PETROLEUM
Shell reports profit slide
Royal Dutch Shell PLC yesterday reported a sharp drop in third-quarter profits on the back of low oil prices and a hefty US$8.2 billion charge, which included write-offs in Alaska and Canada. Third-quarter net income came in at US$1.8 billion, below analysts’ expectations of US$2.74 billion and 70 percent lower than the previous year. Shell’s oil and gas production division, known as upstream, swung to a loss for the first time in years. However, its downstream division benefited from weak prices to run refineries more profitably, with its net income reaching US$2.6 billion.
AVIATION
Air France triples Q3 profit
Air France-KLM Group yesterday said its third-quarter profit tripled to the highest level in at least a decade, spurred by strong summer sales, lower fuel prices and a lull in industrial action that hurt its figures in the previous year. Earnings before interest and tax rose to 898 million euros (US$980 million) from 247 million euros in the previous year, when a weeks-long pilot strike wiped 330 million euros from earnings, Europe’s biggest carrier said. Analysts had predicted a figure of 808 million euros, on average.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi cuts sales forecast
Sanofi, France’s biggest company by market value, cut its sales forecast for diabetes therapies in the next three years after demand for its best-selling Lantus insulin slumped. Diabetes sales are expected to drop by between 4 percent and 8 percent through 2018 at an average annualized rate and at constant exchange rates, the Paris-based company said yesterday. Net income rose to 2.1 billion euros, or 1.61 euros a share, from 1.94 billion euros, or 1.47 euros a share, a year earlier, the drugmaker said.
BANKING
Barclays cuts profit target
Barclays PLC cut its profitability target for next year after third-quarter profit dropped 10 percent, missing analysts’ estimates, hurt by a £290 million (US$443 million) compensation charge to customers related to foreign exchange. Pretax profit, including restructuring costs, fell to £1.43 billion from £1.59 billion in the same period in the previous year, the London-based bank said yesterday. The bank cut the target for its “core” return on equity, a measure of profitability, to 11 percent from 12 percent for next year because of restructuring costs.
CHEMICALS
Bayer beats profit estimates
Bayer AG, Germany’s biggest company by market value, posted third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as sales of the blood thinner Xarelto and eye treatment Eylea climbed. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and excluding some costs, climbed 28 percent to 2.5 billion euros, the Leverkusen-based company said yesterday. That surpassed the 2.26 billion euro average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
REAL ESTATE
British growth accelerates
British house price growth accelerated this month, according to a survey yesterday, another sign of renewed momentum in the housing market. Mortgage lender Nationwide said house prices rose 0.6 percent this month compared with a 0.5 percent increase last month. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 0.5 percent growth this month as well. House prices rose 3.9 percent year-on-year, up from the 3.8 percent annual increase last month.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last