Procter & Gamble Co (P&G) plans to remove its batteries and make Duracell a stand-alone company.
The world’s largest consumer products maker, which acquired Duracell in 2005, has been trimming its product lineup to focus on its top performers.
After it finishes jettisoning more than half its brands around the globe over the next year or two, P&G said it is set to be left with about 70 to 80 brands.
If a split-off of Duracell occurs, P&G said its shareholders would have the option of exchanging some, none or all of their P&G shares for shares of the new Duracell company.
P&G chief financial officer Jon Moeller during a call with reporters said that Duracell is an “attractive” business that generates about US$2 billion a year in sales.
P&G on Friday said that it would prefer a spin-off of Duracell, but that it is considering a sale or other options for Duracell.
The decision to sell or discontinue 90 to 100 brands comes as P&G fights to boost sluggish sales.
In the latest quarter, the company said sales volume fell in its beauty, hair and personal care unit.
Under pressure to boost its performance, the company brought back A.G. Lafley as its chief executive officer last year.
Lafley said the firm’s expansive portfolio is the result of a natural evolution of multinational companies, which have a tendency to create or acquire brands over time.
However, P&G had already been trying to slim down in recent years,
P&G said it now expects sales next year to be flat to up to low-single digits — it previously forecast growth in the low single digits.
It stood by its guidance for core earnings per share to grow in the mid-single-digit range.
For the quarter ending Sept. 30, it earned US$1.99 billion, or US$0.69 per share.
Not including one-time items, it earned US$1.07 per share, which matched the consensus of analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue slipped to US$20.79 billion — analysts polled by FactSet expected US$20.76 billion.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS