Corporate

Deutsche Bank has apologised to Germans for its costly mistakes, the ad signed by CEO John Cryan on behalf of the bank’s top management, ran Saturday in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sueddeutsche Zeitung and several newspapers.

"Serious mistakes were made," reads the advertisement on Saturday, days after the lender announced an annual loss of €1.4 billion in 2016. "We would like to apologize for that."

"Since I became chief executive of Deutsche Bank one-and-a-half years ago, we have had to pay around five billion euros in legal cases largely originating from several years ago," chief executive John Cryan said in the ad.

Ryanair said its third-quarter net profit fell nearly 8% as overcapacity in the European airline industry continues to depress ticket prices.

Ryanair said net earnings fell to €95 million from €102.7 million a year earlier for the three months to the end of last year, owing to a sharp decline in the value of the pound after Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

“We expect sterling to remain volatile for some time and we may see a slowdown in economic growth in both the UK and Europe as we move closer to Brexit,” Ryanair said.

Deutsche Bank posted a loss of €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion) for 2016 on Thursday, citing restructuring and "negative news flow" around a fine from the US Department of Justice.
In the final three months of 2016 alone the bank lost €1.9bn, mainly thanks to a record penalty in the US. Earlier this week, it was fined £500m in connection with a Russian money laundering plan.

Looking beyond the net result, Deutsche saw revenues shrink by 10% in 2016 compared with the previous year, at just over €30 billion, "as a challenging market environment and persistent low interest rate environment negatively impacted the business", the bank wrote in the statement. Meanwhile, the bank’s underlying, or operating result before interest and taxes was €810 million in the red.

Swiss watch and jewelry maker Swatch Group Thursday reported that its fiscal 2016 net income declined 47% to 593 million Swiss francs from 1.119 billion francs in the year-ago period.

Swiss watchmakers have been grappling with eroding sales in their biggest markets, Hong Kong and the United States, and tourist shoppers avoiding Europe for fear of extremist attacks, but recently mainland China sales turned the corner.

Operating result for the year fell 44.5 percent to 805 million francs from 1.451 billion francs last year. The group’s operating profit margin deteriorated to 10.7%, from 17.2% last year.

Pharma industry leaders, including Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez and Merck & Co. chief Kenneth Frazier, got their marching orders from President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning. Lower your prices, deliver "better" innovation and "move your companies back" to the U.S.

In a "pharma" meeting in the Oval Office, the President told executives from companies that they have done a "terrific job over the years" but that prices for drugs must come down.

"Our trade policy will prioritize that foreign countries pay their fair share for U.S.-manufactured drugs, so our drug companies have greater financial resources to accelerate development of new cures, and I think that’s so important," Trump said.

The Volkswagen Group has become the world’s top-selling car company for 2016, despite making headlines for all the wrong reasons – chiefly its dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.

VW has reported global annual sales of 10.31 million vehicles for 2016, overtaking Toyota’s annual total of 10.17 million, ending the Japanese company’s global sales hegemony of recent years.

A spokesman for VW said: "2016 was a very challenging year for us." The company "made strides in resolving and overcoming the diesel crisis" and initiated fundamental change in the company’s long-term strategy, he said.

Johnson & Johnson will buy Swiss drugmaker Actelion in a $30 billion deal that both secures promising research and bolsters the product portfolio controlled by the U.S. health care giant.

The deal between the world’s biggest producer of healthcare goods and Actelion, a leader in medicines treating high blood pressure, will create a new Swiss-listed firm called R&D NewCo focusing on the research and development of new drugs, the two companies said in a joint statement.
The U.S. conglomerate will then buy Actelion’s seven drugs that are currently on the market and two potential treatments in late-stage testing. The acquisition gives J&J access to the Swiss group’s line-up of high-price, high-margin medicines for rare diseases, helping it diversify its drug portfolio as its biggest product.

Barclays has settled on Dublin for its main hub inside the EU after Brexit, and is planning to add about 150 staff here if UK-based finance companies lose easy access to the trading bloc, according to Bloomberg sources.
It is believed the bank started scouting the city for office space this month, and has been in contact with regulators here about expanding its operations.