Archives of Industries & Sectors

1. Airbus wins Oman Air order for three A330 planes

   2013-05-22 08:07:07 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   PARIS: Airbus has won an order for three A330-300 aircraft from Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, the European planemaker said on Wednesday.The order, which Airbus said would bring Oman Air's A330 fleet to 10 aircraft, is worth about $720 million based on list prices.The planes will be operated on long-haul routes and can seat close to 300 passengers, Airbus said.Copyrig...

2. Royal Mail profit soars before privatisation

   2013-05-21 13:02:15 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   LONDON: Britain's Royal Mail more than doubled annual profit on the back of an online shopping boom, providing a timely boost as it plans for a stock market listing this year.In a marked turnaround for a business that has been fighting to adapt to a more competitive market and falling letter volumes, Royal Mail reported adjusted operating profit of 403 million pounds ($613 million) in the year...

3. German software giant SAP to hire people with autism

   2013-05-21 11:36:25 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   BERLIN: German software giant SAP said on Tuesday it intended to employ hundreds of people globally with autism as software testers and programmers over the next seven years.The company, which has already launched pilot projects in India and Ireland, said the move aimed to find workers "who think differently", leading to innovation.By 2020, one percent of SAP's currently 65,000-strong workforc...

4. Softbank to issue record bonds for Sprint takeover

   2013-05-21 09:50:23 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   TOKYO: Japanese mobile operator Softbank said Tuesday it planned to raise $3.9 billion through a record bond issuance in June to finance its proposed takeover of US firm Sprint Nextel.Softbank, which is under pressure from Sprint shareholders to raise its bid, will sell five-year debt to Japanese investors after a similar issuance worth 300 billion yen in March, a company spokeswoman said."The lat...

5. Marks & Spencer logs falling annual profits

   2013-05-21 07:06:40 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   LONDON: British high street retailer Marks & Spencer said Tuesday that annual net profits fell nine percent amid "challenging" trading conditions.Earnings after taxation declined to £466.7 million ($712 million, 552 million euros) in the 52 weeks to March 30, compared with £513.1 million in the previous financial year, M&S said in a results statement.Underlying pre-tax profits sank six p...

6. Vodafone says annual profit slumps on eurozone woes

   2013-05-21 06:24:30 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   LONDON: British mobile phone giant Vodafone said Tuesday that annual net profits tumbled 90 percent after it took a vast £7.7-billion ($11.7 billion, 9.1-billion-euro) impairment charge relating to its businesses in debt-laden eurozone nations Italy and Spain.Earnings after taxation nosedived to £673 million in the group's financial year to the end of March, compared with £7.0 billion in 20...

7. Libya's ports reopen after protests, gas complex attacked

   2013-05-20 16:58:08 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   TRIPOLI: Libya's oil terminals at Tobruk and Zueitina re-opened over the weekend after protests forced both ports to shut, Libya's deputy oil minister Omar Shakmak said.However, fresh trouble arose at Libya's gas-exporting Mellitah complex, he added, where guards were again attacked overnight after clashes in March forced a halt in flows.This time operations had not been affected, Shak...

8. First flight nears, A350 could make Paris show flypast

   2013-05-20 16:52:38 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   PARIS: Airbus could steal the Paris air show with a flypast of its newest passenger jet, the A350, as confidence grows over a maiden flight some four weeks away.The timescales of its previous airliner launches suggests the European manufacturer could be ready to fly the aircraft in mid-June, depending on weather and ground trials, giving pilots a narrow time window to test the plane's basic ch...

9. US drugmaker Actavis buys Irish firm for $8.5bn

   2013-05-20 16:19:51 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

   DUBLIN: US pharmaceutical company Actavis on Monday agreed to buy Irish rival Warner Chilcott for $8.5 billion (6.6 billion euros) in an all-stock takeover, creating a global giant focused on women's health, gastroenterology, urology and dermatology."Actavis, Inc. and Warner Chilcott plc today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Actavis will acquire Warner Chilc...

10. Aging Yahoo! faces new Tumblr generation

    2013-05-20 16:15:35 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    WASHINGTON: Yahoo! is under two decades old is already showing signs of age. Tumblr, the cool blogging platform, represents a new generation.This split marks both a challenge and an opportunity for the firms, after the announcement that Yahoo! is buying the six-year-old startup for $1.1 billion, mainly in cash."Yahoo users are behind the curve, Tumblr users too cool for school," said Arvind Naraya...

11. Finnish start-up launches smartphone to rival big players

    2013-05-20 16:08:12 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    HELSINKI: A group of ex-Nokia employees who quit over the company's decision to abandon the planned MeeGo operating system in favour of Windows presented their own smartphone on Monday, hoping to rival the sector's giants.The Jolla smartphone, which is entirely intuitive and has no buttons, is "a strong candidate" on the mid- to high-range market, the Helsinki-based company said.The model,...

12. Ryanair announces slight rise in annual profits

    2013-05-20 07:00:47 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    DUBLIN: Irish no-frills airline Ryanair on Monday said its annual net profit figure increased slightly, adding that the Dublin-based carrier's traffic was set to rise during its current financial year.Ryanair said group profit after tax climbed 1.5 percent to 569.3 million euros ($731.2 million) in the 12 months to the end of March compared with net profit of 560.4 million euros in 2011/12.Rya...

13. Angola skewed lending said to stifle economy

    2013-05-19 06:27:36 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    LUANDA: There is no shortage of cash or credit in Angola Africa's second oil producer but the struggle small businesses face to get loans is stimying efforts to diversify the economy.According to the central bank there was more than $22 billion in credit issued in Angola last year, around a fifth of total economic output.A fledgling banking sector, prodded by the government to make loans avail...

14. New Xbox more than a game console for Microsoft

    2013-05-18 14:45:05 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp is set to make a splash this week with the eagerly awaited unveiling of its new Xbox game console, eight years after the last version, as it seeks a larger share of the $65 billion a year global computer gaming industry.But the small device faces some big competition from the PlayStation 4 by Sony Corp and the Wii U by Nintendo Co Ltd in a shifting market.Gamers are g...

15. Japan to provide $2bn in Africa

    2013-05-18 12:51:26 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    TOKYO: Japan will provide $2 billion worth of financial support over five years to back Japanese firms' resources development projects in Africa, media reported on Saturday.Japan's Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi made the announcement at the Africa-Japan Ministerial Meeting for Resources Development held in Tokyo on Saturday, Japanese news agencies Kyodo and Jiji said.The financial suppor...

16. Tata Motors subsidiary issues $280 mln senior notes

    2013-05-18 12:01:58 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    MUMBAI: India's Tata Motors Ltd said its subsidiary TML Holdings Pte Ltd had issued and allotted S$350 million ($280 million) of senior notes due 2018.The notes carry an interest rate of 4.25 percent, Tata Motors, part of the salt-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group, said in a statement on Saturday.Net proceeds from the issue will be used to redeem preference shares issued to Tata Motors and for ...

17. Maersk profits, sales fall in first quarter

    2013-05-17 15:57:27 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    COPENHAGEN: Danish conglomerate A.P. Moeller-Maersk reported on Friday a drop in net profit and sales in the first quarter amid sluggish economies in North America and Europe.Net profit fell by 33 percent to 4.46 billion kroner (598 million euros, $771 million), but was significantly higher than the 3.4 billion forecast by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.The 2012 first quarter figure was ...

18. Virgin Atlantic posts record full-year loss

    2013-05-16 14:20:47 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    LONDON: British airline Virgin Atlantic said tough economic conditions over the last year dragged it to a record annual loss.The airline, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, on Thursday reported a loss of 93 million pounds ($141.60 million) for the year to the end of February, worse than the 80 million loss it reported a year earlier.Its group pretax loss was 69.9 million pounds after ...

19. French telecom Iliad sees sales soar from mobile entry

    2013-05-15 15:17:08 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    PARIS: French telecom and Internet company Iliad's sales soared by nearly 40 percent in the first quarter, the company said Wednesday, boosted by the success of its mobile operator Free.The company said sales hit 907 million euros ($1.17 bn) in the first quarter, with nearly a third (294.5 million) from mobile services launched in January 2012.The entry of Free with low cost offers has shaken ...

20. Air India's Dreamliner takes to the skies again

    2013-05-15 14:34:33 GMT : (Business & Finance/Industries & Sectors)

    NEW DELHI: State-run Air India on Wednesday resumed flights of its Dreamliner jets four months after global regulators grounded the Boeing planes following technical glitches in the passenger aircraft.All 50 Dreamliners operating globally were grounded in January after a fire aboard a parked Japan Airlines 787 in January and a smoking battery that forced the emergency landing of an All Nippon Airw...