Up to EUR 0.6 bln due in additional payments Deal accretive from year one Shares up 3.5% (Adds details, CEO quotes)
April 1 (Reuters) - French infrastructure group Vinci said on Thursday it agreed to buy the energy business of Spain’s ACS for about 4.9 billion euros ($5.75 billion) in cash, with additional payments due depending on the development of renewable assets.
With an identified potential of about 15 gigawatts of projects and ACS’ presence in Spain and Latin America, Vinci aims to bolster its energy contracting business and develop renewable projects, the company said.
“It’s only beginning of the story.,” Vinci’s Chief Executive Xavier Huillard said during an analyst call, adding he was positively surprised by the quality and renewable energy potential in the pipeline.
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(Reuters) - BMW expects at least half of its sales to be zero emission vehicles by 2030, setting a more conservative target than some rivals in the race to embrace cleaner driving.
In the short term, the German carmaker forecast on Wednesday a big rise in pretax profit for this year, with a strong performance in all areas - from MINIS through its upmarket BMW brand to top-of-the-range Rolls-Royces.
Its shares rose as much as 4.9% to a 2-1/2 year high of 84.42 euros, buoyed by its forecast for a strong recovery from a pandemic-hit 2020.
Bernstein analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said BMW had entered 2021 “very confidently.”
By Reuters Staff
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March 17 (Reuters) - Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) aims to distribute about 20% to 50% of consolidated net profit in the medium term, the group said on Wednesday, as it confirmed its preliminary full-year results and announced the outlook for 2021.
RBI, which does business across central and eastern Europe, said in February it could consider an additional dividend once the European Central Bank (ECB) lifted its recommendation to limit distributions amid the coronavirus crisis.
The group’s current proposal is to distribute a dividend at 0.48 euros ($0.5715) per share.
The bank said loan growth was likely to remain modest and non-performing loans were likely to increase in the first six months of the year as moratoriums and government support programmes expired, but it said the recovery should accelerate in late 2021.
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(Reuters) - Volkswagen expects to double electric vehicle deliveries and increase profits for its core brand this year after the world’s second-largest carmaker stepped up its switch to fully electric vehicles.
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The brand will deliver more than 450,000 electric cars this year, the company said on Wednesday. Volkswagen is targeting 1 million electric vehicle deliveries for the wider group.
The core brand is aiming for a significant year-on-year increase in sales revenue and an increase in profits, VW said.
The group’s preferred stock rose as much as 7% to its highest since June 2015, as institutional and retail investors cheered VW’s efforts to overtake Tesla in the electric car market.
By Reuters Staff
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March 17 (Reuters) - Germany has extended border control with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol region, Interior Minster Horst Seehofer said on Wednesday, citing the current number of new coronavirus infections and more virus variant cases.
“We decided today to extend border controls in mutation areas in the Czech Republic and Austria,” Seehofer said.
The control was reinstated on Feb. 14, following the introduction of a stricter lockdown in the Czech Republic. (Reporting by Alexander Ratz Writing by Bartosz Dabrowski in Gdansk Editing by Riham Alkousaa)