The bottomline
NEW YORK:
BRUSSELS: US heavy machinery firm Caterpillar announced plans Thursday to slash 1,400 jobs at its Gosselies site in Belgium, one of Caterpillar’s largest facilities in Europe but now hit by slow sales and high costs.
“The proposed measures aim to give the Gosselies site a chance to exist in the future by positioning it as the indispensable source of production for machinery for Europe,” Caterpillar Belgium CEO Nicolas Polutnik said in a statement.
“These measures though painful are nonetheless indispensable to regain competitiveness,” he added.
The plant, which employs 3,700 workers and was opened in 1965, is located on the outskirts of Charleroi in southern Belgium, a region that was once a thriving industrial belt. (AFP) NEW YORK: Groupon shares took a nosedive Wednesday after the online deals giant surprised markets by reporting fresh losses in the past quarter and a weaker-than-expected outlook.
Shares plunged 24 percent to $4.53 in after-hours trade after the Chicago-based firm reported a loss of $81 million in the fourth quarter, and a $67 million dollar deficit for the full year.
The loss translated to 12 cents per share in the quarter, compared with expectations of a profit of three cents a share.
With the daily deals sector fading fast after last year’s optimism, Groupon also offered a weak revenue outlook of $560 million to $610 million, well below market expectations of $650 million. (AFP) NEW YORK: The digital business is weighing on Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest traditional US bookseller.
The company posted on Thursday a loss in the fiscal third quarter, hurt by weak sales during the all-important holiday quarter for its Nook e-book readers as well as at its bookstores. Nook revenue fell 26 percent, and the company has begun cutting costs at the unit due to the sharp decline.
Barnes & Noble, based in New York, has been struggling to find its place as more readers have shifted to electronic books and competition has grown from discount stores and online rivals. The company, which has 689 bookstores in 50 states as well as 674 college bookstores, has invested heavily in its Nook e-book readers and a digital library to try to carve out a niche in the current
J.C. Penney’s, the midpriced US department store chain, has decided to bring back sales events after it reported another much larger-thanexpected loss in the fiscal fourth quarter on a nearly 30 percent plunge in revenue.
The results mark a full year of massive quarterly losses and revenue declines that miss Wall Street estimates since J.C. Penney Co. began a turnaround strategy that included ditching most of its coupons and sales events in favor of everyday low prices, bringing in hipper designer brands such as Betsy Johnson and remaking outdated stores.
The quarterly performance puts additional pressure on CEO Ron Johnson, the former Apple Inc. executive who was brought about a year ago to turn the stodgy retailer that was losing money into a hip and profitable company that can compete with the likes of Macy’s or H&M. In the past year since Johnson rolled out his plan, though, even once loyal customers have strayed away from the 1,100-store chain. (AP)
retail landscape. (AP) LONDON: State-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland said Thursday that net losses ballooned to almost £6.0 billion in 2012, hit by compensation payouts, Libor raterigging fines and a vast accounting charge.
Losses after taxation widened to £5.97 billion ($9.05 billion; 6.89 billion euros) last year, compared with a shortfall of £1.997 billion in 2011, RBS revealed in a statement. It marked the bank’s fifth successive annual net loss.
RBS took a huge accounting charge of £4.649 billion against the improving value of the group’s own debt. That contrasted with a credit of £1.914 billion in 2011.
And the Edinburgh-based lender also set aside another £450 million to cover compensation for mis-selling payment protection insurance, and £650 million for clients mis-sold interest rate hedging products. (AFP) LONDON: The arrest of an employee in an investigation into insider dealing and yet more cash withdrawals by clients overshadowed hedge fund firm Man Group’s first results under new chief executive Manny Roman on Thursday.
Reporting an 8 percent drop in assets under management since September to $55 billion, Man said an unidentified employee in its GLG division was arrested by Britain’s financial markets watchdog and police on Wednesday. (RTRS) LONDON: British investment manager St James’s Place has raised its dividend by a third and plans a similar increase in the coming year, channelling the benefits of robust business flows to shareholders.
St James’s Place, which manages money for well-heeled individuals and wealthy families, said on Thursday its continued client appeal had boosted cash flow by more than a third in the year to Dec 31, a year in which many rivals floundered.
“The continuing growth and maturity in funds under management has, as expected, translated into strong growth in the cash result,” chief executive David Bellamy said. (RTRS) MOSCOW: Russian crude producer TNK-BP, which is being taken over by state oil company Rosneft, posted a 13 percent drop in 2012 net income on Thursday due to higher taxes.
Rosneft is buying TNK-BP from British oil company BP and the AAR consortium of Soviet-born tycoons for a total of $55 billion in cash and shares, in a deal that will create the world’s largest listed oil producer.
TNK-BP said on Thursday its net income fell to $7.58 billion last year due mainly to an increase in export duty. Its operating cash flow, however, rose 22 percent to $13.24 billion. (RTRS) MADRID: Bailed-out Spanish banking giant Bankia suffered a loss of 19 billion euros ($25 billion) in 2012, it said in an earnings statement Thursday.
It said the losses were as expected after the Spanish government nationalised Bankia in May, turning it into a symbol of Spain’s banking collapse.
In December it received 18 billion euros in eurozone aid for restructuring, fuelling popular anger among protestors who blame the banks for Spain’s financial crisis.
Bankia’s fate prompted a broader rescue for the sector that raised fears Spain would need a full sovereign bailout. (AFP)