Europe Earnings: Alstom, Experian, ING, Persimmon, Vestas

Nigel Thomas
06 Nov, 2013
New York City

Alstom profit dropped 3%. Experian suspends $500 million share buy-back program and agreed to acquire the U.S. healthcare data firm for $850 million. Moneysupermarket.com revenue surged 25%. ING net tumbled 85% to

[R]4:25 PM Frankfurt – Alstom profit dropped 3%. Experian suspends $500 million share buy-back program and agreed to acquire the U.S. healthcare data firm for $850 million. Moneysupermarket.com revenue surged 25%. ING net tumbled 85% to €101 million. Vestas Wind revenue fell 27%.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index rose 0.04% or 2.71 to 6,750 and in Frankfurt the DAX index gained 0.4% or 35.91 to 9,045.

In Paris, CAC 40 index jumped 0.9% or 36.70 to 4,290.

Alstom SA soared 5.6% to €28.62 after the France-based transport and energy infrastructure provider said sales in the first-half ending in September was nearly flat at €9.7 billion from a year earlier.

Net profit in the period dropped 3% to €375 million compared to €386 million and diluted earnings per share fell to €1.20 from €1.30 a year ago.

The company plans to raise as much as €2 billion euros from asset sales.

Experian Plc plunged 6.1% to 1,185.50 pence after the credit data provider suspended $500 million share buy-back program after it agreed to acquire the U.S. healthcare data firm for $850 million.

Revenue in the first-half ending in September grew 2.2% to $2.34 billion from $2.29 billion a year ago. Net in the period swung to a profit $336 million compared to a loss of $39 million and diluted earnings per share swung to a 33.8 cents from a loss of 7.2 cents.

Experian reported pre-tax-profit in the first-half rose 2% to $573 million and revenue from continuing businesses jumped 6%. Total EBIT from continuing operations rose 3% to $608 million.

Moneysupermarket.com Group Plc surged 19.2% to 185 pence after the U.K.-based online broker said group revenues surged above 25% from a year earlier and revenues in the money dropped to 4% but credit revenues climbed 11% from the same period of last year. Visitor volumes jumped at 5% from a year ago.

Insurance revenues for the period rose 2% and revenues from travel surged 35%. Home Services revenues climbed 11% a year ago period.

ING Groep NV climbed 4.9% to €9.74 after Netherlands-based financial services provider reported net income tumbled 84.7% to €101 million compared to €659 million and earnings per share declined 82.4% to €0.03 from €0.17 a year ago.

Group underlying net profit in the quarter climbed to €891 million from €844 million. The bank wrote-down €950 million on the sale of its South Korean life insurance unit and is likely to near the deal with the European Commission to sell above 50% of ING Life Japan by the end of 2015.

Persimmon Plc slipped 1.6% to 1,195 pence after the U.K.-based home builder said sales in the first-half increased for the current year to £650 million forward, a 41% increase on the comparable period a year ago.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S surged 15.3% to 167.60 kronor after the Denmark-based wind power turbine maker said revenue in the third quarter ending in September declined 27% to €1.44 billion.

The value of the wind turbine backlog was €7.3 billion and wind turbine order backlog for service agreements with contractual future revenue was €6.1billion. During the quarter, improvement of wind turbine orders and service agreements was €400 million.

The company lifted its fiscal outlook on EBIT margin in the range of 1% to 2% and free cash flow between €200 million from €500 million to €700 million.