Europe Earnings: Centrica, Elektrobit, TUI, Technip, Vestas Wind, WPP

Nigel Thomas
18 Dec, 2013
New York City

Centrica sold three gas power stations to Blackstone for

[R]3:40 PM Frankfurt – Centrica sold three gas power stations to Blackstone for £420 million in cash. Elektrobit jumped after the company lifted its annual outlook. TUI net swung to profit. Technip declined after lowered the revenue forecast.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index rose 0.2% or 11.53 to 6,498 and in Frankfurt the DAX index climbed 0.9% or 88.01 to 9,173.

In Paris, CAC 40 index jumped 0.8% or 34.04 to 4,103.

Centrica Plc jumped 2.7% to 331.86 pence after the U.K.-based energy company sold its three gas-fired power stations to Blackstone for £420 million or $685 million in cash.

Centrica will return the fund from the sale to shareholders through £420 million extension of its share repurchase program in 2014.

Elektrobit Oyj surged 6.7% to €2.24 after the Finland-based software company lifted its operating profit guidance for the year to €8 million from an earlier forecast of €5.1 million in November. Net sales are expected to grow slightly more than €200 million.

TUI AG climbed 4.2% to €11.72 after the Germany-based tour operator reported revenue in the year ending in September rose 0.8% to €18.48 billion from €18.33 billion a year ago.

Net in the year swung to a profit €4.3 million compared to a loss of €15.1 million and diluted earnings per share dropped to €0.08 from €0.16 a year earlier.

TUI expects operating earnings in the year to jump between 16% and 23% and revenue to increase in the range of 2% to 4%.

Technip SA plunged 7.8% to €61.80 after the France-based oilfield-service provider expects its subsea division revenue in fiscal 2014 between €4.35 billion and €4.75 billion or $5.98 and $6.53 billion, on strong and diversified backlog of projects.

For the fiscal 2013, Technip lowered its subsea revenue forecast to about €4.1 billion from the earlier estimated range between €4.3 billion and €4.6 billion.

For its onshore/offshore operations, the company expects revenues in the next year in the range of €5.4 billion to €5.7 billion.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S soared 5% to 152.60 kroner after the Denmark-based wind power producer said it secured order for wind turbines to produce 350 megawatts of power from Enel Green Power SpA.

WPP Group rose 0.4% to 1,308 pence after the U.K.-based marketing company agreed to buy majority stake in Russia/Ukraine-focused market research company ARMI-Marketing.