Europe Movers: ABM AMRO, Ashmore, Smurfit Kappa, Societe Generale, TotalEnergies

Bridgette Randall
08 Feb, 2023
Frankfurt

ABN Amro Bank NV jumped 11.5% to €16.30 after the Dutch bank announced a stock repurchase program. 

Operating income in the fourth quarter declined 19% to €1.86 billion from €2.28 billion a year ago. 

Net income in the quarter dropped 36% to €354 million from €552 million and diluted earnings per share declined to 37 euro cents from 56 euro cents a year ago. 

The Dutch bank proposed to pay 67 cents per share as a final dividend equivalent to €601 million to shareholders on record on April 24 and payable on May 17, reflecting a total dividend of 99 cents for 2022. 

The company proposed a new stock repurchase plan of €500 million commencing from February 9th and ending no later than June 2023. 

Ashmore Group Plc rose 2.4% to  279.51 pence after the UK-based asset manager reported a sharply lower half-year profit. 

In the first-half ending in December. assets under management declined 34% to $57 billion from $87 million in the previous year. 

Adjusted net revenue in the first-half declined 22% to £107.7 million from £138.2 million a year ago. 

After-tax profit declined 54% to £44.3 million from £95.4 million and earnings per share declined 6.1 pence from 13.3 pence in the previous year. 

Smurfit Kappa Group fell 2.8% to 3,389.50 pence after the paper-based packaging company reported an increase in profit in 2022 but unit volumes declined. 

Revenue in the second-half increased 18% to €6.43 billion and pre-tax income increased 5% to €524 million from €500 million a year ago. 

Full-year 2022 revenue increased 27% to €12.8 billion and pre-tax increased 42% to €1.29 billion from €913 million a year ago. 

Earnings per share rose to €3.65 from €2.63 in the previous year. 

The paper company also reported a decline in box volume in 2022 by less than 2% following higher prices and tough comparison in the previous year.  

Societe Generale SA declined 4.7% to €26.71 after the French bank said net income in the fourth quarter declined 35.1% to Є1.16 billion from Є1.79 billion in the previous year. 

TotalEnergies SE declined 1.2% to €56.83 after the French energy giant said earnings in the fourth quarter dropped 44% to $3.3 billion. 

For the year 2022, net income rose 28% to $20.5 billion. 

TotalEnergies reiterated its cash allocation policy and said plans to return about 37% of cash flow to shareholders, invest 16.3 billion or 36.3% and $12.2 billion or 27% of cash flow to lower debt. 

The energy company after the deleveraging will lower its debt-to-capital ratio to 7%.   

Hydrocarbon (oil and gas) production in the fourth quarter rose 5% from the third quarter and declined 1% from a year ago to 2.8 million barrels of equivalent oil per day. 

In 2022, hydrocarbon production declined 2% to 2.765 million barrel of equivalent oil per day.