the bottomline

NEW YORK:

McDonald’s’ “All-Day Breakfast” fueled firm sales gains in the second quarter despite weak growth across the fast food industry, the company reported Tuesday.

But net earnings continued to suffer from the costs of selling off companyowned restaurants to franchisees in a multi-year strategy to trim overhead costs.

Net income for the quarter to June 30 fell 9.1 percent from a year ago to $1.09 billion, as a solid reduction in operating expenses failed to offset a 3.6 percent fall in revenues.

The company, which is in the middle of an effort to sell off 4,000 company-owned stores to franchise operators, said that comparable sales globally rose 3.1 percent, helped by menu changes. (AFP)

LONDON:

BP faced another net loss in the second quarter but has now drawn a line under the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, the British energy giant said Tuesday.

The company posted a loss after taxation of $1.4 billion (1.3 billion euros) for the three months to June, which however compared with a far larger loss of $5.8 billion for the second quarter of 2015.

BP also booked a net post-tax nonoperating charge of $2.8 billion for costs linked to the oil disaster. That included a pre-tax non-operating charge of $5.2 billion.

The energy major had already revealed earlier this month that the final cost for the spill stood at $61.6 billion, including the latest second-quarter hit. (AFP)

WILMINGTON:

DuPont topped most expectations in the second quarter as the chemical maker cut costs ahead of its tie up with Dow Chemical, and it upped its profit outlook for the year.

Shares rose more than 1 percent in before the market opened Tuesday.

Shareholders approved the merger of agriculture and chemicals companies last week. Once complete, the century-old companies plan to break up into three parts. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, if it gets the nod from regulators.

Both Dow and DuPont Co. were pushed by activist investors to break up or find other ways to energize growth. They agreed to merge in December in an allstock deal valued at about $62 billion. (AP)

LONDON:

Brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev has increased its cash offer for SABMiller to 45 pounds ($58.98) per share after pressure from investors who had seen the value of the bid drop as the pound declined following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

The maker of Budweiser increased the offer Tuesday by one pound a share, valuing the total transaction at 79 billion pounds.

SABMiller had accepted, in principle, a takeover bid in a deal that seeks strength in size — the world’s two largest brewing companies would together control nearly a third of the global market.

But the pound has plunged by more than 10 percent since the June 23 referendum calling for a British exit from the EU. That has reduced the value of the allcash offer, which most SABMiller shareholders were considering. (AP)

PARIS:

French telecommunications group Orange said Tuesday its net profit nearly tripled in the first half of the year to 3.2 billion euros ($3.5 billion), due primarily to the sale of British operator EE.

With accelerating uptake of fourth-generation (4G) mobile and fast broadband connections as well as increased sales, Orange’s chief executive said the company had the momentum needed to increase operating profit.

“The first-half results again confirm the Group’s positive momentum, enabling us to reaffirm our objective of growth” in the company’s own measure on operating profit in 2016, Stephane Ricard said in a statement.

Sales rose by 2.7 percent 20.1 billion euros in the first half of the year, an increase of 0.3 percent on a comparable basis. (AFP)

WARSAW:

The main Polish subsidiary of Swedish construction group Skanska said Monday it was cutting 1,150 jobs in Poland, citing shrinking order books and sliding projected annual sales and weak sector growth.

“For several months we have seen public tenders falling and lower construction growth generally,” said Piotr Janiszewski, chairman of Skanska S.A, said in a statement. “Our priority remains good, viable and stable projects, alongside an increase in productivity,” he added in confirming the redundancies.

Skanska S.A. is looking at sales down by a round a third on last year’s 4.7 billion zlotys (1.8 billion euros/$2 billion) with order books showing a projected figure of 3.2 billion zlotys this year. (AFP)

FRANKFURT:

Germany’s number two bank, Commerzbank, said late Monday its capital position weakened in the second quarter while its profits over the period slumped almost a third.

The Frankfurt-based group said its net profit between April and June plummeted 32 percent compared to a year ago to 209 million euros ($230 million).

The bank also announced its capital ratio, a key measure of a bank’s financial strength, had fallen to 11.5 percent by the end of last month, from 12 percent in March.

Global regulators have brought in rules demanding banks hold more capital in a bid to stop a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, and the ensuing taxpayer-funded bailouts. (AFP)

TOKYO:

Canon chopped its annual profit forecast Tuesday as the camera and copier maker warned that a sharp rise in the yen was taking a bite out of its bottom line.

The company said it now expected weaker sales and a net profit of 180 billion yen ($1.7 billion) this year, down 10 percent from a previous forecast that had also been downgraded due to slowing growth in China and a pickup in Japan’s currency.

Canon’s latest six months-to-June net profit fell 20 percent to 81.4 billion yen, while operating profit dropped nearly 37 percent from a year ago.

Sales fell almost 10 percent to 1.66 trillion yen for the half-year period, it said.

Canon cut its full-year target owing to the “prolonged economic slowdown in developing countries, along with the negative impact of the revised foreign exchange rate assumptions on sales and gross profit”. (AFP)

SEOUL:

Currency swings and slumping sales in emerging markets took a further toll on South Korea’s Hyundai Motor, which reported Tuesday a drop in net profit for the 10th consecutive quarter.

Hyundai — along with its smaller affiliate Kia — forms the world’s fifth-largest automaking group.

Net profit for April-June amounted to 1.76 trillion won ($1.55 billion), down 1.5 percent from a year ago, while operating profit inched up 0.6 percent to 1.76 trillion won, Hyundai said in a statement. (AFP)