PayPal gives eBay profits boost

21 July 2010
Last updated at 18:31 ET

Auction site operator eBay has reported a 26% rise in profits for the last three months thanks largely to increased use of its PayPal service.
Profits for the quarter totalled $412m (£272m), the company said, up from $327m a year ago.
Sales were up 20% internationally, but rose only 2% in the US, demonstrating its reliance on international growth.
Ebay’s online payments business, which includes PayPal, saw revenues rise by 22%.
“We are not satisfied with our US results,” said John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, in a conference call with investors.
He said the strengthening dollar was also a concern, reducing the value of sales made abroad.
EBay also cut its profit forecast for the year in the expectation that the dollar with strengthen further against international currencies.

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Barclays to admit risk over Lehman

The $1.89bn (£1.27bn) deal was one of the more positive transactions of the
financial crisis, propelling Barclays ­Capital, the bank‘s investment arm,
into the top tier overnight, and saving approximately 10,000 Lehman jobs.

The veteran banker will make the comments on Tuesday at the resumption of the
long-running trial between Barclays and Lehman’s creditors, its trustee and
its estate.

His testimony will come a day after that of Bob Diamond, Barclays’ president,
who ran the negotiations from New York, and is scheduled to testify
tomorrow. The three rival parties together allege that the British bank
unfairly ­profited from the purchase by $11.2bn.

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Goldman Sachs accused of disrupting FCIC’s probe into financial crisis

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It is the latest black mark against the bank, which is accused by the US
Securities and Exchange Commission of securities fraud in relation to the
alleged mis-selling of derivatives, a charge the bank denies.

Mr Angelides appears infuriated with Goldman’s tactics, suggesting that the
bank is involved in “a very deliberate effort to run out the clock”. The
FCIC must close its investigation and deliver its report to Congress by the
end of this year.

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George Osborne urges G20 to take immediate action on deficits

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It follows an emergency conference call between the world’s leading seven
finance ministers on Friday, in which Mr Osborne warned that any delay in
tackling the deficits risked a repeat of the market chaos of recent weeks.

A Treasury insider said: “Those countries have to show real leadership on
this. We need to use the G20 to turn the focus on the big medium-term risk,
which is sovereign debt. The conference call also dealt with market issue
and touched on the German short-selling ban.

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Spanish airline Iberia sees losses stemmed as passenger revenue stabalise

Last updated at 11:40 AM on 14th May 2010

Spanish airline Iberia posted a narrower than expected first-quarter operating loss, as more stable passenger revenues and cost cuts were helped by a 21 per cent fall in fuel costs.Iberia said on Friday its January-March loss before interest and taxes (EBIT) narrowed to €75.5million from €147million in the 2009 period.First quarter revenues fell 4.4 per cent to €1.05billion, in line with capacity cuts, while the carrier’s net loss was more nearly halved to €52million.

Iberia plans to finalise a merger with British Airways this
year

Analysts forecast a net loss of €57milllion.
Iberia, which plans to finalise a merger with British Airways this
year to better fight a tough industry downturn, will hold a conference
call on results at 1000 GMT.
The world’s airlines lost about $9.4billion last year as customers
curbed spending during the recession, and they stand to lose another
$2.8 billion this year, according to the International Air Transport
Association.

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General Election 2010: Pound, Gilts and FTSE react

By Our City team


Published: 1:05PM BST 07 May 2010

Comments 5

| Comment on this article

if it’s the markets you’re interested in, stay around. But if you want to
catch up on the results, I’d recommend The Telegraph’s excellent election
map . For the unfolding negotiations and political drama,
there’s Matt
Moore’s live election blog.

14:45: David Cameron has spoken and the markets liked what they heard.
Pound up by about half a cent and the yield on 10-year gilts has fallen.
Cameron spoke of the need for a “strong, stable government that lasts” and
announced a “big, open and comprehensive offer” to the Liberal Democrats.

14:22: Another potential gain for the Conservatives is missed in
Westmorland & Lonsdale. Liberal Democrats would have wished for more
results like that. Majority of less than 300 in 2005 turned into a majority
of more than 12,000 over Conservatives. Markets bracing themselves for
Cameron’s statement now. We are expecting him at 2.30pm. Will be interesting
to see what tone he adopts. Gordon Brown tried to be very “prime
ministerial”, and interesting to hear him talk about Alistair Dariling
taking part in conference call talks today with fellow G7 finance ministers
on the crisis in the euro area. By the way, according to Reuters data, the
spread on 10-year gilts against German bunds is now the widest since 1998.

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Kraft vows to be disciplined in pursuit of Cadbury

Kraft, the giant American food company, said last night that it would “remain disciplined” in pursuing a bid for Cadbury, the British chocolate maker, even as it lowered its outlook for sales for the coming year.
The US group’s statement of intent came as reports suggested that Kraft had obtained $9 billion (£5.5 billion) of financing for its bid from nine banks. The lead underwriters are understood to be Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Barclays. Kraft declined to comment.
Reporting third-quarter results after the bell, Irene Rosenfeld, the company’s chairman and chief executive, reiterated her interest in Cadbury. “We remain interested but will maintain a disciplined approach,” she said, as the company trimmed its sales forecast from 3 per cent to 2 per cent but unveiled profits significantly ahead of analysts’ expectations.
Kraft shares fell nearly 3 per cent to $26.75 in after-hours trading soon after the announcement of its third-quarter results, which have been eagerly anticipated by markets, as the company’s proposed offer for Cadbury, made in September, contains a share element. This is significantly below the $28.10 they were at before the Cadbury proposal was announced.

Ms Rosenfeld said Kraft continued speaking to shareholders of both companies and reviewing potential financing options for its £10.6 billion bid.
The American foodmaker, which already owns a number of British brands, including Terry’s Chocolate Orange, offered 745p a share for Cadbury in September in cash and shares. The bid was swiftly rebuffed by Cadbury, which described the proposal as an “unappealing prospect”.
“There has been a lot of speculation about what we can afford,” Ms Rosenfeld said last night during a conference call for analysts and investors. “What we can afford is not relevant. What is relevant is what Cadbury is worth.”
That alone, she added, would determine Kraft’s approach to the bid for Cadbury, which makes Creme Eggs and Dairy Milk and has a big American shareholder base.
“Our criteria include accretion to cash EPS [earnings per share] in the second year, delivering a return on investment well in excess of our cost of capital, and maintaining both our investment grade credit rating and our dividend.”
Kraft faces a November 9 deadline, set by the UK Takeover panel, to issue a formal bid for Cadbury or walk away from the deal for six months. It has been widely expected to unveil an off-er in time to meet the deadline, but last night’s fall in the share price could complicate the process.
Kraft, whose brands include Oreo cookies, Philadelphia cream cheese, Maxwell House and Jacobs coffee, posted third-quarter earnings of $826 million, or 55 cents a share. This compares with last year’s figures of $1.36 billion, or 91 cents a share, which included a 57 cents a share gain from the sale of Kraft’s Post cereals.
Revenue fell 5.7 per cent to $9.8 billion. Ms Rosenfeld said the company’s organic net revenues grew by half a per cent, held back by lower food prices, which were the result of lower dairy costs during the quarter.
Revenue was also hit by the company’s decision to discontinue some of its less profitable lines and to focus on premier brands instead.
The company raised its profit forecast by 4 cents to $1.97 a share, but this improvement depends in part on a lower expected tax bill, rather than on pure revenue growth.
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Kraft vows to be disciplined in its pursuit of Cadbury

Kraft, the giant American food company, said last night that it would “remain disciplined” in pursuing a bid for Cadbury, the British chocolate maker, even as it lowered its outlook for sales for the coming year.
The US group’s statement of intent came as reports suggested that Kraft had obtained $9 billion (£5.5 billion) of financing for its bid from nine banks. The lead underwriters are understood to be Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Barclays. Kraft declined to comment.
Reporting third-quarter results after the bell, Irene Rosenfeld, the company’s chairman and chief executive, reiterated her interest in Cadbury. “We remain interested but will maintain a disciplined approach,” she said, as the company trimmed its sales forecast from 3 per cent to 2 per cent but unveiled profits significantly ahead of analysts’ expectations.
Kraft shares fell nearly 3 per cent to $26.75 in after-hours trading soon after the announcement of its third-quarter results, which have been eagerly anticipated by markets, as the company’s proposed offer for Cadbury, made in September, contains a share element. This is significantly below the $28.10 they were at before the Cadbury proposal was announced.

Ms Rosenfeld said Kraft continued speaking to shareholders of both companies and reviewing potential financing options for its £10.6 billion bid.
The American foodmaker, which already owns a number of British brands, including Terry’s Chocolate Orange, offered 745p a share for Cadbury in September in cash and shares. The bid was swiftly rebuffed by Cadbury, which described the proposal as an “unappealing prospect”.
“There has been a lot of speculation about what we can afford,” Ms Rosenfeld said last night during a conference call for analysts and investors. “What we can afford is not relevant. What is relevant is what Cadbury is worth.”
That alone, she added, would determine Kraft’s approach to the bid for Cadbury, which makes Creme Eggs and Dairy Milk and has a big American shareholder base.
“Our criteria include accretion to cash EPS [earnings per share] in the second year, delivering a return on investment well in excess of our cost of capital, and maintaining both our investment grade credit rating and our dividend.”
Kraft faces a November 9 deadline, set by the UK Takeover panel, to issue a formal bid for Cadbury or walk away from the deal for six months. It has been widely expected to unveil an off-er in time to meet the deadline, but last night’s fall in the share price could complicate the process.
Kraft, whose brands include Oreo cookies, Philadelphia cream cheese, Maxwell House and Jacobs coffee, posted third-quarter earnings of $826 million, or 55 cents a share. This compares with last year’s figures of $1.36 billion, or 91 cents a share, which included a 57 cents a share gain from the sale of Kraft’s Post cereals.
Revenue fell 5.7 per cent to $9.8 billion. Ms Rosenfeld said the company’s organic net revenues grew by half a per cent, held back by lower food prices, which were the result of lower dairy costs during the quarter.
Revenue was also hit by the company’s decision to discontinue some of its less profitable lines and to focus on premier brands instead.
The company raised its profit forecast by 4 cents to $1.97 a share, but this improvement depends in part on a lower expected tax bill, rather than on pure revenue growth.
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Playboy ‘would consider’ selling

Playboy has said it would be open to discussions about an outright sale of the company, after reporting a steep quarterly loss.

Playboy Enterprises, best-known for its adult magazine, posted a net loss of $145.7m (£102.6m) for the three months to the end of December 2008. Read more

Dell sees quarterly profits slip

US computer maker Dell has seen its quarterly profits slip 5%, as customers worldwide bought fewer computers.

Dells profits in the third quarter were $727m (£492.3m), down from $766m in the same period last year. Read more