Construction Group Skanska Net Rises, Metro Net Tumbles 64%

Sarla Buch
06 Feb, 2017
New York City

Banco Popular net swung to a loss on bad loans and higher provisions. Fingerprint Cards forecasted average annual growth of about 20% up to 2019. Skanska net rose 7% and plan to divest A1 motorway project in Poland. Intesa Sanpaolo net surged. Metro net tumbled 64%.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Banco Popular net swung to a loss on bad loans and higher provisions. Fingerprint Cards forecasted average annual growth of about 20% up to 2019. Skanska net rose 7% and plan to divest A1 motorway project in Poland. Intesa Sanpaolo net surged. Metro net tumbled 64%.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index jumped 50.23 or 0.7% to 7,157.90 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slipped 30.20 or 0.3% to 11,629.49.

In Paris, CAC 40 index gained 9.41 or 0.2% to 4,803.87.

Banco Popular Espanol SA gained 0.9% €0.857 after Spain-based commercial bank said net in the fourth-quarter swung to a loss of €3.48 billion compared to the profit of €104 million in a year ago period.

In the period, the bank had attributed massive loss to bad loans and higher loan loss provisions.

Fingerprint Cards AB increased 2.6% to 50.80 Swedish kronor after Sweden-based biometric cards maker said net revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in December soared 20% from a year ago to 1.6 billion kronor.

Net profit in the quarter advanced 4.7% from a year ago to 423.3 million kronor compared to the 404.4 million kronor and diluted earnings per share rose to 1.35 kronor from 1.25 kronor.

The biometric cards maker forecasted revenues in fiscal 2017 in the range 7.5 billion kronor to 9.5 billion kronor and operating profit to exceed 35% and average annual growth of about 20% up to 2019.

Skanska AB gained 0.8% to 220.50 Swedish kronor after Sweden-based construction group reported revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in December advanced 2% from a year ago to 38.8 billion kronor.

Net profit in the quarter jumped 7% from a year ago to 2.7 billion kronor compared to the 2.5 billion kronor and diluted earnings per share increased to 6.59 kronor from 6.15 kronor.

The construction group said operating profit in the period soared 8% to 3.3 billion kronor and as of December 31, construction order bookings surged to 170.2 billion kronor from 122.2 billion kronor from a year ago and the board proposed to increase the dividend to 8.25 kronor per share.

However, Skanska reiterated, it plan to divest the A1 motorway project in Poland in the current fiscal year and take impairments in commercial property and infrastructure development business of about 500 million kronor.

Skanska had signed a contract worth about 1.2 billion kronor with AMF Fastigheter to construct a new building for commercial and office premises in central Stockholm. The construction will commence immediately and will be completed in the spring 2019.

Intesa Sanpaolo SpA fell 0.8% to €2.17 after Italy-based retail financial services provider said revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in December declined 9.3% from a year ago to €1.8 billion.

Net profit in the quarter surged from a year ago to €776 million compared to the €13 million and diluted earnings per share dropped to €1.36 from €1.53.

The retail bank said it is exploring and it will require time to complete an all-share offer for insurer Generali but the bank will sell 4.88% stake in the Bank of Italy worth about €366 million.

The Intesa’s stake in the Bank of Italy after the sale will decrease to 27.81%.

Metro AG dropped 2.6% to €29.86 after Germany-based self-service wholesaler reported sales in the first-quarter ending in December slid 0.6% from a year ago to €17 billion.

Net profit in the quarter tumbled 63.7% from a year ago to €200 million compared to €549 million and diluted earnings per share plunged to €0.61 from €1.68.

The retailer said profit in the quarter was hurt by currency fluctuations.