By Reuters Staff
(Recasts with comments and sector performance)
SINGAPORE, Feb 25 (Reuters) - United Overseas Bank Ltd reported a 32% fall in quarterly profit as Singapore’s smallest listed bank said its net interest income declined and credit losses swelled.
Just like its larger peers OCBC and DBS, UOB said on Thursday it expects credit costs to ease this year as government moratorium programmes launched at the start of the pandemic come to an end.
UOB CEO Wee Ee Cheong said the bank would rebalance its business to focus on wealth management services, with net interest margins expected to stay low.
By Reuters Staff
(Adds details on financial income)
MEXICO CITY, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Grupo Televisa Mexico’s largest broadcaster, reported gains in its fourth quarter net profit on Thursday helped by lower sales costs and strong financial income, which offset a decline in revenue.
Televisa posted a 52% jump in net profit to 3.7 billion pesos ($184 million) compared with 2.4 billion pesos in the same period in 2019.
The company’s net sales, however, fell to 27.8 billion pesos, 1.7% lower than in the year-earlier period.
The company’s financial income for the quarter rose by more than 4.7 billion pesos to reach 6.5 billion pesos, according to a statement filed with the Mexican stock exchange.
By Reuters Staff
(Adds details, CEO comment)
Feb 19 (Reuters) - Dutch firm BE Semiconductor (BESI) , which makes equipment for chipmakers, forecast on Friday a surge in first-quarter revenues after saying its fourth-quarter numbers were above its expectations on the back of strong demand in Asia.
It shares rose 8% in early trading.
BESI, whose customers include tech companies like Samsung , Sony and Qualcomm, sees January-March revenue rising 30%-40% from the previous quarter as orders received to date exceeded total bookings in the fourth quarter.
The Dutch multinational company, which designs and manufacturers semiconductor equipment, has benefited from the global rollout of 5G networks, which are set to power everything from high-speed video transmissions to self-driving cars.
(Recasts with production outlook, updates with details and quotes)
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Malaysia’s Sime Darby Plantation, the world’s largest palm oil planter, forecast crude palm oil output in Malaysia and Indonesia would recover from last year’s decline, and is optimistic prices will remain high this year.
Production of the edible oil in the top two producing countries fell last year due to extreme weather conditions and a coronavirus pandemic-induced labour shortage in Malaysia.
“This year we expect some recovery in (Malaysia’s) production, I expect not less than what we achieved in 2019,” group managing director Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha told a media briefing on Thurdsay.
Air-France-KLM warned on Thursday of more pain to come for the Franco-Dutch airline group on renewed COVID-19 lockdowns, as the fallout from the pandemic pushed it to an annual 7.1 billion euro ($8.5 billion) net loss.