Air France KLM August Traffic Soars, Nestle to Acquire Sweet Earth

Sarla Buch
08 Sep, 2017
New York City

Air France KLM passenger traffic in August soared. Pub operator Greene King said comparable sales declined on bad weather. Nestle agreed to acquire the U.S.-based Sweet Earth. Imperial Brands sells 10% stake in Spain-based Logista.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Air France KLM passenger traffic in August soared. Pub operator Greene King said comparable sales declined on bad weather. Nestle agreed to acquire the U.S.-based Sweet Earth. Imperial Brands sells 10% stake in Spain-based Logista.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index dropped 33.99 or 0.5% to 7,363.26 and in Frankfurt the DAX index edged down 0.88 to 12,293.53.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slid 6.14 to 5,107.76.

For the week, FTSE 100 index slumped 1%, the DAX index increased 1.3% and the CAC 40 index fell 0.3%.

Air France KLM SA jumped 3.4% to €13.41 after Germany-based airline services provider said total passenger in August soared 5.6% from a year ago to 7.6 million and total group passenger in the month advanced 5.1% to 9.4 million.

Load factor in August increased 1.5% to 89.6% from 88.1% in the same period a year ago.

Greene King Plc 12.7% to 571.75 after the U.K.-based pub chain operator said comparable sales in the first eighteen-weeks of fiscal 2018 on September 3 declined 1.2%.

The rebranded Fayre & Square in current financial year said its comparable sales dropped 0.9%.

The pub operator said sales in the first-ten weeks were in line with expectations but in the second half of July, “when the weather worsened, trading weakened.”

However, its pub partners and brewing & brands, continue to “deliver strong returns and cash for the company.”

Nestle SA rose 0.2% to 80.85 Swiss francs after Switzerland-based nutrition, health and wellness products maker agreed to acquire the U.S.-based Sweet Earth, a plant-based foods manufacturer which is growing by double digits.

Cia de Distribn Integral Logista Hldg SA increased 0.8% to €19.58 after Spain-based tobacco distributor confirmed that the U.K.-based Imperial Brands Plc sold 13.3 million shares for €19 per share.

The transaction is valued about €252.2 million or £230.8 million and the tobacco products maker after the sale will continue to own 79.7 million shares or 60% of its issued share capital.

Trinity Mirror Plc gained 0.5% to 91.25 pence after the U.K.-based publisher of the Daily Mirror confirmed that the company is in preliminary talks to acquire the Express and Star newspaper titles as well as magazines including OK from Richard Desmond worth about £130 million.

Earlier Trinity was in talks to acquire a minority stake in the company.