Europe Earnings: Electrolux, Lloyds bank, Vopak, Vivendi, Vodafone

Nigel Thomas
19 Jul, 2013
New York City

Electrolux net in the quarter declined 8% as sales slid. John Lewis gross sales plunged 9%. Vopak lowered its fiscal year earnings outlook. UK government plans to sell

[R]3:20 PM Frankfurt – Electrolux net in the quarter declined 8% as sales slid. John Lewis gross sales plunged 9%. Vopak lowered its fiscal year earnings outlook. UK government plans to sell £5 billion of Lloyds bank shares. Vivendi rejected $8.5 billion offer from SoftBank. Vodafone revenue grew 2.5%.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index fell 0.6% or 38.68 to 6,596 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slipped 0.4% or 35.24 to 8,302.

In Paris, CAC 40 index dropped 0.5% or 17.87 to 3,910.

Electrolux AB soared 4.2% to €20.91 after the Sweden based household appliances maker reported net sales in the second quarter ending in June slid 0.3% to 27.67 billion kronor from 27.76 billion kronor a year ago. Net income for the quarter declined 8.4% to 642 million kronor compared to 701 million kronor.

For the year, Electrolux expects demand in the U.S. for the appliances may increase as much as 7% compared to earlier expectation of 5%.

John Lewis of Hungerford Plc declined 5.8% to 0.65 pence after the UK based department stores operator said up to July 13, gross sales across the firm’s stores plunged 8.7%. Out of Scottish outlets, Glasgow sales plummeted to 19% followed by Aberdeen at 14.9% and Edinburgh with 11.6% as soaring heat wave incline the customers to go outside.

Koninklijke Vopak NV declined 5.3% to €43.37 after the Netherlands based oil products storage provider estimated earnings in the first-half to grow to €385 million from €380.1 million a year ago period.

For the year, Vopak lowered its outlook and expects EBITDA between €730 million and €780 million from earlier forecast in the range of €760 million and €800 million.

Lloyds Banking Group Plc slipped 1.5% to 68.97 pence and the UK government plan to sell-off as much as £5 billion of bank shares.

Vivendi SA gained 1.9% to €15.52 after the France based communications and entertainment group rejected an $8.5 billion offer from Japanese telecom company SoftBank Corp. for its Universal Music Group division.

Vodafone Group Plc rose 0.7% to 192.70 pence after the UK based mobile phone operator reported group service revenue for the quarter ending in June gained 2.5% to £10.16 billion and group revenue excluding joint ventures climbed 5.2% to £9.60 billion.

The company added service revenue growth in emerging markets like Turkey surged 15.5%, India climbed 13.8%. Verizon Wireless service revenue jumped to 7.2%. Southern Europe revenues declined 10.6% to £2.27 billion and Northern and Central Europe revenue jumped 8.8% to £4.75 billion.

Vodafone said net debt as on quarter ending in June including joint ventures £24.9 billion after £2.1 billion Verizon Wireless dividend.