Europe Earnings: Burberry, Citycon, Glencore, Halfords, ICAP, Royal Mail

Nigel Thomas
10 Jul, 2013
New York City

Burberry expects first quarter sales to jump 18%. Citycon second quarter sales and profit jumped 6%. Glencore plans to sell Dakota Growers Pasta Co for at least $300 million. Halfords first quarter revenue climbed 9%. Royal Mail intends free distribution of 10% stake to employees.

[R]3:20 PM Frankfurt – Burberry expects first quarter sales to jump 18%. Citycon second quarter sales and profit jumped 6%. Glencore plans to sell Dakota Growers Pasta Co for at least $300 million. Halfords first quarter revenue climbed 9%. Royal Mail intends free distribution of 10% stake to employees.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index slid 0.3% or 20 to 6,493 and in Frankfurt the DAX index edged down 0.2% or 17.93 to 8,040.

In Paris, CAC 40 index fell 0.4% or 14.04 to 3,830.

Burberry Group Plc climbed 4.4% to 1,503 pence after the UK based luxury apparel designer expects sales in the first quarter to jump 18% and in the three months to June, retail revenue generated £339 million. Comparable store sales in the quarter soared 13%.

Citycon Oyj, the Finland-based property investor reported turnover in the second quarter to first quarter dropped (€62.9 million) but from a year ago period turnover jumped 5.5% to €61.6 million from €58.4 million mainly due to divestments and cost occurred related to re-development of projects.

Net rental income climbed 5.8% to €42.7 million and operating profit jumped 6.6% to €37.8 million.

Glencore Xstrata Plc fell 1.9% to 259.10 pence after the Switzerland based diversified natural resource is likely to sell its Dakota Growers Pasta Co for about $300 million to $400 million.

Halfords Group Plc surged 12.4% to 357.30 pence after the UK based automotive retailer said group revenue in the first quarter climbed 8.8% and like-for-like revenue jumped 7.5%. Online retail sales surged 15.5% and auto centers total sales soared 7.8%.

ICAP Plc declined 4.2% to 383.30 pence after the broker stated in interim report that group revenue for the quarter was 2% above from a year ago and expects will be remain unchanged for the year.

For the quarter, average daily volumes on EBS rose 1% to $128 billion from same period of last year.

Royal Mail Holdings Plc, the postal services provider said in the press release that the government intends to dispose of a majority stake and intend sell 10% of all the shares free to employees at the time of initial public offering.

The initial public offering is likely to value the business between £2 billion and £3 billion.