Europe Earnings: Brenntag, Deutsche Telekom, ING Groep, Sainsbury

Nigel Thomas
08 May, 2013
New York City

Brenntag first quarter profit dropped 12% and Deutsche Telekom profit for the quarter jumped 4% to

[R]3:00 PM Frankfurt – Brenntag first quarter profit dropped 12% and Deutsche Telekom profit for the quarter jumped 4% to €564 million. ING Groep profit surged 147% to €1.80 billion. Sainsbury profit rose 3% £614 million and acquired remaining 50% in the bank stake from Lloyds.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index gained 0.4% or 25.7 to 6,583 and in Frankfurt the DAX index rose 0.7% or 58.8 to 8,240.

In Paris, CAC 40 index increased 0.7% or 27.4 to 3,949.

Brenntag AG declined 7% to €121.70 after the Germany based chemical distributor reported sales in the first quarter increased 1.4% to €2.42 billion. Profit for the quarter dropped 11.8% to €69.7 million compared to €79 million and earnings per share declined €1.35 from €1.53.

Gross profit in the quarter rose 0.6% to €477.9 million and profit before tax plunged 9.8% to €106.9 million.

Deutsche Telekom AG soared 5.3% to €9.61 after the Germany based telecommunication service provider stated revenue in the first quarter ending in March slipped 4.5% to €13.79 billion. Net profit for the quarter jumped 3.5% to €564 million compared to €545 million.

Deutsche said number of branded customers in the U.S. rises for the first time in 15 quarters. In the quarter, mobile contract customers and fiber lines in Germany and mobile customers in Europe increased.

T-Mobile USA sells nearly 500,000 iPhones in four weeks and new orders at T-Systems climbed at 33%.

ING Groep N.V gained 1.8% to €6.71 after the Netherlands based bank said gross premium income in the first quarter ending in March dropped 5.4% to €5.79 billion. Net profit in the quarter surged 147.2% to €1.80 billion compared to €728 million and earnings per share €0.47 from €0.19.

Group first quarter underlying net profit jumped to €800 million from €579 million and ING group intends to use the proceeds from the secondary offering of its U.S. IPO to reduce core debt.

The bank expects core debt to reduce by €2 billion to €5 billion in the second quarter.

J Sainsbury Plc dropped 3.7% to 382 pence after the UK based grocery retailer reported revenue in the year ending on March 16 jumped 4.5% £23.30 billion. Profit for the year rose 2.7% £614 million compared to £598 million and diluted earnings per share increased 30.2 pence from 27.8 pence.

Sainsbury said it’s acquired remaining 50% shareholding from Lloyds Banking Group for £248 million and take full ownership of Sainsbury’s Bank.

This comprised of a cash consideration of £193 million1 for the shares and the purchase of £55 million of loan stock at par value. This represents an exit multiple of circa one times.

Roger Davis, former head of Barclays UK, appointed as new independent non-executive chairman of Sainsbury''s Bank.

Further, the retailer added convenience business with five million customer transactions each week and a turnover in excess of £1.5 billion. Convenience stores delivered sales growth of above 17% a year ago.

The company has added value of property portfolio in last five years for £4 billion, which is now in the market value of £11.5 billion.

In this year, Sainsbury added 14 supermarkets, 87 convenience stores and 8 extensions to its property portfolio.

Standard Chartered Plc declined 5.1% to 1,614 pence after the UK based retail and commercial bank said revenues in the first quarter were slightly higher than in the same period of a year ago and overall group operating profit in the first quarter was slightly lowered from same quarter of 2012.

In Korea the bank saw increasing loan impairment from the level previously expected, including acceleration in personal debt rehabilitation scheme filings. The bank said it could miss the revenue target for the year after increasing of bad debts.

Consumer banking delivered high single digit income growth on the comparable period of 2012. For the wholesale banking, margins in cash and trade declined 16% and 14% respectively on the comparable period of 2012.