S&N puts 1,450 pubs on block, to raise $3bn
London: Scottish and Newcastle put its 1,450 pub estates up for sale on Monday to raise over £2bn ($3.2bn) in a move that will cut earnings and lead Britain’s biggest brewer to slash its dividend. The firm, which brews three of Europe’s top 10 beers in Kronenbourg, Foster’s and Baltika, will auction off all its UK pubs, restaurants and budget hotels by end-’03 in a move to focus on brewing expansion in a fast-consolidating beer market. Leaving the cash-generative business will cut group earnings by around a fifth and chop a third off future dividends to shareholders, but will reduce S&N’s hefty debts of over £3bn.
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Siemens buys Alstom turbine unit for $1.2bn
Paris: Debt-choked French heavy engineer Alstom cheered investors with a first step in its sweeping recovery plan, selling its industrial turbine unit to Siemens for a higher-than-expected 1.1bn euros ($1.2bn). Alstom, which is selling key units to stave off a cash crunch and pare down its 5bn euros in gross debt, said the net proceeds from the deal would be around 950m euros after a transfer of debt and other adjustments. While the teetering industrial giant still has some way to go to placate its banks and soothe the market, analysts said the sale sent a signal that new chairman Patrick Kron was serious about addressing the firm’s financial woes. The sale buys Alstom, which makes France’s ultra-fast TGV trains and is building the world’s biggest ocean liner, as much as six months of breathing space at a time analysts say it is burning cash as it fights
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US brokerages may have to shell out $1.4bn
Washington: US market regulators are poised to unveil a $1.4-bn legal settlement with Wall Street brokerages on Monday, including fraud charges and detailed allegations of misconduct by stock research analysts, sources familiar with the matter said.
At least two brokerages — Citigroup’s Salomon Smith Barney unit and Credit Suisse Group’s CSFB — are expected to be charged with fraud, sources said, with regulators planning to release to the public large volumes of documents and e-mails as evidence. The settlement stems from probes into allegations that stock analysts issued biased company research to drum up investment banking business for their brokerages. Lesser charges, focused on violations of market rules and regulations, were expected to be levelled against the 10 brokerages involved, the sources added. Spokeswomen for Citigroup and CSFB, reached on Sunday in New York, declined to comment.
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Healthcare takes P&G's Q3 net up 13 per cent to $1bn
Chicago: Procter & Gamble, the maker of Tide laundry detergent and Pampers diapers, said on Monday that quarterly profit rose, led by double-digit growth in sales of healthcare products and boosted by favorable foreign exchange rates. Sales by volume, which factors out the impact of foreign exchange rates and price fluctuation, rose 7 per cent on the strength of products like Crest dental products and Pampers Baby Stages diapers.
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Volvo sales rise 10 per cent, but co sees demand fall
Stockholm: The world's number two truck maker, Sweden’s AB Volvo, reported higher-than-expected first quarter profits on Monday but said demand for heavy trucks in two key markets would fall this year.Volvo reported a pre-tax profit of 757m crowns ($91.5m), topping the consensus of 550m crowns from a poll of 15 analysts due to demand for new products and cost cutting.
It reported a 618m-crown loss for the year-ago period. Sales were 40.9bn crowns against expectations of 39.6bn, and 40.4bn in the first quarter of ‘02, or a 10 per cent year-on-year rise adjusted for currency fluctuations.
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Goodrich's Q1 earnings rise 106 per cent to $29m
New York: Aerospace and industrial products maker Goodrich on Monday said quarterly earnings rose, but added it would cut 1,700 jobs as the company struggles with a continuing downturn in global commercial aerospace markets.The Charlotte, North Carolina-based maker of fighter plane landing gear and lighting systems, said first quarter net income was $29.4m, or 25 per diluted share, compared with $14.3m, or 15 cents per diluted share in the first quarter '02
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ADB trims Asian 2003 growth forecast to 5.3 per cent
Manila: The Asian Development Bank cut on Monday its growth forecast for the region this year to 5.3 per cent, from the 5.6 per cent it expected in December, due to the impact of SARS and an uncertain global economic recovery. But assuming the deadly virus can be brought under control swiftly with minimal damage to tourism, Asian economies -- excluding Japan -- should grow at a faster rate of 5.9 per cent in 2004, the Manila-based bank said in a regional outlook.
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