profit margins would remain under pressure.
The company, controlled by Spain’s Telefonica, reported yesterday a decline in second-quarter operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) to €265mn ($355mn), though that beat analysts’ mean forecast for €246mn in a Reuters poll.
Telefonica Deutschland last month received regulatory approval to buy the German business of Dutch peer KPN, which operates under the E-Plus brand, to create Germany’s largest telecoms operator in terms of customers.
The new combination will have a market share of roughly 30% and Telefonica is hoping to get more clout in its battle with Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom.

BBVA
Spain’s second-biggest bank by market capitalisation, BBVA, said yesterday its first-half profits more than halved from a year ago, dragged down by lower earnings in its South American units.
Net profits in the first six months of the year fell by 54% to €1.33bn ($1.8bn) from the first half of 2013, the bank said in a statement.
Second-quarter earnings dropped 39% to 704mn euros from a year earlier, when they were exceptionally boosted by the sale of its pension businesses in Colombia and Peru.
In its South American businesses, which include Argentina and Venezuela, earnings in the first six months of 2014 fell 12% from a year earlier to €483mn.
BBVA said its ratio of non-performing loans decreased for the second quarter in a row to 6.4%, down from 6.8% at the end of March. Net interest income, or the difference between what a bank charges for loans and pays for its funding, fell to €3.65bn from €3.68bn a year earlier.

Verbund
Falling power prices saw Austria’s leading electricity company Verbund take a cut in profits in the first half of this year, the company said yesterday.
Net profit amounted to just €56.5mn ($75.7mn) in the first six months of the year, compared to €406.4mn in January-June 2013.
Underlying earnings, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), also remained far below last year’s figure, at just €354.8mn, compared to €806.2mn.
Verbund blamed lower water flows this year that have cut into power production levels, but also falling electricity prices and costs related to its temporary closure of several thermal power stations in Austria and France.
For the full year, Verbund predicted a net profit of just €70mn.
Several European providers of electricity have reported tough trading conditions in the last year, many of them making huge asset writedowns saying that the structure of the market has changed on a lasting basis.

Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines (SIA) said yesterday its financial first quarter net profit plunged 71.4% from the previous year, weighed down by lower passenger and cargo revenue.
Net profit in the three months to June came in at Sg$34.8mn ($27.8mn), down from Sg$121.8mn in the same period last year, the national flag-carrier said in a statement.
Group revenue fell 4.1% to Sg$3.68bn.
“Passenger revenue declined year-on-year on the back of weaker yields amid intense competition, and unforeseen events that depressed travel demand in some key Asian markets,” it said.
The airline said revenue from its freight arm SIA Cargo also fell “as the airfreight market continued to be affected by excess capacity”.
It added that losses from associated companies, in particular budget carrier Tiger Airways, contributed to the decline in net profit.

Allied Irish Bank
Ireland’s state-rescued Allied Irish Banks bounced back into profit in the first half as bad loan charges and operating costs fell, it said yesterday.
Pre-tax profits stood at €437mn ($586mn) in the six months to the end of June, a switch from a loss of €838mn a year earlier, AIB said in a results statement.
Net profits, or earnings after taxation, hit €411mn in the reporting period. That compared with a loss of €758mn last time around.
That marked the first time that AIB was back in profit in the first half since 2011, when it was lifted by exceptional factors including asset sales.
Before that, the troubled bank had last made a first-half profit in 2008, just before the Irish government received a vast international bailout—which the eurozone nation exited late last year.
The Dublin-based group added that it expected to remain in profit for the year. That would be the first full-year profit posted by the bank since 2008 - and increases the likelihood of Dublin divesting some of its 99.8% stake in the near future.

Peugeot Citroen
PSA Peugeot Citroen reported a surprise surge in first-half cash flow and the first auto-division profit in three years, sending the French carmaker’s shares soaring as its turnaround plan began to show results.
Operating cash flow jumped to €1.67bn ($2.23bn) in January-June from €203mn a year earlier, as new Chief Executive Carlos Tavares slashed vehicle inventories and began stamping out supply-chain inefficiencies.
Peugeot shares rose as much as 8.5% after the company narrowed its net loss to €114mn from €471mn and said the core manufacturing business was back in the black.
“PSA certainly surprised us this morning,” London-based ISI Group analyst Erich Hauser said. “It looks like PSA is actually performing well ahead of plan.”
Peugeot sold stakes to China’s Dongfeng and the French state earlier this year as part of a €3bn share issue, after racking up losses of €7.3bn in two years.
Tavares pledged soon afterwards to trim the model line-up by almost half, cut capacity, raise pricing and pare wage and component costs to lift the automotive operating margin to 2% in 2018 and 5% by 2023.

MAN
Germany’s MAN SE cut its full-year sales outlook as weakening truck demand and falling orders in major South American markets weigh on business.
Second-quarter group sales plunged 12% to €3.6bn ($4.8bn), with revenue at its Latin American truck division down 17% due to slowing growth in Brazil and the weaker real currency, MAN said yesterday.
The Volkswagen-owned company, market leader in the region’s biggest economy for trucks weighing 5 metric tons or more, is bracing for a “substantial” drop in Latin American profit after quarterly orders plunged 17%.
MAN, which also makes diesel engines and turbines, said it now expects group sales to fall noticeably below the €15.7bn posted last year. Three months ago, MAN had guided for sales to dip only slightly below 2013 results.
MAN reaffirmed its 2014 guidance for significant gains in group operating profit as well as margin, citing its improving power plant business and cost cuts. Operating profit increased to €154mn, compared with a €26mn loss a year ago as strong demand for diesel engines and turbines offset weaker truck sales.

NEC
Japan’s NEC said yesterday it had cut its quarterly net loss by half from a year ago owing to its exit from a money-losing smartphone business and robust computer platform sales.
The company said its shortfall in the three-months to June stood at ¥10.1bn ($99mn), from a ¥21.5bn loss in the same period last year. It added that its operating loss also shrank to ¥ 7.1bn from ¥ 21.8bn, on sales of ¥ 598.7bn, which were down 6.5%.
The former powerhouse in the mobile sector said last year it would exit the highly competitive smartphone business, ending the development, production and sales of the devices.
NEC had merged its mobile phone handset operations with those of Casio Computer and Hitachi to fight off rising competition. But the subsidiary struggled to succeed in a market increasingly dominated by Apple and South Korean giant Samsung.

Tullow
Tullow Oil drifted into the red after writing off more than $400mn in exploration costs but the Africa-focused explorer remained confident that its strategy will pay off.
A disappointing run of oil wells exploration in Mauritania, Ethiopia and Norway over the past six months translated into a half-year net loss of $95mn because of $402mn in writeoffs.
The British energy company is counting on drilling projects in Kenya and Ethiopia this year and next to improve its exploration performance.
“Exploration is a risky business... You have periods where you don’t find oil and if you keep at it over a period of three to five years you generally have the success that we’ve had, so we are not overly concerned,” Chief Executive Aidan Heavey told Reuters.
Tullow reported a net loss of $95mn for the six months ended June 30 compared with a net profit of $313mn a year earlier. Revenues fell 6% to $1.265bn.
It said production fell 12% in the first half to 78,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), short of its full-year production guidance of 79,000-85,000 boepd.
Production at its flagship offshore Jubilee oil field in Ghana averaged 103,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2014, slightly above the group’s full-year production goal. Tullow holds a 35.5% stake in the Jubilee field.

Bayer
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer, maker of Aspirin painkiller, said yesterday its net profit surged 13% in the second quarter but disappointed expectations due to the strength of the euro.
Net profit for the period from April to June jumped to €953mn ($1.28bn), boosted by demand for new drug lines and fertilisers.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a slightly better figure of around €992mn.
Turnover climbed just 0.9% to €10.5bn during the same period.
“The company again had to weather significantly negative currency effects, which however were offset by strong business development,” it said in a statement.
The impact of a strong euro on sales led the company to adjust its full-year outlook downward.
Bayer said that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, or Ebitda, were now expected to fall by around €550mn compared with the previous forecast of €450mn.

Airbus
Airbus Group showed stellar performance in the first half of the year, raising net profits by half with sales of airliners, it reported yesterday.
The results coupled with a confirmed outlook for performance, pushed Airbus shares up sharply.
The group said that net profit jumped by 50% from the equivalent figure last year to €1.4bn ($1.88bn) in the first half.
The underlying profit margin rose to 6.5% of sales from 6.3%, and sales rose by 6.0% to €27.2bn.
The group said it was holding to its targets for moderate growth of operating profitability.
In 2015, it expected profitability of 7.0-8.0% excluding the costs of developing the A330neo, the fuel-efficient version of the A330 aircraft.
The European aerospace group, which has changed its name from EADS, builds equipment for the defence and space industries, but most of its sales and profits come from making Airbus airliners.
In common with its main rival, US group Boeing, it has taken huge orders for airliners in the last 18 months.
Airbus also said that it was looking at ways of selling its stake of 46.32% in French company Dassault Aviation which makes fighter jets and small commercial aircraft, an investment which it considers is not strategic. Shares in this company rose by 1.21% to €1,120.
The value of orders taken by the group in the six months was €27.7bn, taking the total value of the order book at catalogue prices to €677.4bn at the end of June, slighty down from €680.6bn 12 months ago.
For the whole of 2014, the number of aircraft delivered would be about the same as last year, Airbus said.