The bottomline

LONDON: Britain’s state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group announced Friday that net profits sank by a fifth in the first quarter, after taking a charge against the disposal of its TSB retail division.

Earnings after taxation slid to £913 million ($1.40 billion, 1.25 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March, compared with £1.148 billion a year earlier, Lloyds said in a results statement.

However, pretax profit before exceptional items rose 21 percent to £2.2 billion in the reporting period boosted also by falling bad debts. That beat expectations of £2.0 billion, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Lloyds — almost 21-percent stateowned after a bailout in the global financial crisis — took a £660-million charge linked to the sale of TSB to Spain’s Banco de Sabadell. That partly reflected the cost of switching TSB to an alternative IT platform. (AFP) NEW YORK: Payment processing giant Visa Inc. said Thursday that its profits dropped slightly in the first three months of the year, hurt by the strengthening dollar and lower gas prices. But its results still topped Wall Street expectations.

The Foster City, California-based company processed $1.24 trillion in payments on its network in the quarter, up 11 percent from a year ago. Payment volume is a closely watched metric for payment processors like Visa and MasterCard because they charge a small fee for every transaction processed on their network.

Like other global companies, Visa’s results were impacted by the strong U.S. dollar because it makes goods purchased abroad cheaper when their sales are translated into dollars. (AFP) NEW YORK: Dumping social media stocks that show any sign of weakness is trending on Wall Street.

Shares of LinkedIn Corp. plunged 21 percent in after-hours trading Thursday after the professional networking service gave a disappointing outlook for the second quarter, weighed in large part by its pending purchase of online learning company Lynda.com.

Twitter, meanwhile, has lost 23 percent of its value this week through Thursday. The messaging service on Tuesday reported revenue and offered an outlook that fell short of Wall Street’s expectation. On top of that, investors were rattled when Twitter’s earnings report came out inadvertently nearly an hour ahead of schedule. FRANKFURT: German chemicals giant BASF said Thursday one-off factors weighed on its bottom line in the first three months of this year, but it expected to “perform well” for the whole year.

BASF said in a statement that its net profit declined by 19.8 percent to 1.174 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in the period from January to March.

Underlying or operating profit declined by 10.2 percent to 1.995 billion euros, while sales grew by 2.8 percent to 20.067 billion euros, the statement said.

“The year started off well for BASF,” said chief executive Kurt Bock. (AFP) DETROIT: Led by record sales of Jeeps, Fiat Chrysler posted a 6 percent US sales gain last month, a sign that Americans continued to buy cars and trucks at a brisk pace.

But the results fell a little short of analysts’ predictions, also showing that auto sales growth could be slowing.

Fiat Chrysler said it sold just over 189,000 cars and trucks for its best April since 2007. The Jeep brand posted its best monthly sales at nearly 72,000, up 20 percent from a year ago.

The Cherokee compact SUV led the way with a 27 percent increase to just over 19,000, while the brand sold more than 4,200 new Renegade subcompact SUVs in their first full month at dealerships. Sales of the Ram pickup, Fiat Chrysler’s top-selling vehicle, rose only 3 percent to just under 38,000, but that was still the best April ever for the trucks. (AP) WOONSOCKET, R.I.: CVS Health’s first-quarter earnings, fueled by specialty drug claims, climbed 8 percent and easily topped Wall Street expectations.

The Woonsocket, Rhode Island, company said Friday that revenue from its pharmacy benefits management business jumped 18 percent to nearly $23 billion. Driving sales were pricey specialty drugs, which are complex medicines that can represent treatment breakthroughs but often at a much higher cost than other drugs.

Those sales helped offset slower growth from the company’s drugstore segment, where revenue climbed 3 percent. (AP) DUBLIN: Irish budget airline Ryanair on Wednesday revealed that almost $5.0 million (4.53 million euros) was fraudulently removed from one of its accounts in a scam involving a Chinese bank.

“Ryanair confirmed that it has investigated a fraudulent electronic transfer via a Chinese bank last week,” the airline said in a statement, confirming a media report.

“The airline has been working with its banks and the relevant authorities and understands that the funds have now been frozen. “The airline expects these funds to be repaid shortly, and has taken steps to ensure that this type of transfer cannot recur.” (RTRS) LONDON: British American Tobacco Plc, the world’s No. 2 cigarette maker, reported a drop in first-quarter revenue, hurt by a stronger pound and as more people cut back on smoking.

Tobacco companies are grappling with falling sales as people cut back on smoking due to higher taxes and growing health consciousness. In response, the companies have forayed into e-cigarettes and the industry has witnessed consolidation. Shares in BAT, which makes Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes, fell as much as 2.4 percent in early trading on Wednesday, and were among the top losers on the FTSE-100 index. (RTRS) LONDON: British fund manager Schroders posted a 7 percent rise in assets under management in the three months to the end of March, boosted by strong market gains and cash flowing into its asset management unit.

The positive first quarter for the country’s biggest standalone asset manager by market capitalisation follows a forecastbeating 2014 and comes as investors pile into actively managed funds in the hope of market-beating returns.

A strong market performance helped add 14.4 billion pounds to Schroders’ total assets during the quarter, it said in a statement on Thursday. It took in a further £5.1 billion in net new money, beating some analyst forecasts.

Following a strong recent run in the share price, Schroders traded down 1.3 percent at 0900 GMT, lagging a slightly weaker FTSE 100. (RTRS)