Corporate

Unicredit, Italy’s largest bank by assets, posted a stronger-than-expected net profit in the second quarter of the year thanks to lower costs and a drop in loan-loss charges.
Net profit came in at 945 million euros, well above a consensus forecast of 676 million euros distributed by the bank and also helped by a positive one-off item in Germany. Revenues for the second quarter fell 7.8 percent year-on-year to 4.85 billion euros. Net Interest Income (NII) totaled €2.7 billion.

Apple announced on Tuesday financial results for the third fiscal quarter of 2017, which corresponds to the second calendar quarter of the year. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $45.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $8.7 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $42.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $7.8 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Swiss dairy group Emmi is selling its 24% stake in Italian cheese specialist Venchiaredo to focus on markets and sectors with "growth potential".

Emmi, which acquired the holding in 2010, is looking to focus its Italian business on desserts, cheese exports from Switzerland and its 25% stake in cheese trader Ambrosi, according to a statement.

HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, reported a set of financial results that beat estimates in the first half of 2017 and announced a $2 billion share buyback on the back of a growing capital base. HSBC’s profits rose 5% in the first half of the year after a turbulent 2016.

The results were better than expected with Europe’s largest bank reporting that its pre-tax profit for the first six months to June came in at $10.2bn (£7.8bn), compared with $9.7bn (£7.4bn) for the same period last year, beating Bloomberg analysts’ estimates, which had averaged out at a $4.6bn forecast.

Amazon’s second-quarter report fell well short of Wall Street’s expectations. The company’s earnings missed analysts’ forecasts by more than a dollar a share. It also offered a disappointing outlook for the third quarter.

The Seattle tech giant posted net income of $197 million in the second quarter, or 40 cents per diluted share, on revenue of $38 billion. A year prior, the company reported earnings of $1.78 per share on revenue of $30.4 billion.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of $1.42 per share on revenue of $37.2 billion. "Our teams remain heads-down and focused on customers," CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.

UBS kept a cautious outlook on the second half of 2017 on Friday after it reported an unexpected rise in second-quarter net profit, boosted by higher earnings at its flagship wealth management business.

UBS said net income was 1.17 billion Swiss francs ($1.21 billion) during the second quarter, up from CHF1.03 billion a year earlier and far overshooting the average forecast in a Reuters analyst poll for 879 million francs. Operating income fell slightly to CHF7.3 billion from CHF7.4 billion a year earlier.

Facebook reported its second quarter earnings on Wednesday, and the results were predictably positive. The social network passed 2 billion monthly users earlier this summer, with over 1.3 billion using its software every day. The company parlayed that audience into $9.3 billion in revenue and $3.89 billion in net income. That’s a 71 percent higher profit than it reported for this same period last year.

"I want to see us move a little faster here but I’m confident that we’re going to get this right over the long term," Zuckerberg said in a conference call with analysts.

Swiss private bank EFG International expects to hit its target for attracting net new assets from wealthy clients in 2019, Chief Financial Officer Giorgio Pradelli said on Wednesday.

Zurich-based EFG, which bought Bank BSI last year, has a medium-term target of 3-6 percent net new money growth, applicable once it has completed the BSI integration.