Austrian oil and gas group OMV’s underlying operating profit halved in the second quarter as the continuing crisis in Libya forced it to raise production in higher-cost countries.

OMV, which is investing heavily in new exploration projects to cut reliance on margin-squeezed refining and marketing, said its production costs rose 42% per barrel because of a greater contribution from Norway and higher costs in Romania.

Production was stable in the second quarter as OMV compensated for vastly reduced output from Libya with more barrels from newly acquired fields in the Norwegian North Sea, where oil is offshore and more expensive to extract.

OMV said it had restarted production in Libya and was producing an average of 12,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) so far this quarter - a little more than a third of the level before the toppling of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi three years ago.

However, Chief Executive Gerhard Roiss said yesterday that he could not predict whether the improvement in Libya is sustainable, with the North African Opec oil producer experiencing its worst violence since the 2011 uprising.

OMV spent $2.65bn a year ago in its biggest acquisition to date, buying stakes in North Sea oil fields from Norway’s Statoil, in search of a more reliable source than countries such as Libya - formerly one of OMV’s major producers.

The company said second-quarter clean CCS EBIT - operating profit stripping out special items and inventory holding gains or losses - was €369mn ($493mn).

 

Pandora

Danish jewellery retailer Pandora hopes a new alliance with Walt Disney Company will boost sales as soon as next year, Pandora CEO Allan Leighton said after unveiling a jump in profits.

Pandora’s shares rose more than nine% after the company reported a 69% increase in second-quarter core profit and unveiled the Disney deal, part of its strategy to expand further in the US. “It’s a 10-year alliance, and is a very important thing for us. It reflects on how the brand is perceived. Disney does not perform strategic alliances with just anyone, and we are very proud to be associated with Disney,” Leighton told Reuters.

The Disney agreement gives Pandora access to its popular resorts and extends the company’s footprint in the US - a core growth market for the company, according to analysts.

Pandora’s second-quarter revenue was 2.5bn Danish Crowns ($447.8mn) and the Americas led the way with 1.097bn out of the total, followed by Europe on 1.064bn.

While revenue in Europe jumped 65% from a year earlier, it only increased five% in the Americas.

The company also announced it would buy 27 Pandora-branded stores from US jeweller Hannoush, adding to the 369 concept stores it has in the Americas as a whole.

Pandora raised its 2014 revenue outlook to more than 11bn Danish crowns from 10.5bn, although it kept its EBITDA margin target unchanged at 35%. At 1318 GMT Pandora shares were 7.5% higher.

Core earnings (EBITDA) rose to 893mn Danish crowns in the second quarter, higher than an average forecast of 786mn Danish crowns in a Reuters poll.

 

Meyer Burger

Swiss solar industry supplier Meyer Burger posted a bigger-than-expected net loss in the first half of the year as investments in machinery outweighed rising sales and orders.

A global glut of solar equipment caused by government subsidies to encourage green energy has led to falling prices for more than two years and thrown many of Meyer Burger’s customers into crisis. The company has not reported a profit since the first half of 2011.

The maker of production systems for solar wafers, cells and modules said its net loss widened to 88mn Swiss francs ($97mn) in the first six months of this year, from 80.6mn in the same period of 2013. Analysts had, on average, forecast a net loss of 51mn francs in a Reuters poll.

The result was hit by investments of 40mn francs. The company, which raised 77.8mn francs through the sale of new stock in March, burned through 98.7mn francs of cash in the first half.

Helvea analyst Stefan Gaechter, who rates the stock “hold”, said business would need to improve to prevent Meyer Burger from having to cut costs and raise more money.

Sales rose 43% to 129mn francs, but were significantly short of the average forecast of 183mn in the Reuters poll of analysts. A 90% rise in new orders to 157mn francs also missed expectations.

The company said it expected to achieve substantial improvements in new orders and sales in the full year compared with 2013.

 

SIG

Building materials supplier SIG reported a 23.5% rise in half-year underlying pretax profit, helped by a robust improvement in the UK residential construction market and a mild winter.

Shares in the Sheffield-based company rose more than 5% to 181.1 pence in early trade yesterday.

The company, which generates more than half of its revenue from mainland Europe, said conditions in mainland Europe remained variable with the French construction market expected to weaken further in the second half.

“We would be expecting the French construction market to be down 5% in the second half compared with last year,” Chief Executive Stuart Mitchell told Reuters. In mainland Europe, SIG’s biggest market is France, followed by Germany, Benelux, Poland and Ireland.

Mitchell was, however, bullish on the company’s performance in the UK, which accounted for 47% of SIG’s total sales, and said he was expecting the benefits of the pick up in commercial markets in 2015.

The company supplies insulation, exterior roofing and interior products to the residential and commercial markets. SIG is usually impacted by a decline in construction activity at the end of the cycle due to the nature of its products.

 

Just-Eat

Online takeaway service Just-Eat Group reported an almost seven-fold jump in half-year profit as the business expanded in Britain and Denmark, its two biggest markets.

Just-Eat, which joined the London stock market in April, added more restaurants to its network and benefited from investment in its technology platform, with the share of orders made using mobile devices exceeding 50% for the first time.

The company said core underlying earnings gained 591% to £15.9mn ($26.65mn) in the first six months of the year on revenue that was 58% higher at £69.8mn.

“Our growing network of more than 40,000 restaurant partners combined with 6.9mn active users provides further momentum to fuel our expansion through the remainder of 2014 and beyond,” Chief Executive David Buttress said in a statement.

“The share price is to a large extent out of our control. We’ll focus on growing the business, making it more profitable, and hopefully the share price will then follow,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Wroe told reporters on a conference call.

The FTSE-250 company saw growth in its second-biggest market, Denmark, driven by a rise in orders and gradually increasing commission rates.

The group has a presence in 11 other countries including Ireland, Canada and Spain.

 

Henkel

German consumer chemicals group Henkel, maker of Persil washing powder, said yesterday it is sticking to its full-year targets after sales and profits rose in the second quarter.

“Henkel continued its good performance in the second quarter of 2014. Despite the persistently difficult market environment, all our business units increased organic sales and further improved profitability,” said chief executive Kasper Rorsted.

In the period from April to June, net profit grew by 5.5% to €441mn ($589mn).

Underlying or operating profit fell by 2.9% to €589mn on a 3.5% drop in sales to €4.137bn.

“With a strong increase in organic sales, the emerging markets once again made an above-average contribution to growth. We also grew our business in the mature markets,” Henkel said.

However, exchange rate developments continued to have a significant negative impact on sales, it added.

CEO Rorsted said the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine as well as the persisting political turmoil in the Middle East was expected to have a negative impact on the market environment.

“Therefore, we anticipate a slower growth of adjusted earnings per preferred share in the second half of this year compared to the first half,” he said.

Nevertheless, despite the challenging environment, Henkel confirmed the outlook for 2014, the chief executive said.

 

Ithaca Energy

North Sea oil and gas operator Ithaca Energy reported a pretax loss for the first-half as costs soared.

Ithaca reported a pretax loss of $2.5mn for the six months ended June 30 compared with a pretax profit of $73mn a year earlier. Revenue rose 6% to $199.6mn.

Operating costs jumped 40% $93.2mn.

The company maintained its full-year production guidance of 13,500 to 15,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).

 

Prudential

Insurer Prudential posted surging half-year profits yesterday, despite facing some difficulties in key markets Asia and Britain, it said in a statement.

Net profit soared to £1.145bn ($1.92bn, €1.44bn) in the six months to June 30, more than three times the amount recorded in the first half of 2013, the British company said.

New business profit—a key industry measure that takes into account the expected future value of policies written in the period—grew by almost a quarter to £1.015bn.

“The group has delivered a strong performance in the first six months of 2014... despite challenging conditions including macroeconomic concerns in southeast Asia and significant disruption to the UK life market,” said chief executive Tidjane Thiam in reference to a shake-up over how pension policies are managed in Britain.

“We remain confident in our ability to produce profitable growth over the long term and continue to create value for our customers and shareholders,” he added in the earnings statement.