Retailer Carrefour, the world’s second-biggest distribution company after US giant Walmart, reported a recovery into profit in the first half of the year yesterday.
The group benefited from asset sales and from improved profitability in its home market, France.
In the first six months of the year, the group made a net profit of €902mn ($1.195bn) from a loss of €31mn in the same period of last year.
Current operating profit was steady at €766mn from €769mn in the same period of last year.
However, allowing for asset sales in Indonesia, Colombia, Malaysia, Singapore, Greece and Turkey, and taking account of a new standard for staff benefits, current operating profit rose by 4.9%, or by 7.7% on a basis of constant exchange rates.
This was driven by strong performance in France, where it achieved better-than-expected results, and in Latin America.
The asset disposals are in line with the company’s new strategy plan, under which it remains committed to maintain operations in emerging markets, but only in countries where it will be ranked No 1 or 2 in its field.
Sales amounted to €36.46bn, marking a fall of 6.0%, but of 0.8% on a pro forma basis.
Carrefour said, as in July, that it should be on target for expectation by analysts for an annual current operating profit of about €2.2bn.

Vivendi

French media and telecoms group Vivendi trimmed annual targets for its pay-television and French and Brazilian telecoms businesses after posting declining sales in the second quarter.
Pressure at telecoms unit SFR, its largest in terms of sales and profit, continued amidst a mobile price war in France. But there were some glimmers of improvement with a rise in contract customers, a lower rate of customer departures, and a smaller decline in operating profit than last quarter.
The French group cut its annual operating profit guidance for SFR by €100mn to €2.8bn because of a tax change in France, while the sales growth target for Brazil’s GVT was cut from above 20% to the mid-10% range.
In pay-TV, it projected Canal Plus’s operating profit at €650mn, €20mn less than before.
The results were ahead of consensus expectations reported by analysts at Exane BNP Paribas, who predicted sales of €5.42bn and EBITA of 720mn.
Second-quarter group net profit attributable to Vivendi shareholders rose 7.5% to €501mn, helped by strong video games sales.
SFR, saw sales fall by 11.3% to €2.51bn despite increasing the number of customers on mobile contracts by 552,000 in the second quarter.
SFR’s cost-cutting efforts have only partly offset the damage to profits. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 16.3% to €768mn, compared with a 24.5% drop in the first quarter.

Implats

Mining firm Impala Platinum recorded a 52% drop in profit in the last 12 months, hit by higher labour costs and weak demand, results released yesterday showed.
Chief executive Terence Goodlace described the year as “challenging” in terms of “a changing work workforce dynamic and weak market prices”.  The world’s second platinum producer booked earnings of $194mn as higher wages decimated slightly higher revenues.
The company’s Impala mine, in the platinum belt of Rustenburg, has for a large part of 2012 and this year suffered a wave of strikes for higher salaries, resulting in work stoppages. “Above inflation wage and power cost increases combined with lower production affected unit costs.”
Early last year, the troubled mine briefly fired more than 17,000 workers who took part in an illegal strike.
Some 8,500 were rehired after negotiations with unions.
Despite the challenges, production of platinum was up 9% to 1.58mn ounces.
The company said lower dollar metal prices and demand for platinum metals impacted performance, with the market expected to remain constrained.
The Johannesburg based firm also has operation in Zimbabwe, where it has entered into an agreement with the government to transfer its majority shares to the public, under the controversial equity laws.

CMA CGM

French shipping group CMA CGM posted yesterday a near 60% jump in second-quarter profits compared with last year, mainly boosted by the sales of a stake in a port operator.
The group, the world’s third-biggest container shipping firm which is recovering from financial problems, said it made a net profit of $268mn (€200mn) in the three-month period.
For the first half of the year, the company bounced back into the black by reporting a profit of €364mn from a previous loss of €79mn in the same six months last year.
The company stood by its target of achieving a “positive result” for the full year 2013.
The quarterly result was flattered by the divestment of its 49% stake in port operator Terminal Link.
Although sales fell by 2.4% in the quarter, to $4.0bn because of a fall in average freight rates, transport volumes soared 6.9% to 2.9bn standard-sized containers (TEU).
The Marseille-based group, which has suffered three years of severe financial strains, recently underwent an overhaul of its financial structure.
In June this year, the government-founded strategic investment fund (FSI) injected $150mn to help it back on its feet through mandatory convertible bonds.
In its outlook for the third quarter, the company said it expected to deliver an improved operating performance by keeping a firm control of costs as well as freight rates.

Lamprell

Oil rig maker Lamprell returned to profit in the first half of 2013, making a quicker than expected recovery from problems over wind-turbine vessels which caused heavy losses in 2012.
Chief executive James Moffat told Reuters improvements had come faster than he had hoped since joining the Dubai-based contractor in March. Lamprell previously said it expected to return to profit in 2014. Lamprell swung to a pretax profit of $10.1mn in the first half from a $50.8mn loss in the same period last year, with revenue broadly flat at $521mn.
The company has restructured its debts and its shares are up 45% this year, but remain almost a third lower than their 2012 peak.
Lamprell posted a $105mn loss for 2012 as a whole, in what it described as the most challenging year in its history, as it expanded into riskier areas such as wind-farm installation vessels, where operational difficulties led to a series of profit warnings.

Essilor

Essilor, the world’s largest maker of ophthalmic lenses, trimmed its full-year revenue growth target yesterday, citing a sluggish economic environment and caution about the timing of acquisitions.
The firm said it now expected sales to grow close to 7% in 2013, down from a previous target of more than 7%. That would represent a slowdown from 8% last year.
It achieved an operating margin of 18.3% in the first six months of the year, but did not give a full-year target.
Revenue rose 1.8% in the first half, or 3.7% excluding currency effects, to €2.58bn ($3.44bn), driven by sales of lenses in emerging markets.
That compared with the average of estimates in a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S analyst poll of €2.62bn.
Essilor last month agreed to buy the 51% it does not already own in Transitions Optical, the inventor of modern variable-tint plastic lenses, from PPG Industries in a $1.73bn deal.

Qantas

Australian flag carrier Qantas said yesterday it had bounced back into the black as aggressive cost-cutting and its alliance with Emirates helped slash losses at its troubled international arm.
The airline posted a profit of A$5mn ($4.5mn) in the 12 months to June 30, a major improvement on the historic A$245mn loss the previous year, when soaring fuel costs and industrial action hammered the bottom line.
Its underlying profit before tax — the airline’s preferred measure of financial performance — was A$192mn, up from A$95mn 12 months ago.
Revenue inched up 1.1% to A$15.9bn, with earnings boosted by a A$125mn settlement it received from US-based Boeing after putting back delivery of its 787 Dreamliner jets, which have suffered lengthy production delays.
The group’s international division continued to struggle, posting a loss of A$246mn.
But that compares with a loss of A$484mn the previous year, signalling Joyce’s strategy of scrapping less profitable routes, expanding into Asian markets and hooking up with Dubai-based Emirates is paying dividends.
Under the Emirates alliance, Qantas has shifted its hub for European flights to Dubai from Singapore, which Joyce said had given the group a strengthened position on routes to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand posted a 156% jump in annual net profit yesterday, the best result in five years for the flag carrier also upbeat about the year ahead.
Net profit for the 12 months to June 30 came in at NZ$182mn ($142mn), up from NZ$71mn the previous year.
Chairman John Palmer said the result placed Air New Zealand among the best-performing airlines in the world and the outlook for the current financial year was “encouraging”.
“We are focused on further improving on this result in the 2014 financial year,” he said in a statement. “Based on the airline’s forecast of market demand and fuel prices at current levels, early results and forward bookings are encouraging.”
Revenues were up 3% at NZ$4.6bn, while operating cash flow was a record NZ$750mn.
Passenger numbers grew 2.2% to 13.4mn, fuelled by growth in domestic and trans-Tasman demand, with numbers on international long-haul flights edging down 0.9%.
Cargo volumes also increased 2%, a result the airline described as an excellent performance in a challenging global market.
Air New Zealand shed more than 500 jobs in 2012 and has flagged the loss of another 180 at its Auckland maintenance workshop next year.
But chief executive Christopher Luxon said the airline’s long-term plan was to improve its financial performance by increasing services, rather than reducing staff numbers.
“The reality is that you cannot cost cut your way to prosperity,” he said.