Bottomline

NEW YORK:

Discount-store rivals Dollar General and Dollar Tree reported weaker-than-expected sales figures Thursday, as struggling lower-income shoppers spent less at their stores. Shares of both companies fell sharply. Dollar General said a cut in food-stamp benefits in several states kept its customers away. It said sales at stores open at least a year, which is considered an important measure of a retailer’s health, rose 0.7 percent in its second quarter. That’s far below the 2.7 percent increase analysts were expecting, according to FactSet. (AP)

DUBLIN:

Medtronic’s campaign to lower costs pumped up its profits during the first-quarter.

The medical device company’s profit rose a 13 percent to $929 million, or 66 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $1.03 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations by 2 cents, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue fell 1 percent to $7.17 billion, in line with analyst expectations.

Revenue from the cardiac and vascular unit, which includes implantable heart devices and valves, fell 2 percent to $2.52 billion. Revenue from minimally invasive therapies, which includes patient monitoring and surgical devices, fell 1 percent to $2.42 billion. The company’s restorative therapies unit saw revenue fall 2 percent to $1.77 billion, while the diabetes care unit saw revenue rise 2 percent to $452 million. (AP)

LONDON:

British television broadcaster ITV has axed its £1.0-billion ($1.3-billion, 1.2-billion-euro) bid for the London-listed company behind popular children’s cartoon series Peppa Pig, it said Thursday.

ITV said in a statement that it has decided to withdraw its informal approach for Canada-based Entertainment One, which had unanimously rejected the offer as too low earlier this month.

“ITV continues to believe in the strategic logic and potential benefits of acquiring Entertainment One, but has a clear view of the value of the business, recognising that this value would need to be verified by appropriate due diligence,” it said.

“It appears this value is different to the level at which the board of Entertainment One would currently engage in a more formal process.” (AFP)

LONDON:

Gambling technology company Playtech Plc would continue to seek deals, its chief executive said, after it announced a special payout worth 150 million euros ($169 million) to shareholders.

“We have a strong pipeline of M&A targets. We are in discussion in both gaming and finance divisions,” CEO Mor Weizer said, hinting that Playtech would continue its buying spree that has seen it acquiring two companies since May.

The company said it would pay 46 euro cents per share as special dividend on Dec 6, which would come from its cash pile that stood at 777.6 million euros as of June 30. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Filter products maker Essentra Plc said it had agreed to sell its clean wipes making unit to an affiliate of buyout specialist Madison Industries in a deal worth £220 million ($291 million), exiting a non-core unit after a turbulent year.

The company, which is a supplier of speciality plastic and packaging components, said it expected conditions to close the Porous Technologies deal to be satisfied by the first quarter of 2017.

Essentra, which has warned on results twice this year, said that the Porous Technologies business reported revenue of £91.6 million and operating profit of £19 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2015. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Phoenix Group Holdings, Britain’s largest owner of life assurance funds closed to new customers, said Brexit and the sharp decline in long-term interest rates are factors that negatively impacted its Solvency II surplus.

The insurer, which makes money by buying European life insurers that are closed to new customers and running them more efficiently, said Solvency II surplus fell to £1.1 billion ($1.46 billion) as at June 30, compared with £1.3 billion as at Dec 31, 2015.

Analysts on an average had expected a surplus of £1.16 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus. The surplus also included the impact of the payment of an interim dividend, Phoenix Group said. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Credit rating agency DBRS said on Thursday it was difficult to assess the impact on Portugal’s government rating from the plan to recapitalise state-owned bank CGD until it was clear whether investors would buy new debt the plan hinges on.

DBRS’s view is key because its BBB low rating for Portugal is currently the only one high enough to keep Portugal’s sovereign bonds in the European Central Bank’s 1.5 trillion euro buying programme.

“The finance ministry’s proposal to recapitalise CGD is an important demonstration of the effort to clean up the banking system. However ... it will be important to gauge the level of investor appetite for the 1 billion euros in subordinated debt that CGD intends to raise. Until we know this, it will be hard to assess the impact on the public sector balance sheet,” said the firm’s head of sovereign ratings Fergus McCormick. (RTRS)

THE HAGUE:

Dutch retailer Ahold on Thursday posted a 7.2 percent rise in second quarter net profits to 209 million euros as it unveiled its first returns since its July merger with Belgian group Delhaize.

Sales were up three percent at 8.95 billion euros ($10.11 billion) year-on-year, the group said, adding that third-quarter figures would be filed jointly with Delhaize.

Executive director Dick Boer praised the company’s operating income which he said came in at 355 million euros — up 7.3 percent — and above the 336 million which analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast.

In the United States, where Ahold makes around two thirds of its overall sales, the group saw sales rise 2.4 percent to 5.53 billion euros after it added 25 A&P stores to its portfolio in the New York region. The group also said online sales were up more than 30 percent. (AFP)

HONG KONG:

Russian aluminium giant Rusal said Thursday net profit fell 70 percent in the first half of 2016, as weaknesses in global commodities markets keeps prices depressed.

The cost of aluminium sank to six-year lows below $1,500 a ton in 2015 as a growth slowdown and overcapacity in key market China hammered demand. Prices have only recovered marginally, sitting just below $1,700 now and well off a peak above $2,300 seen in 2012.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce warned in February that the effect of China’s huge stockpiles was wreaking “far reaching” damage on the global economy. (AFP)