COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

StanChart Q3 profit doubles

Standard Chartered rode a recovery in pandemic-hit markets to post a stronger-than-expected pre-tax profit for the third quarter on Tuesday, aided by lower credit charges and growth in trade finance.

Statutory pre-tax profit for the bank, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, jumped to US$996 million in July-September, from US$435 million a year earlier and better than the US$942 million average estimate of 16 analysts as compiled by the bank.

The beat comes amid a push by CEO Bill Winters, who took charge in 2015, to restore growth while creating a portfolio of digital assets in the last few years, after repairing the bank's balance sheet and slashing thousands of jobs in his early years.

Still, StanChart's London-listed shares have underperformed rivals since then, and are up 8% this year versus a 18% rise for HSBC and 37% surge for Barclays. Its shares in Hong Kong edged up 0.2%.

The London-headquartered bank's overall quarterly income rose 7% to US$3.8 billion from a year earlier. -Nampa/Reuters

BP raises share buybacks

BP reported on Tuesday a rise in third quarter profit, lifted by oil and gas prices and a strong trading performance, allowing it to expand its share buyback programme by more than a billion dollars.

Natural gas and power prices around the world surged this autumn as tight gas supplies collided with strong demand in economies recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. BP said it expected natural gas prices to remain strong in the coming months of peak winter demand.

Underlying replacement cost profit, the company's definition of net earnings, reached US$3.32 billion in the third quarter, BP said, exceeding analysts' expectations for US$3.06 billion.

That compares with US$2.8 billion in profit in the second quarter and US$86 million a year earlier, when energy demand and prices collapsed due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The results were boosted by "very strong trading" which helped BP weather large fluctuations in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices throughout the quarter. -Nampa/Reuters

Maersk expands air freight

Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Tuesday it will buy freight-forwarder Senator International along with two Boeing aircraft, the firm's latest move to boost its businesses beyond ocean shipping.

Maersk, which handles one in five containers shipped worldwide, will acquire the German logistics firm, whose largest business is within air freight, for an enterprise value of around $644 million, it said.

During the pandemic, many airlines have been forced to park unused passenger jets, driving up demand for cargo space on dedicated freighters at a time when soaring demand from lockdown-ridden consumers has put a strain on global trade. read more

With two-thirds of Maersk's revenue still coming from container shipping, the firm is aiming to expand its services to include more air and land-based freight, hoping to deliver door-to-door logistical solutions to clients like Walmart and Puma.

"The Covid-19 situation has only accelerated the fact that we need to move on this," Maersk's chief executive of ocean and logistics, Vincent Clerc, told Reuters. -Nampa/Reuters

Japan Airlines narrows H1 loss

Japan Airlines Co Ltd reported on Tuesday a narrower first-half loss before interest and tax from a year ago, helped by cost cuts the carrier undertook during the pandemic, but it flagged a wider-than-expected annual loss.

The company posted a first-half loss of 151.8 billion yen (US$1.34 billion). In the prior year, Japan's second-largest airline had reported a loss of 223.9 billion yen in the six months ended Sept. 30.

JAL said on Tuesday it would report a full-year loss of 198 billion yen, larger than the consensus loss of 120 billion yen from 12 analysts polled by Refinitiv. In August, the carrier failed to provide a full-year earnings forecast, saying uncertainty made prediction too difficult.

The airline, like the travel industry in the world's third-largest economy, was badly hit as Japan was under a state of emergency for much of the second quarter.

Rival ANA Holdings Inc said last week that it expected to report an operating loss in the current financial year, down from an earlier prediction of a profit, and that it would reduce staff numbers by 20% within five years through attrition and retirement. -Nampa/Reuters

Pfizer sales to reach US$36 bln

Pfizer Inc on Tuesday said it expected 2021 sales of the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech SE to reach US$36 billion and forecast another US$29 billion from the shot in 2022, topping analyst estimates for both years.

The US drugmaker said it is seeking to sign more vaccine deals with countries, which could drive sales even higher next year. It has the capacity to produce 4 billion doses in 2022 and has based its projections on sales of 1.7 billion doses.

Still, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said he was concerned that low- and middle-income countries would not place orders for next year's vaccine doses early enough, and could again end up behind wealthier countries.

"The high-income countries, they have the tendency to be way more proactive, and they are placing their orders," Bourla said in an interview. "I want to make sure that I go on record publicly, they need to place orders, period."

Pfizer said it expects to deliver at least one billion doses of its vaccine to low- and middle- income countries next year. -Nampa/Reuters