ASOS Lifted Outlook, ABB Agrees to Buy B&R

Sarla Buch
04 Apr, 2017
New York City

The fast growing UK. Based online retailer ASOS lifted sales forecast. ABB agreed to acquire automation company Bernecker & Rainer. BNP Paribas agreed to buy domestic online payment services provider. Elior agreed to acquire Lancer Hospitality. Toshiba plans to buy 40% stake in Engie.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – The fast growing UK. Based online retailer ASOS lifted sales forecast. ABB agreed to acquire automation company Bernecker & Rainer. BNP Paribas agreed to buy domestic online payment services provider. Elior agreed to acquire Lancer Hospitality. Toshiba plans to buy 40% stake in Engie.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index gained 31.19 or 0.4% to 7,313.88 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slid 13.56 to 12,243.86.

In Paris, CAC 40 index edged down 3.93 to 5,081.98.

ASOS Plc declined 3.6% to 5,760 pence after the U.K.-based fashion retailer said revenues in the first-half ending in February surged 37% from a year ago to £911.5 million.

Net profit in the period jumped 44% from a year ago to £21.9 million from £15.2 million and diluted earnings per share increased to 26.3 pence from 22.8 pence.

The online retailer said retail sales growth in the period soared 38% to £889.2 million after retail sales in the U.K. advanced 18% to £340.8 million and international retail sales surged 54% to £548.4 million and the gross profit in the period jumped 36% to £440.1 million.

ASOS lifted sales forecast in fiscal 2017 to grow between 30% and 35% from the earlier estimated range of 25% to 30% and pretax profit of about £1.87 billion and reaffirmed capital expenditure between £150 million and £170 million.

ABB Ltd slid 0.1% to 23.26 Swiss francs after Switzerland-based industrial conglomerate agreed to acquire Austria-based industrial automation services provider Bernecker & Rainer GmbH for undisclosed financial terms.

The transaction is funded in cash and expected to close in summer 2017.

BNP Paribas SA dropped 1.4% to €60.35 after France-based banking and financial services provider agreed to acquire domestic Financière des Paiements Électroniques, which provides the Compte-Nickel payments with 540,000 accounts.

However, the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Elior Group, formerly Elior Participations SCA gained 1% to €21.60 after France-based contracted catering and support services provider agreed to acquire through its U.S.-based subsidiary, Lancer Hospitality, Minnesota based catering provider.

Engie SA, formerly GDF Suez SA fell 0.3% to €13.12 after Toshiba Corporation said it will buy 40% stake in France-based gas and electricity supplier in their proposed British nuclear power project NuGen for about $138.5 million or 15.3 billion yen.

Toshiba already owns 60% stake in the NuGen and plans to build three new nuclear power reactors.