Wed, Feb 08, 2023 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  AVIATION

  Mitsubishi ditches SpaceJet

  Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd has ended development of its SpaceJet aircraft — a domestic short-haul jet that was to supply local carriers including ANA Holdings Inc — after spending hundreds of millions of US dollars on the project. Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy lacked the understanding and technological know-how for SpaceJet to materialize, chief executive officer Seiji Izumisawa said yesterday. Growing pressure to electrify and decarbonize, among other factors, forced the manufacturer to reassess its strategy, he added.

  ENERGY

  BP reports net loss

  BP PLC slid into a net loss last year after its exit from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the British energy giant announced yesterday, despite a surge in oil prices. The company posted annual losses after tax totaling US$2.5 billion, compared with net profit of US$7.6 billion in 2021. Excluding the exceptional hit, profit more than doubled to US$27.7 billion on soaring oil and gas prices, mirroring huge earnings last year by BP rivals such as Shell PLC and Exxon Mobile Corp. BP said its fourth-quarter dividend would rise 10 percent, and announced a fresh buyback totaling US$2.75 billion.

  GAMING

  Nintendo drops profit outlook

  Nintendo Co yesterday cut its full-year net profit forecast, saying the global chip shortage and other supply chain problems had hit console sales in the nine months to December last year. The Japanese gaming giant also trimmed the annual hardware sales forecast for its Switch console to 18 million units from a previous target of 19 million. New games such as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and Splatoon 3 have performed well, the Kyoto-based company said. However, hardware sales by unit declined 21 percent year-on-year in the April-to-December period, “mainly due to a shortage of semiconductors and other component supplies that impacted production until around late summer,” Nintendo said.

  BREWERS

  Carlsberg expects hard year

  Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S said yesterday that this year would be another “challenging year” as it reported increased revenues ,but swung to a net loss owing to its exit from Russia. Revenue for the global beermaker came in at 70.26 billion kroner (US$10.1 billion) for last year, up 16.9 percent from a year earlier, the company said in its earnings report. Carlsberg reported a net loss of 1.06 billion kroner for the year, which was affected by writedowns of 10.74 billion kroner. The company earned a net profit of 6.85 billion kroner in 2021.

  BANKING

  BNP plans share buyback

  BNP Paribas SA plans to buy back 5 billion euros (US$5.4 billion) of shares after the sale of its US unit, and raised its profitability targets as traders posted a quarter that beat many Wall Street peers. The Paris-based bank is set to distribute about 4 billion euros related to the sale of Bank of the West and 962 million euros as part of its ordinary shareholder return policy in two tranches this year, it said in a statement yesterday. For the fourth quarter, the bank posted net income of 2.15 billion euros, lower than estimates and down almost 7 percent from the same period a year earlier as expenses rose. Still, revenue from trading debt securities surged 45 percent, ahead of the Wall Street average.
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