Corporate

Quarterly mixed results for Coca-Cola. The US giant of the most popular beverage in the world reported in the first three months of the year net income of $ 1.48 billion ($ 0.34 per share), down from 1.56 billion ($ 0.35 per share), in the corresponding period of 2015. Excluding exceptional items, net income amounted to $ 0.45 per share, above analyst estimates steady at $ 0.44. Slightly below expectations however the revenues were down 4% to 10.28 billion dollars (consensus 10.30 billion). For the entire 2016, Coca-Cola expects revenue growth of 4-5% and 4-6 percent growth in earnings per share on a constant-currency basis.

Intel, the US semiconductor giant, will cut 12,000 jobs worldwide by the middle of 2017, a quota equal to 11% of its workforce. The scissors kick is part of the restructuring plan, developed by the Santa Clara group to accelerate its transformation to a higher growth sectors, such as the cloud. The plan provides for the consolidation of the various subsidiaries, a combination of voluntary and mandatory exit and re-evaluation of certain programs. The restructuring plan is expected to generate savings of $ 1.4 billion a year when completed, of which 750 million this year. But immediately the plan will result in an extraordinary expenditure of about 1.2 billion which will weigh on second-quarter accounts.

The Basel Syngenta agrochemical group has recorded in the first quarter of 2016 a decrease in turnover by 7% to $ 3.7 billion. This was announced by the same company in a note, gisutificando the negative sign for the too strong dollar, which affected the business in the first three months of the year.

At constant currency rates, however, sales have remained stable, while volumes have suffered a fall of 2%. As a specific company in a statement, prices have registered a 2% rise in part due to an increase in the countries of the Community of Independent States (CEI) to offset the impact of the depreciation of the currencies.

Peroni, one of the most famous italian beer becomes Japanese. Anheuser-Busch InBev has accepted the binding offer of Asahi, the largest Japanese manufacturer of beer, to buy the Peroni and Grolsch brands. The offer amount is not known, but previously there was talk of 2.55 billion euro, for a package that also includes British Meantime.

The selection of Asahi, presented at the outset on 10 February, depends on obtaining agreement from the mega $ 108 billion that will lead Anheuser-Busch InBev to acquire SabMiller.

Today Morgan Stanley confirmed the data on employment: the first quarter of 2016 has been characterized by the greatest number of layoffs for the US bank since the beginning of 2013. There are about 1,440 jobs cut in an effort to contain costs , of all has been the fixed income division one most targeted by the redundancies by the end of 2015, following the decline in trading profits.

Barclays, the second largest bank in the United Kingdom, will leave the Italian credit market within two years and is ready to relinquish the portfolio of loans (performing and non), amounting to 15 billion dollars (13 billion euro). After leaving now Spain and Portugal, the choice to leave the Italian consumer market is consistent with the strategy to focus on investment and corporate banking sector and reposition itself on the US and British markets.

Jon von Tetzchne, Internet browser Vivaldi’s founder, launched last week, said in a Reuters interview that the target is to attract five million monthly users to become profitable.

The development of Vivaldi lasted 15, with a cost aroud 50 million crowns norwegian ($6.07 million) of his own money. Intentions of Oslo based company’boss is to achieve users from the most popular browser as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. "A few years ago everyone started simplifying their browsers and they removed many of the features that the so-called power users wanted. This is the segment we are targeting", he said.

Following a 25% increase in China bankruptcies in 2015, insolvencies will increase 20% in 2016, predicts Euler Hermes. This has implications not only for the "Red Dragon" itself but also for its trading partners. Industrial countries have a relatively robust immune system compared to many emerging markets.