Bayer Drops 11% on California Ruling; Salzgitter, United Internet Net Advance

Sarla Buch
13 Aug, 2018
New York City

Bayer tumbled after California court ordered Monsanto to pay $289.2 million. Basler profit and revenues jumped. Cancom cloud solutions segment revenue soared 37%. Salzgitter reported strong first-half results. United Internet reaffirmed fiscal outlook.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Bayer tumbled after California court ordered Monsanto to pay $289.2 million. Basler profit and revenues jumped. Cancom cloud solutions segment revenue soared 37%. Salzgitter reported strong first-half results. United Internet reaffirmed fiscal outlook.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index fell 18.84 or 0.3% to 7,648.93 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slipped 44.67 or 0.4% to 12,380.46.

In Paris, CAC 40 index edged up 6.71 to 5,421.46.

Bayer AG plunged 11.4% to €82.74 after California state jury ordered on Friday that Germany-based Bayer’s newly acquired Monsanto Co had to pay $289.2 million to a school groundskeeper man in damages who contracted cancer by its weed killer products.

Basler AG advanced 2.9% to €182.60 after Germany-based digital camera maker said total revenues in the first-half ending in June jumped 6% from a year ago to €83.4 million.

Net profit in the period soared 12% to €14.6 million from €13 million in the same period a year ago and diluted earnings per share were flat at €0.48 from a year ago period.

Basler forecasted fiscal 2018 revenues in the Silicon Software GmbH business between €145 million and €160 million and pre-tax margin growth of 13% to 15 %.

Cancom SE gained 0.9% to €42.14 after Germany-based information technology provider said total revenues in the first-half ending in June surged 13.8% from a year ago to €612.3 million.

Net profit in the period rose 1.2% to €16.8 million from €16.6 million in the same period a year ago and diluted earnings per share were flat at €0.48 from a year ago period.

The cloud solutions segment revenue in the period soared 37.6% to €109.7 million and operating profit jumped 49.2% to €27.3 million.

Cancom forecasted fiscal 2018 sales, gross profit and operating profit to improve in IT solutions business segment.

Salzgitter AG slipped 0.6% to €38.85 after Germany-based steel producer reported revenues in the first-half ending in June were flat from a year ago at €4.6 billion.

Net profit in the period more than doubled to €135.4 million from €64.7 million in the same period a year ago and diluted earnings per share jumped to €2.32 from €1.09.

The steel producer said pretax profit in the period also more than doubled to €198.6 million from a year ago period after strong performance in the strip steel business.

United Internet AG fell 0.3% to €45.93 after Germany-based internet services provider said sales in the first-half ending in June surged 30.4% from a year ago to €2.5 billion.

Net profit in the period jumped 4.3% to €182.7 million from €175.2 million in the same period a year ago and diluted earnings per share increased to €0.91 from €0.87.

The internet services provider said the number of fee-based customer contracts increased by 530,000 to 23.17 million, of this new contracts were 430,000 for mobile internet.

United Internet reaffirmed fiscal 2018 sales in the range of about €5.2 billion from €4.2 billion and operating profit of about €1.2 billion from €980 million in the same period a year ago.