Alstom, Siemens to Merge Rail Business, EU fines Scania for Price cartel

Sarla Buch
27 Sep, 2017
New York City

Boohoo.Com profit surged but the increase failed to meet analysts

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Boohoo.Com profit surged but the increase failed to meet analysts’ expectations. Alstom and Siemens agreed to combine their rail businesses. The European Commission fined Scania for about €880 million.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index increased 32.60 or 0.5% to 7,318.28 and in Frankfurt the DAX index rose 71.72 or 0.6% to 12,676.47.
In Paris, CAC 40 index gained 16.38 or 0.3% to 5,285.13.

Boohoo.Com Plc plunged 9.2% to 231.50 pence after the U.K.-based online fashion retailer said revenues in the first-half ending in August more than doubled from a year ago to £262.9 million.
Net profit in the period surged to £15.8 million from £5.2 million in a year ago six-month period and diluted earnings per share increased to 1.22 pence from 1 penny.

The retailer lifted fiscal 2018 revenue forecast to about 80% from the earlier estimate of 60%.

Carillion Plc surged 19.9% to 55.43 pence on media speculation that the Middle Eastern construction rival intends to bid for the struggling U.K.-based civil engineering services provider.

As of July 31, net debt of the construction services provider was £695 million and pension deficit net of tax was £587 million.

Medios AG, formerly Crevalis Capital AG, privately held Germany-based pharmacy services provider said revenues in the first-half ending in June soared 103.5% from a year ago to €117 billion.
Net income in the period soared 85.7% to €2.6 million from €1.4 million in a year ago six-month period and diluted earnings per share rose to €0.21 from diluted loss per share of €0.17.

Siemens AG gained 1.5% to €118.30 after Germany-based industrial conglomerate and France-based rival Alstom SA agreed to merge their rail operations with a group headquarters in Paris.

The new entity will be led by Alstom chief executive officer Henri Poupart-Lafarge and Siemens and Alstom will have equal ownership of 50% in the company.

Siemens and Alstom estimated revenue of about €15.3 billion and operating profit of about €1.2 billion and estimated annual cost synergies of €470 million and order backlog of about €61.2 billion.

The transaction is expected to close at the end of 2018.

“This Franco-German merger of equals sends strong signal in many ways. We put the European idea to work together with Alstom,” said president and chief executive officer of Siemens AG Joe Kaeser.

Alstom SA stock in France jumped 5.5% to €35.50.

Scania AB was fined by the European antitrust for about €880.5 million or £771 million for truck price fixing and demanded stricter compliance of emission rules.

However, Scania denied any wrongdoing and said it will challenge the fine in the court.