Lufthansa Soared on Outlook; LSE Sales Jump, Nestle Struggles

Sarla Buch
20 Oct, 2016
New York City

GEA sales fell 0.9% on weak sales in energy industry. Deutsche Lufthansa revenues dropped 2% but the international airline lifted fiscal outlook. London Stock Exchange revenues soared 19%. Nestle sales rose 1%. Publicis revenues slid.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – GEA sales fell 0.9% on weak sales in energy industry. Deutsche Lufthansa revenues dropped 2% but the international airline lifted fiscal outlook. London Stock Exchange revenues soared 19%. Nestle sales rose 1%. Publicis revenues slid.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index edged down 2.88 to 7,019.26 and in Frankfurt the DAX index increased 48.59 or 0.5% to 10,693.35.

In Paris, CAC 40 index gained 18.09 or 0.4% to 4,537.36.

Cinven, the U.K.-based privately held equity firm today agreed to sell Avio Space Propulsion, the space vehicles launchers and space propulsion, to Italy-based Space2 and Leonardo-Finmeccanica for undisclosed financial terms.

In 2015, Avio Space Propulsion revenues soared 24.4% to €279.2 million.

GEA Group AG tumbled 19% to €38.49 after Germany-based engineering services provider said revenues in the third-quarter ending in September fell 0.9% from a year ago to €1.1 billion.

GEA said operating profit in the quarter plunged 21.5% from a year ago to €113 million compared to the €144 million.

The engineering services provider said profit declined mainly due to drop of 8% in the dairy farming business and 4.5% sales decline in cooling solutions segment for the oil and gas industry.

The group is schedule to release its third-quarter result on October 28.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG soared 7% to €11.19 after Germany-based airline group said revenues in the nine-month period ending in September dropped 1.6% from a year ago to €23.9 billion.

Deutsche Lufthansa said operating profit in the quarter slid 0.6% from a year ago to €1.68 billion compared to the €1.69 billion.

The airline company said net debt in the nine-month period decreased to €2.2 billion from €3.3 billion in the year end of fiscal 2015.

Deutsche Lufthansa’s executive board lifted its full year forecast for operating profit from ''below previous year’ to ‘approximately on previous year’s level’ and revenues in the fourth-quarter may drop between 7% and 8%, a one percentage point fall from the estimate in July.

London Stock Exchange Group Plc gained 0.8% to 2,836 pence after the U.K.-based trading services provider reported revenues in the third-quarter ending in September soared 19% from a year ago to £414.6 million and jumped 14% in the year-to-date to £1.2 billion.

Nestle SA dropped 0.9% to 74 Swiss francs after Switzerland-based nutrition, foods products maker said total sales in the nine-month ending in September rose 1% from a year ago to 65.5 billion francs.

Nestle forecasted organic growth of 3.5% and improvement in margins, earnings per share and increased capital efficiency.

Publicis Groupe SA plunged 5.8% to €63.13 after France-based digital marketing and advertising services provider stated sales in the third-quarter ending in September fell 0.4% from a year ago to €2.32 billion and the marketing group blamed the loss in media accounts in the U. S.

“Total acquisitions in 2017 should be lower than €500 million,” chief executive officer Maurice Levy said.