UPDATE 3-J&J profit falls, but beats forecast
* Shares slip 0.3 pct, in line with sectorBy Ransdell PiersonOct 18 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson’s
third-quarter earnings fell on lower U.S. sales, but the weaker
dollar and strong demand overseas helped the company beat Wall
Street forecasts.J&J said on Tuesday that it had earned $3.2 billion, or
$1.15 per share, compared with $3.42 billion or $1.23 per share
a year earlier.Excluding special items, J&J earned $1.24 per share.
Analysts on average had expected $1.21, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S.Revenue rose 6.8 percent to $16 billion, just shy of Wall
Street estimates of $16.02 billion. It would have risen just
2.6 percent if not for the weaker dollar, which boosts the
value of sales in overseas markets.Atlantic Equities analyst Richard Purkiss said the results
were not as impressive as they might appear because J&J’s
profit beat was due largely to income from divestitures and the
company’s profit margins slipped during the quarter.”Results were in line, but not the sort of quality that
people would have wanted,” Purkiss said.J&J shares were down 0.3 percent at $63.63 in morning
trading, in line with the drug sector.The company’s U.S. sales slipped 3.7 percent, hurt by
declines in all three product segments: prescription drugs,
consumer products and medical devices.But overseas, where the company generates most of its
sales, revenue jumped 16.4 percent, with half of the gain
attributable to foreign exchange factors.Johnson & Johnson forecast a full-year profit of $4.95 to
$5.00 per share, lifting the low end of its forecast by 5
cents. The drugmaker slightly lowered its 2011 sales forecast
to $65 billion, due to an expected smaller benefit from foreign
exchange fluctuations.
UPDATE 1-Teekay to buy Sevan FPSOs, take new stock
Teekay said in a statement it will spend $668 million on the
three FPSO units — the Sevan Piranema, Sevan Hummingbird and
Secvan Voyageur — $110-$130 million on upgrading the Voyageur
and invest $25 million in new Sevan stock.The U.S. company said it will take a 40 percent stake in the
recapitalized Sevan, which is expected to continue as a
publicly-listed company.
KKR, MBK bid for Samsung Group asset-sources
Goldman Sachs Group Inc has been hired to advise on
the sale, which is valued at 372 billion won ($326 million)
based on Tuesday’s closing share price of 17,650 won.An external spokeswoman for KKR could not offer an immediate
comment, while MBK could not immediately be reached for comment.
Goldman Sachs declined comment.The sources declined to be identified as the discussions
were private.
US STOCKS-Google, euro zone hopes lift futures
* China September inflation dips* S&P cuts Spain credit rating* Futures up: Dow 82 pts, S&P 9.2 pts, Nasdaq 15.25 ptsBy Chuck MikolajczakNEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose
on Friday, shrugging off a credit rating downgrade of Spain,
propelled by strong earnings from Google Inc and hopes the euro
zone will continue progress toward a solution to its debt
crisis.Google’s shares jumped 7.7 percent to $601.75
after its results late on Thursday trounced Wall Street
expectations, helped by strong advertising sales and deft cost
controls.Standard and Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating on Friday,
underlining the challenges facing Europe’s finance ministers as
they prepare to meet counterparts from the Group of 20 nations
over the euro zone debt crisis.French and German officials, including French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are trying
to put flesh on the bones of a crisis resolution plan in time
for a European Union summit on Oct. 23.”That is going to be an important event because you are
going to have rumors floating out of there, and that is really
where the plan is being put together, I suspect — Merkel and
Sarkozy aren’t sitting down doing it, they are having their
finance ministers do it,” said Paul Mendelsohn, chief
investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in
Charlotte, Vermont.”As we begin to see what this plan looks like, so that is a
positive for the market today.”Investors will look for clues into the health of the U.S.
consumer on Friday with data on retail sales and consumer
confidence. The Commerce Department releases September retail
sales at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), and economists in a Thomson
Reuters survey expect a 0.7 percent rise from a flat reading in
August. Excluding automobiles, sales are seen up 0.3 percent
compared with a 0.1 percent rise in the prior month.Also at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), the Labor Department releases
import-export prices for September. Economists expect a 0.3
percent drop in imports and a 0.2 percent rise in exports. In
the prior month, import prices fell 0.4 percent and export
prices rose 0.5 percent.At 9:55 a.m. (1355 GMT) the Thomson
Michigan Surveys of Consumers releases its preliminary October
consumer sentiment index. Economists expect the reading to rise
to 60.2 from 59.4 in the final September report.S&P 500 futures rose 9.2 points and were above fair
value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account
interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the
contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 82
points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 15.25 points.China’s consumer inflation dipped to 6.1 percent in
September, retreating further from three-year highs and easing
some concerns about demand in the region a day after data
showed the country’s trade surplus narrowed.Mattel Inc edged up 0.4 percent to $27.90 after the
world’s largest toy company reported higher-than-expected
quarterly sales, helped by favorable exchange rates and strong
sales of its Barbie dolls.Aside from Google, technology stocks may also get a boost
after Germany’s SAP , the world’s biggest maker of
business software, reported a jump in its third quarter sales
and profits.European shares were higher, as Google’s earnings and
forecast-beating earnings from Syngenta offset
weakness in banks as ratings agency actions weighed on the
sector.Asian equity markets were lower on concerns about sluggish
global growth after weaker-than-expected China trade data on
Thursday.The Dow and S&P 500 slipped on Thursday after JPMorgan’s
earnings and China’s soft trade data revived worries about the
impact of slower growth on profits.
UPDATE 1-Thai PTT Chemical pays $150 mln for NatureWorks stake
* NatureWorks eyes 2nd bio plastic plant in Thailand - CEOBy Pisit Changplayngam and Ploy Ten KateBANGKOK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Thailand’s largest olefins
maker, PTT Chemical Pcl (PTTCH) , said on Wednesday it
would buy a 50 percent stake in NatureWorks LLC, the world’s
largest polylactic acid (PLA) manufacturer, in a deal worth $150
million.PTT Chemical’s investment in NatureWorks, until now wholly
owned by U.S.-based agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. ,
is subject to regulatory approval.PTTGC International (USA) Inc., 100 percent owned by PTT
Chemical International Private Ltd, itself a wholly owned
subsidiary of PTTCH, will take the stake.Cargill Inc. will retain the remaining 50 percent. According
to NatureWorks’ website, Cargill was advised on this transaction
by J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.Veerasak Kositpaisal, president and chief executive of PTT
Chemical, expected to start booking gains from the investments
in NatureWorks from 2012.”The purchase would give us an opportunity to focus more on
producing bio-based products,” Veerasak said, citing Thailand as
a strategic location for bioplastic manufacturing due to its
plentiful sugarcane and cassava supplies.NatureWorks supplies a broad family of renewable Ingeo
biopolymers made from plants to plastics and fibre markets
worldwide.Marc Verbruggen, president and chief executive officer of
NatureWorks, said the company and PTTCH were studying a plan to
build a second production plant worth about $200 million in
Thailand, expecting the new plant to come online in 2015.”PTT Chemical’s investment supports NatureWorks intent to
globalise its Ingeo manufacturing capability by building a new
production facility in Thailand, supporting our Asian customer
base and delivering on our commitment to renewable feedstock
diversification,” Verbruggen said.Further details were expected to be announced later this
year, its website said.Nebraska-based NatureWorks has estimated annual capacity of
140,000 tonnes. In recent years it has seen steady 25-30 percent
increases in annual product demand.PTT Chemical is keen to play a role in pioneering a
world-scale bioplastics industry with the aim of becoming a
global leader by 2020 and helping Thailand become an Asian
bio-hub.PTT Chemical shares, valued at $5.2 billion, were suspended
from trading on Oct. 11, pending a merger with PTT Aromatics and
Refining . Shares in the merged firm will start
trading on Oct. 21.
Paris Air Show: Europe, when will you reach the stars?
-Maria Sheahan is a Reuters senior correspondent in Frankfurt.-
So far, Europe has left it up to the United States, Russia and China to send people into space. But almost 50 years after Russia’s Yuri Gagarin made his first orbit around the earth, it’s about time that Europe finally enter the playing field, some say.
“Europe cannot stay out of manned (space) flight forever,” EADS unit Astrium Space Transportation’s CEO Alain Charmeau said at the Paris Air Show. Europe has its own space agency, ESA; it has its own module on the International Space Station; and it has sent its astronauts into space as passengers on the spacecraft of others.
Launching its own manned spaceflight mission “is not a budgetary issue, it is a matter of political willingness,” Charmeau said. His company, which makes space launchers that carry satellites or other items into space and could make a lunar lander, would be one of many that would benefit from the additional business.
Even outside the sphere of government-funded space programs, Charmeau said he expects to see more people going up into space, as paying tourists.
“I am really a supporter of space tourism,” Charmeau said.
Astrium is building its own space plane for that market, but Charmeau cautioned that space tourism projects would have to wait until the financial crisis ends and investments are more readily available again. And Virgin Galactic has been eyeing space tourism as a major future market for a while as well.
So the call is clear: Europe, send your rocket men to space already!
