(Adds further details, share performance, analyst comment)
Feb 18 (Reuters) - French IT consulting group Atos said on Thursday it was aiming for a sales rebound in 2021, recovering from a dip caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but its margin guidance disappointed investors, sending shares lower.
Atos shares were down 5.7% at 0945 GMT, reaching the bottom of France’s blue-chip index CAC 40.
The Paris-based group said it targeted revenue growth of 3.5% to 4% this year and an operating margin between 9.4% and 9.8%. While the sales goal exceeded analysts’ expectations of 1% to 2% revenue growth, the operating margin fell below the 9.8% anticipated by analysts.
“The 2020 margin outcome and 2021 margin guidance may be seen as somewhat disappointing, especially given the strong bookings trend,” UBS analysts said in a note.
By Reuters Staff
(Adds additional details, CEO quote)
Feb 17 (Reuters) - Swiss elevator and escalator manufacturer Schindler expects its 2021 revenue to grow in a range of 0% to 5%, after posting fourth-quarter earnings slightly above estimates as an economic recovery in China offset pandemic hit and foreign currency effects.
The company said on Wednesday net profit reached 226 million Swiss francs ($253 million) in the October-December period, beating the average analyst expectations of 222 million francs in a company-provided poll.
“We introduced a series of measures to enhance our competitiveness, as some of the key markets have been experiencing a contraction and are not likely to return to 2019 levels before 2022 at the very earliest,” Chief Executive Officer Thomas Oetterli said.
(Updates with new developments) Jan 28 (Reuters) - Death toll from COVID-19 in the United States crossed one million, the Pan American Health Organiza.
By Reuters Staff
4 Min Read
Jan 27 (Reuters) - New U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration would review restrictions on the Nord Stream 2 (NS 2) gas pipeline project, a focal point of a wider discord between Moscow and Washington.
A bill passed during Donald Trump’s presidency imposed sanctions on companies involved with the nearly-completed pipeline to bring Russian gas into Europe via Germany, undermining previous gas transits via Ukraine.
Biden on Wednesday said he believed NS2 was a “bad deal for Europe”.
Led by Russia’s Gazprom with Western partners, the pipeline, which doubles the capacity of the existing Nord Stream 1 (NS 1) link has attracted opposition in the European Union.
(Reuters) - The world is on the brink of catastrophic moral failure in sharing COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization said, urging countries and manufacturers to spread doses more fairly. EUROPE Britain s vaccine rollout is limited by a lumpy manufacturing process affecting supplies of both Pfizer and AstraZeneca, but is on track to hit its targets, Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said. Norway will ease some restrictions as extra measures in place for two weeks seem to have had the desired effect, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said, although she said infection rates remained too high for comfort. Germany s health minister said new measures would be needed to slow the spread of new, more infectious variants of the virus, including more health checks for cross-border commuters and intensified gene sequencing of virus samples. Austria, Denmark and Greece will jointly pressure the European Medicines Agency to approve AstraZeneca s vaccine as quickly as