Zurich Insurance on Thursday posted a 74% jump in full-year net earnings as its core general insurance business rebounded under new chief
executive Mario Greco.
The Swiss insurer increased net profit for the year to $3.211 billion, just short of the average estimate of $3.315 billion in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts. Fourth quarter profit climbed to $685 million, after a $424 million loss in the same quarter the previous year.
Lastminute.com strengthens its presence in Italy by signing agreement with Travel Holding to acquire Gartour, an italian leading incoming tour operator. The latter, according to the agreements made by the parties, will continue its activities under a renewable contract of lease for a period of twelve months, before passing definitively under Lastminute.com. Gartour currently employs about 130 people for a turnover of €35 million in 2016.
Swiss pesticides and seeds group Syngenta reported 2016 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $2.66 billion on sales of $12.79 billion.
Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected EBITDA to fall 5.9 percent to $2.61 billion on sales down 4.2 percent to $12.85 billion. They had expected it to boost its dividend to 11.60 Swiss francs from 11.00
The Swiss manufacturer Oerlikon Metco plans to spend $62 million (CHF55 mln) to open a facility in Huntersville, where it will create 93 high-paying jobs over the next five years, it said Monday.
The new plant will specialize in end-to-end advanced component manufacturing, and it will also house research and development work, according to a statement from the company Monday.
Oerlikon’s Charlotte plant will be its first additive manufacturing facility in the U.S. and will provide end-to-end advanced component manufacturing and house extensive research and development and production teams.
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.
