the bottomline

MILAN:

Alitalia is preparing for special administration proceedings after workers rejected its latest rescue plan, making it impossible for the lossmaking Italian airline to secure funds to keep its aircraft flying.

Workers on Monday rejected a plan to cut jobs and salaries, betting the government will be asked to call in an administrator to draft an alternative rescue plan.

Alitalia has been bailed out by Italy and private investors repeatedly over the years and although Rome has said it will not re-nationalise it this time, some workers still hope the government will not let the airline collapse. (RTRS)

PEORIA:

Caterpillar Inc (CAT) on Tuesday reported first-quarter net income of $192 million.

On a per-share basis, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said it had profit of 32 cents. Earnings, adjusted for restructuring costs, were $1.28 per share. The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 62 cents per share.

The construction equipment company posted revenue of $9.82 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $9.36 billion. (AP)

WASHINGTON:

Insurance giant MetLife on Monday asked a federal appeals court to put on hold a ruling on whether the government can tag the company as a potential threat to the financial system.

The insurer said in a court filing that the case should be halted pending a government report requested by President Donald Trump.

The company took the government to court in 2015 to appeal its labeling of MetLife as “systemically important” — so big and enmeshed with the financial system that its collapse could threaten the economy. (AP)

PAWTUCKET:

Business for Hasbro is in the toilet, which turns out to be a pretty good place.

The toymaker’s revenue surpassed that of its rival Mattel for the first time in 17 years thanks in part to hot sales of a new board game called Toilet Trouble.

“I never thought I would actually get to talk about this on an earnings call but, you know, Toilet Trouble is off to a very good start,” CEO Brian Goldner told analysts Monday after putting up very strong first-quarter numbers. (AP)

ST LOUIS:

Shares of Express Scripts Holding Co tumbled in extended trading Monday after the prescription drug manager said its biggest customer, Anthem, doesn’t plan to extend its contract when it expires 2019.

The St. Louis-based company said Monday that Anthem, which is the nation’s second-largest health insurer, isn’t interested in contract talks even though Express Scripts offered discounts worth up to $1 billion a year.

Express Scripts stock fell $10.11, or 15 percent, to $56.96 in after-hours trading after the company announced the Anthem news along with its firstquarter results. Anthem accounted for about 18 percent of Express Scripts’ first-quarter revenue. (AP)

LUXEMBOURG:

US ride-hailing app Uber told Europe’s top court on Monday that it was a digital service, not a transport service, and that a French law clearly targeted online taxi services, in its latest European legal battle with the taxi industry.

Uber expanded into Europe five years ago and has come under attack from taxi companies who see it as unfair competition bypassing strict licensing and safety rules.

In a hearing in Europe’s top court in Luxembourg, the US start-up described itself as a digital platform connecting willing passengers with drivers and said it does not itself provide a transport service, which would see it subjected to stricter rules. (RTRS)

STOCKHOLM:

Swedish truck making giant Volvo on Tuesday announced a larger than expected rise in profit in the first quarter due to strong lorry demand in Europe and Japan.

Profit was 4.82 billion kronor (500 million euros, $544 million), and adjusted operating profit was 7.03 billion, exceeding the 5.31 billion mean forecast by analysts in a poll by the SME Direkt agency.

Gothenburg-based Volvo Group delivered fewer lorries than a year before (-4 percent in volume), a period when its clients rushed to buy them just before new and more expensive environmental norms were implemented. (AFP)

FRANKFURT AM MAIN:

German software giant SAP on Tuesday reported falling profits in the first quarter despite an increase in revenues, blaming the drop on higher staffing costs.

Between January and March, subscriptions to the group’s cloud computing and support services grew 34 percent compared with the same period in 2016.

That helped power a 12-percent increase in revenue to 5.3 billion euros ($5.8 billion) over the first three months — slightly higher than analysts had forecast.

But the firm’s operating, or underlying profit fell 17 percent compared with the first quarter of 2016, to 673 million euros.

Meanwhile, net profit fell 7.0 percent to 530 million euros — well short of the 608 million euros analysts had predicted. (AFP)

GENEVA:

Swiss pharmaceuticals group Novartis says net income fell 15 percent in the first quarter as it continued to adjust to generic competition for its Gleevec leukemia drug and stopped work on a hoped-for treatment for heart failure.

The Basel-based company said net income dropped to $1.7 billion, compared with $2.01 billion in the year-earlier period. It cited a $200 million charge to discontinue RLX030, which failed to pass tests in trials as a treatment for acute heart failure. (AP)

TOKYO:

Japan Post said Tuesday it would cut more than 1,700 jobs at Australia’s Toll Holdings and take a $3.6 billion write-down in response to slumping profits at the unit, which it bought just two years ago.

The former state-owned postal company’s $5.1 billion purchase of Toll, a transport logistics giant, marked its first overseas expansion and came ahead of an initial public offering later in 2015. (AFP)