Shell Divests North Sea and Thailand Assets, UniCredit Loss on Write Down

Sarla Buch
31 Jan, 2017
New York City

Deutsche Bank agreed to settle anti-money-laundering investigation with $630 million payment. Givaudan said sales and profit jumped. H&M net soared 7%. Ocado said pre-tax profits soared. Royal Dutch Shell divested assets in the North Sea and Thailand for

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Deutsche Bank agreed to settle anti-money-laundering investigation with $630 million payment. Givaudan said sales and profit jumped. H&M net soared 7%. Ocado said pre-tax profits soared. Royal Dutch Shell divested assets in the North Sea and Thailand for £3 billion.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index advanced 37.61 or 0.5% to 7,156.09 and in Frankfurt the DAX index increased 19.53 or 0.2% to 11,701.66.

In Paris, CAC 40 index gained 14.64 or 0.3% to 4,799.28.

For the month, FTSE 100 index rose 0.2%, the DAX index jumped 1.9% and the CAC 40 index slipped 0.9%.

Deutsche Bank AG gained 1.5% to €18.91 after Germany-based investment bank agreed to pay $630 million to settle claims arising from the U.K. and U.S. investigations into Russian equity trades between 2011 and 2015.

The trades failed to prevent transferring of $10 billion out of Russia and violated the anti-money-laundering laws.

The bank is schedule to report fourth-quarter results on February 2.

Givaudan S.A slumped 3.9% to 1,781 Swiss francs after Switzerland-based fragrance and flavors producer reported sales in the year ending in December jumped 6.1% from a year ago to 4.7 billion francs.

Net income in the year rose 3.1% from a year ago to 644 million francs compared to 625 million francs and earnings per share increased to 69.95 francs from 67.89 francs.

Givaudan said sales in fragrance division soared 6.4% to 2.23 billion francs and sales in flavor segment advanced 5.8% to 2.43 billion francs but gross margin fell to 45.6% in the year from 46.2% in 2015, mainly due to lower margin on the acquisition of Spicetec Flavors business.

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB soared 5.7% to Swedish kronor after Sweden-based fashion retailer said net sales in the fourth-quarter ending in November surged 8.2% from a year ago to 52.7 billion kronor.

Net profit in the quarter increased 7.3% from a year ago to 5.9 billion kronor compared to the 5.5 billion kronor and earnings per share advanced to 3.57 kronor from 3.34 kronor.

Ocado Group Plc surged 7.9% to 263.73 pence after the U.K.-based online grocery retailer said revenues in the year ending on November 27 jumped 14.8% from a year ago to £1.3 billion.

Net income in the year rose 1.7% from a year ago to £12 million compared to £11.8 million and diluted earnings per share increased to 1.96 pence from 1.91 pence.

The online grocer said pre-tax profits soared 21.8% to £14.5 million and net debt as of November 2015, increased to £164.9 million from £127 million in the same period a year ago.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc rose 1.3% to 2,182 pence after the U.K.-based oil and gas producer agreed to sell offshore oil and gas assets in the North Sea and Thailand to Chrysaor for as much as £3 billion or $3.8 billion.

The deal is expected to complete in the second-half of this year.

UniCredit SpA slumped 2.9% to €25.46 after Italy-based financial services provider forecasted net loss in the year ending in December of €11.8 billion or $12.6 billion.

The lender said net loss was driven by €12.2 billion one-time charges for bad-loan provisions and the bank may take €1 billion charge on the write-down of its stake in Atlante.

In December, the bank said it plans to launch a stock offering next week of €13 billion and the Italian bank also intends to reduce more 6,500 jobs by 2019.