Bayer Lays Out Ambitious 3-year Forecast; DS Smith, Vonovia Profit Surge

Sarla Buch
06 Dec, 2018
New York City

Bayer issued multi-year forecast and said debt will substantially in the next three years. DS Smith profit jumped and said it plans to sell its plastics division. Latecoere tumbled after weak fiscal 2019 outlook. Vonovia reported better-than-expected results.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Bayer issued multi-year forecast and said debt will substantially in the next three years. DS Smith profit jumped and said it plans to sell its plastics division. Latecoere tumbled after weak fiscal 2019 outlook. Vonovia reported better-than-expected results.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index declined 163.64 or 2.4% to 6,756.11 and in Frankfurt the DAX index plummeted 271.88 or 2.4% to 10,928.36.

In Paris, CAC 40 index plunged 116.02 or 2.4% to 4,828.34.

Bayer AG declined 2.9% to €63.71 after Germany-based pharmaceutical and life sciences products maker forecasted fiscal 2022 revenues growth of 4% and operating profit growth of about 9%. The chemicals maker also estimated between 2019 and 2022 free cash flow to jump 18% to €23 billion.

Bayer estimated fiscal 2022 operating profit growth in Crop Science unit to exceed 30%, operating profit in pharmaceuticals segment to surge more than 35% and operating profit growth of 24% in consumer health business.

Bayer also forecasted fiscal 2018 earnings per share in the range of €5.70 to €5.90 and fiscal 2019 earnings per share of about €6.80 and earnings per share in 2022 of about €10.

Bayer estimated net debt is estimated to remain stable at around €36 billion in 2019 and significantly drop to between €26 billion and €28 billion by 2022.

BT Group Plc dropped 1.4% to 257.10 pence after Financial Times reported that the U.K.-based telecom and broadband services provider will remove equipment of Huawei Technologies Co from its core 4G network within two years.

BT also said it had excluded Huawei from bidding for contracts to supply equipment for its core 5G network.

DS Smith Plc slumped 3.8% to 313.78 pence after the U.K.-b1ased corrugated and plastic packaging products maker reported revenues in the first-half ending in October soared 15% from a year ago to £3.1 billion.

Net income in the period surged 21.5% to £130 million from £107 million in a year ago period and diluted earnings per share increased to 9.4 pence from 9 pence.

Separately, the packaging products manufacturer said plans to sell its plastics division.

Latecoere SA tumbled 18.1% to €2.61 after France-based aerospace equipment maker forecasted “in fiscal 2019 significant organic revenue growth” but operating margin to increase low single-digit and negative operating free cash flow.

Vonovia SE increased 0.4% to €41.72 after Germany-based residential property developer reported revenues in the nine-month period ending in September soared 11.4% from a year ago to €1.2 billion.

Net profit in the period surged 17.9% to €1.3 billion from €1.1 billion in a year ago period and diluted earnings per share jumped to €2.64 from €2.36.

Vonovia forecasted fiscal 2019 fund from operation between €1.14 billion and €1.19 billion and investments to increase to in the range of €1.3 billion to €1.6 billion.