The earnings of AMMB Holdings Bhd, a banking group jumped RM445.82mil during the second quarter ending September 30, compared to last year’s RM440.85mil, mainly helped by lower expenses and higher operating income.
On Wednesday, the company said revenues slid to RM2.21bil compared to last year’s RM2.38bil. Company earnings for every share were at 14.81 sen, and announced a 12 sen a share for dividend.
The company’s second quarter results showed a decrease in its insurance commission and claims, while some operating income jumped to RM268.87mil. AMMB’s operating profit has been recorded higher than last year, reporting an RM633.06mil total operating profit. Other company expenses decreased to RM491.22mil.
Company earnings jumped to RM982.76mil for the last 6 months ending September 30, while its revenue increased to RM4.793bil. The company’s existing savings account composition remained steady at 20%, reporting 3.6% growth.
Ashok Ramamurthy, AMMB managing director, said the company’s performance in the year’s first half is a reflection of current transformation initiatives. The company’s recent, and newly-implemented combined wholesale banking model is gaining motion in preferred segments and sectors.
The director also said that the company is restructuring its loan portfolio, aiming for stronger growth within targeted segments. AMMB net loans increased 1.4% as a reflection of the company’s careful credit risk efforts in selected retail segments, including the restructuring of its coverage by sector and segment in non-retail loans.
The company reported RM621.2mil pre-tax revenue during the second quarter ending September 30, lower than the previous quarter profit of RM725.8mil ending June 30.
The company stated that the results were largely attributed to some lower operating income, deficiencies on monetary investments, including contingencies and commitments provisions.
Tencent, a social media company, and an investment firm under Alibaba creator Jack Ma combine 2.8B yuan as an investment, raising their Huayi Brothers Media Corp stakes, while Chinese technology giants push entertainment.
Huayi, producer and distributor of television programs, movies, and music stated that it will issue a 145 million worth of shares so as to raise a sum of 3.6B yuan or 588 million dollars in the Shanghai stock exchange. The company has plans for using cash for some other projects a new movie, including the repayment of bank loans.
Ma’s investment company will purchase 61.76M shares. China’s biggest gaming and social network company, Tencent will subscribe 51.55M shares.
Both entities will each own about 8.08% stake in Huayi, higher by 4.03% for Ma and 4.86% for Tencent. Thus, they will become the second-largest Huayi shareholders after company senior executives.
Huayi stated that the mobile internet business is growing fast, while the relationship between internet companies and media firms is similarly increasing. The relationship with Tencent and Alibaba will strengthen the progress in those areas, respectively.
Strategic agreements with Tencent and Ma have also been signed by Huayi, hoping it will use links of some of the largest internet companies in China so as to build its presence within the electronic commerce, movie industry, and online entertainment, including its presence abroad as Huayi has planned on investing between 120 and 150 million dollars in Studio 8, which is a film industry founded by Jeff Robinov, former president of Warner Brothers.
Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the most authentic retailers of American clothing since the 1890’s until today. But it seems like the sales report has been declining due to some changes in the customer’s demands. And also because of some innovative brand ambassadors that were now out in the market.
The company is now focusing on developing brand new styles that would win the hearts of the teens and loyal customers of branded clothing. The fact that consumers were not focusing on the brand and logo anymore, seems to be a warning for Abercrombie and Fitch. Some brand new fashion ambassadors like Zara and Forever 21 which sells more innovative styles at affordable prices, sets a new trend.
Abercrombie and Fitch is now expanding the line of products they offer, not just clothes, but also offering bags and accessories to win back their loyal customers.
Also, aside from these changing demands of consumers, the visibility of these branded clothes was decreasing because of shorter mall hours. If there will be shorter hours, less people would see the changes and strategies offered by the company.
All were hoping to have Abercrombie and Fitch still be part of the emerging market. Honestly, ANN and GAP were also experiencing the same thing.
The creator of “Farmvlle”, the Zynga Inc., posted its quarterly results, higher than expected as the mobile gaming maker pushes forward with further releases like the “New Words with Friends.”
The California-based company’s shares jumped 8% to 2.36 dollars in the after-hours trade ending Thurday on the NASDAQ.
Expected bookings, which indicate future revenue, jumped 15% to 175 million dollars for the quarter ending September 30, beating Wall Street forecast. On average, analysts had estimated bookings to increase to 171.7 million dollars for the quarter, compared to the 152.11 million dollars the same quarter a year ago.
Based on non-GAAP, Zynga narrowed down its quarterly net loss of 7 million dollars, compared to the 16 million net loss a year ago. This result exceeded the analysts’ forecast of 8.09 million net loss based on non-GAAP.
Starting July 2013, the company experienced a chain of layoffs, overhauled its management unit, and instigated measures in controlling costs, while expanding its mobile games as sales from web offerings through Facebook declined last year.
The company’s mobile bookings account for the 55% of its overall quarterly bookings, jumping 111% since last year, and 5% gradually since the previous quarter. This result was helped by the growth in games like the “Hit It Rich!” and the “FarmVille 2”, which were launched during the second quarter.
Zynga emphasized its deferred revenue, or 2014 estimate for bookings ranging between 695 million dollars and 725 million.
The second largest mobile operator in the world, Vodafone, increased its whole year overall earnings forecast last Tuesday. This is because of increasing demand in the major European markets, added with increased investing on the company’s push for new products that significantly helped in reducing revenue drops.
The mobile operator recently faced increased competition coming from various groups and even providers offering fixed-line services. Vodafone stated that they are planning to launch new services, particularly TV and broadband services in the British market in order to compete confidently with the company’s current rivals who in fact offer more ranges of products.
Overall improvement in recent trading, sparked high hopes of growth to return in the company’s main measurement for revenue by next year. The company recently sent their overall shares to jump 6% to the company’s 6 month high after 2 years of experiencing statistic falls.
Vittorio Colao, the company’s Chief Executive, stated that the evidence of the stabilization of the company is growing in many European markets. He added that Vodafone’s 2 year, 19B pound investment program is proceeding as planned and more clients are starting to feel its benefits.
Vodafone embarked on this program with the aims of building or buying broadband networks (fixed-line) across Europe that are super-fast. This is primarily to enable the company to compete confidently with rivals that offer mobile services alongside broadband, television, or even fixed-line bundle deals.
Visteon Corporation, an auto parts manufacturer reported a 33% increase in quarterly overall revenue, which was helped by the company’s purchase of Johnson Controls Incorporated’s electronics business.
Overall revenue for Visteon’s electronics business, that manufactures vehicle displays and audio systems, doubled up to $760M during the year’s third quarter that ended last September 30.
Visteon Corporation completed the automotive electronics acquisition of business of Johnson Controls last July.
Timothy Leuliette, Chief Executive of Visteon, stated that the company is expecting record incremental wins because of the company’s new business wins and also re-wins amounting to $2.4B up to $2.8B for 2014.
Visteon clients like BMW, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Corporation, and also General Motors Corporation are clients that also significantly gained from the 3% increase worldwide vehicle overall production during the 3 months that would end by September.
Similar auto parts manufacturers like Lear Corp and also Magna International Incorporated also reported better quarterly profit because of the overall increase in production of vehicles.
The company’s overall revenue when it comes to its climate control business that basically makes cooling and heating systems for various vehicles, increased to a total of $1.21B from last year’s $1.13B.
Visteon Corporation’s overall revenue increased to $1.97B from previous statistics of $1.48B.
The largest US-based luxury homebuilder, the Toll Brothers Inc., posted a 29% increase in its quarterly revenue, selling more homes with higher prices, while the housing demands rockets.
Toll’s shares jumped 1.5% to 32.69 dollars in the premarket trading, saying its orders increased both in dollars and units, a first-time within 4 quarters.
Company CEO Douglas Yearley stated the corporation is pleased with its strong finish towards the fiscal year, and having optimism towards the coming year as improvement in housing demands during the fourth quarter is seen.
During the year’s first 8 months, the housing industry began to struggle due to continuous increase in home prices as well as interest rates. But, the latest data from the Commerce Department indicate the recovery of the housing market, with a 6.3% increase in new home yearly pace in September compared to the 14.4% drop in August.
The company said it was able to finish more homes with a 22% rise to 1,807 during the quarter, and the average selling price increased 6.3% to 747,000 dollars the previous year.
Also, new contracts were made with a 10% increase to 1,282 houses, while the contract value rose 16% to 970.2 million dollars.
Toll’s overall revenue jumped to 1.35 billion dollars from 1.04 billion. Company shares closed at 32.22 dollars on Friday in the NYSE. Up until its closure on Friday, the stock rose about 1% within the past year.
During the third quarter, the Bank of America reported a tripled loss of 232 million dollars, in an alteration, which added legal expenses associated with worldwide investigations into forex trading within major banks.
Global regulators are examining accusations that dealers conspired, manipulating key reference rates within the foreign currency market that creates 5.3 trillion dollars per day, and which is the least regulated in the world.
The bank altered its results, adding 400 million dollars to its legal reserve unit in covering expected reimbursements attributable to forex or foreign exchange. The bank also said the revision was included in advanced meetings with the US regulators in resolving the matter.
The company also stated that Bank of America is under investigation by authorities in Asia, Europe, and the North America, however, did not specify which regulators the company was having talks with.
Financial regulator of Britain has also heightened discussions with 6 major banks over the conspiracy and manipulation allegations, setting up a group payment, which could cost 2 billion pounds or 3.26 billion dollars.
He Citigroup Inc. stated last month that it was saving 600 million dollars in covering legal charges during the third quarter as regulatory inquiries are rapidly evolving.
The additional charges extended the bank’s net loss of 232 million dollars or 4-cent per share, compared to the 70 million or one-cent per share net loss, which was reported on October 15.
The company’s litigation-related losses forecast lowered to 3 billion dollars from the 5 billion. Company shares dropped 1% at 17.23 dollars in extended trade.
Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd posted lower revenue and profit for the quarter, missing the average estimate of analysts.
The company shares dropped 35% in the after-hours trading. Salix also reported an 88.6 million dollar net loss or 1.39 dollars per share during the third quarter, which ended September 30, compared to the last year’s 47.3 million dollars net income or71-cent per share.
The company earnings were at 1.53 dollars per share, excluding special items, while its revenue jumped 49% to 335 million dollars.
On average, analysts forecasted the profit of 1.55 dollars per share on 392.4 million revenues, based on Thomson Reuters.
The company, on Thursday, cuts its full-year estimate, indicating that its inventory piled up for its key drug. According to experts, the Allergan, Inc.’s supposedly acquisition of Salix was put on hold due to the inventory issues.
Salix, make of bowel drug, said it has adequate stock that is good for at least 5 months, contrasting earlier statements that it has stock that can last for only weeks. There were $155 million inventory as of September 30, up by 50% since the beginning of the year.
The company now expects a $5.20 a share for its 2014 profit to $1.4 billion revenue, except special items. The average forecast of analysts was at $6.17 per share on $1.6 billion revenue.
On Thursday, the Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd cut its entire-year estimate, saying its key drug inventory piled up, which discouraged the Allergan Inc. to acquire the drug maker, according to some experts.
Allergan and Salix almost sealed a deal, however, Allergan hesitated after issues on inventory levels. Those experts requested anonymity since the negotiations remained confidential. Representatives of both companies refused to comment.
Meanwhile, the latest earnings forecast, including inventory disclosure occurred during the third quarter earnings of Salix, bringing its shares low about 36% after the bell.
Allergan stated it has been meeting up with another party, disclosed as the Actavis Inc that it was approached by Allergan. A deal is brewing that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International would take over Allergan at 54 billion dollars, and arguments indicate that such would diminish Allergan’s growth due to deep cost-cutting.
The bowel drug maker, Salix, indicated adequate stock goo for 5 months, contrary to previous statements that showed stock would only last for weeks. As of September 30, inventory was 155 million dollars, up 50% since the year’s start.
Carolyn Logan, CEO of Salix said accounting of sales and wholesalers have always been appropriate, but the audit committee of the company is reviewing issues associated with its wholesale inventory.
The company expects a 5.20 dollar per share as 2014 profit to 1.4 billion dollar revenue, excluding special products, compared to the previous forecast of 6.16 dollars every share on 1.6 billion dollar revenue.
Analysts expected a 6.17 dollar every share on 1.6 billion dollar revenue.