a-net-loss

EADS Axes Dividend for First Time After Loss on Airbus Costs; Shares Drop

by on March 9, 2010

By Andrea Rothman March 9 (Bloomberg) — European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. plans to scrap its annual dividend for the first time in its 10-year history after cost overruns on its two largest Airbus SAS plane programs led to a loss. The company posted a net loss of 763 million euros ($1.04 billion), after net income of 1.57 billion euros a year earlier, Paris- and Munich-based EADS said in a statement today. EADS said revenue this year won’t increase and predicted earnings before interest and tax of 1 billion euros. EADS lifted its annual savings target to 350 million euros. The Airbus aircraft unit, which provides about two thirds of EADS’s sales, has grappled with spiraling costs on the A400M military plane as well as the A380 superjumbo, with both projects years behind schedule. EADS said yesterday that it will abandon its bid for the U.S. Air Force’s $35 billion tanker program, saying the selection process favored Boeing Co. EADS declined as much as 93 cents, or 5.9 percent, to 14.95 euros in Paris, and traded at 15.04 euros as of 9:29 a.m. Before today, the stock had gained 7.2 percent since September, while Boeing has increased 33 percent since then. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had estimated a net loss of 375 million euros for 2009. For this year, the estimate is for earnings before interest and tax of about 1.49 billion euros. Last-Ditch Accord Airbus reached a last-ditch accord with governments involved in the A400M military plane last week, after threatening to walk away from the program. The accord led EADS to book an additional 1.8 billion euros in charges on the project, on top of 2.4 billion euros taken previously. “Thanks to the agreement between the customer nations and EADS this program is now back on track,” EADS Chief Executive Officer Louis Gallois said in the release. “Although the group has to take an additional significant provision, this stabilizes the program.” Revenue last year fell 1.2 percent to 42.8 billion euros. For 2010, EADS predicted production rates of its wide-body planes will remain at about eight units a month, while the rate of production on its best-selling single-aisle planes will rise to 36 units a month from the end of this year. Tanker Program Northrop Grumman Corp., EADS’s partner in the U.S. Air Force’s tanker program, said it won’t bid, making good on its threat to withdraw from the contest unless the government altered some of its requirements. EADS needed a local partner to compete against Boeing in the program. “That had been well-flagged but it’s still sort of shocking,” said Nick Cunningham , an analyst at London-based Evolution Securities, who recommends investors sell EADS shares. “Don’t regard the tanker as dead, but it’s clearly not feeling very well at this point.” The company booked 240 million euros in charges on its A380 superjumbo plane, and EADS has said the program will remain unprofitable for several years. EADS plans to increase cost savings to 350 million euros each year, from 200 million euros, Gallois told analysts on a call today. EADS’s biggest shareholders include carmaker Daimler AG, the French state and Lagardere SCA. Over the years, Lagardere has whittled its holdings down to 7.5 percent, and Daimler has sold a 7.5 percent EADS stake to a group of German banks and states, while keeping voting control of those shares. Daimler said in its annual report that resolution of the A400M dispute and additional charges may result in “a material negative effect” on earnings in the first quarter. For Related News and Information: Top Stories: TOP Top European Aerospace Stories: TNI ETOP ARO For EADS Earnings: EAD FP TCNI ERN Top Transportation Stories: TRNT

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EADS Axes Dividend for First Time After Loss on Airbus Costs; Shares Drop

Alico Reports First Quarter Earnings

by on February 9, 2010

LA BELLE, Fla., Feb. 9, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Alico, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALCO), a land management company, announced a net loss for the three months ended December 31, 2009 of $1.4 million or $0.19 per share compared with a loss of $0.2 million or $0.02 per share, for the three months ended December 31, 2008. Earnings from interest on mortgages, real estate sales and agriculture operations were below prior year results and combined to cause the earnings decline.

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Alico Reports First Quarter Earnings

Post Office Lost $3.8 billion Last Year

November 16, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Postal Service reported a loss of $3.8 billion last year, despite a reduction of 40,000 full-time positions and other cost-cutting measures. The loss was $1 billion more than the year before despite job cuts and other efforts designed to save billions of dollars, postal officials said Monday. “Our 2009 fiscal year proved to be one of the most challenging in the history of the Postal Service,” Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said. “The deep economic recession, and to a lesser extent the ongoing migration of mail to electronic alternatives, significantly affected all mail products, creating a large imbalance between revenues and costs,” he said. The post office has been struggling to cope with a decline in mail volume caused by the shift to the Internet as well as the recession that resulted in a drop in advertising and other mail. Total mail volume was 177.1 billion pieces, compared to 202.7 billion pieces in 2008, a decline of almost 13 percent. For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 the agency had income of $68.1 billion, $6.8 billion less than in 2008. Expenditures were down $5.9 billion to $71.8 billion. Postmaster General John Potter is seeking permission from Congress to reduce mail delivery from six days a week to five, a move that could save the agency $3.5 billion annually. Potter has said the post office does not plan to raise rates next year on the items most commonly used by the public such as first-class mail. “We realize our customers are facing the same economic challenges,” said Potter. In addition the agency is consolidating mail facilities, looking to close some offices and looking for new sources of income. The post office is required to make an annual contribution of about $5 billion to pay in advance for medical benefits for future retirees. Congress reduced that by $4 billion for 2009, but that change was for one year only. The agency’s independent auditor, Ernst & Young, questioned whether the post office would have enough money to make the next payment on Sept. 30, 2010, when $5.5 billion will be due. For the current fiscal year, the post office estimated it will have a further decline in income of $2.2 billion and a net loss of $7.8 billion even with expected cost reductions of more than $3.5 billion. It expects a reduction in mail volume of another 11 billion pieces. While there are signs of economic recovery, Corbett said the post office tends to lag two quarters behind the economy. In addition, he said, economists say the recovery is likely to be slow to add jobs and mail volume generally rises when more people are working. ___ On the Net: U.S. Postal Service: http://www.usps.com

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JPMorgan Chase Says New Credit Card Law To Cost Firm At Least Half A Billion Dollars A Year

November 9, 2009

The nation’s second-largest bank expects to lose as much as $750 million a year thanks to a recently-enacted credit card law that attempts to limit unfair rate hikes and hidden fees. JPMorgan Chase revealed the estimate Monday in a regulatory filing : In addition, as a result of the recently-enacted credit card legislation, management estimates, which are preliminary and subject to change, are that Card Services’ annual net income may be adversely affected by approximately $500 million to $750 million. As a result of all these factors, management currently expects Card Services to have a net loss for the full year 2010. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 attempts to ban or limit deceptive and unfair practices, including retroactive rate increases; late fee traps like weekend deadlines; and “universal default,” or raising rates because of a borrower’s delinquency with another lender. The law gives the industry until February 2010 to comply with most of the rules, but since many banks started to jack up interest rates in advance of enactment , Congress is now considering moving up the date to December. The Federal Reserve cautioned Congress against it . But now, with the potential loss of revenue from things like lower credit card fees and being unable to arbitrarily raise interest rates, JPMorgan Chase with some $2 trillion in assets says it expects to lose about $500-750 million a year thanks to the pro-consumer law.

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Bridgestone Falls After Forecasting Loss on Australia, New Zealand Plants

November 5, 2009

By Kiyori Ueno Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) — Bridgestone Corp. , the world’s largest tiremaker by sales, fell to the lowest in more than four months after predicting an annual loss as a result of plant closures in Australia and New Zealand. Bridgestone dropped as much as 3.6 percent to 1,428 yen, the lowest level since June 25 , and traded at 1,439 yen as of 9:31 a.m. in Tokyo. The company expects a 10 billion yen ($110 million) net loss this year, compared with a previous estimate for net income of 6 billion yen, it said yesterday. The Tokyo-based tiremaker is cutting costs after the global recession sapped demand for new vehicles and tires in Japan, America and Europe. Bridgestone will book a loss of 13 billion yen to close plants in Christchurch, New Zealand and Adelaide, Australia, it said yesterday. The closures will affect 875 jobs. “Even though it’s a one-time loss, investors are selling the stock,” said Mitsushige Akino , who manages the equivalent of $666 million at Tokyo-based Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “Tire demand hasn’t really recovered either, and the company’s cost cuts aren’t enough.” Bridgestone hasn’t posted a net loss since at least 1961, when it went public, according to Kanako Kimura, a company spokeswoman. To contact the reporters on this story: Kiyori Ueno in Tokyo at kueno2@bloomberg.net

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Ocwen Financial Corporation Announces Third Quarter Financial Results

November 5, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Nov. 5, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As a result of a $50.6 million one-time tax expense arising from the separation of Ocwen Solutions, Ocwen Financial Corporation (“Ocwen” or the “Company”) (NYSE:OCN) today reported a net loss of $42.0 million or $0.51 per share for the three months ended September 2009. This compares to net income of $15.0 million or $0.23 per share for the third quarter of 2008. Pretax income from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2009 was $23.5 million as compared to $23.4 million for the same period last year. Deferred tax assets offset $24.3 million of the one-time tax expense arising from the separation.

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Carrollton Bancorp Reports Third Quarter Net Loss and Announces a $0.04 Quarterly Dividend (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

November 3, 2009

BALTIMORE—-Carrollton Bancorp, the parent company of Carrollton Bank, announced a net loss for the third quarter of 2009 of $594,000, due primarily to a loan loss provision of $1.6 million, compared to net income of $51,000 for the third quarter of 2008.

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Video: Briggs Says Gold May Reach $1,110 in Six to 12 Months: Video

October 30, 2009

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — Graham Briggs, chief executive officer of Harmony Gold Mining Ltd., talks with Bloomberg’s Scarlet Fu about the outlook for gold prices. Briggs also discusses the company’s production output and costs. Africa’s third-largest producer of gold raised production 5.6 percent to 373,431 ounces in the fiscal first quarter, beating its own output forecast. The Johannesburg-based company posted a net loss of 29 million rand ($3.7 million). (Source: Bloomberg)

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Caterpillar Profit, 2009 Outlook Top Estimates on Capacity, Inventory Cuts

October 20, 2009

By Will Daley Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — Caterpillar Inc. , the world’s largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, posted third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates and issued a full-year earnings forecast that exceeded the highest prediction. Net income dropped to $404 million, or 64 cents a share, from $868 million, or $1.39, a year earlier, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said today in a statement. The average estimate in a Bloomberg analyst survey was 5 cents a share. Shares rose in early New York trading. Caterpillar has slashed inventories and capacity amid the worst decline in its markets since the 1930s. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has cut about 18,000 full-time jobs and about the same amount of temporary and contract workers since December 2008 as faltering demand led to a net loss in 2009’s first three months. Sales fell 44 percent to $7.3 billion from $13 billion. “We believe the third quarter marked the low point for Caterpillar sales and revenues in what has been the toughest recession since the 1930s,” Owens said in the statement. “We are seeing encouraging signs that indicate a recovery may be under way.” Caterpillar rose $2.04, or 3.5 percent, to $59.89 at 7:40 a.m. in trading before the regular open of the New York Stock Exchange. The shares climbed 30 percent this year through yesterday. Caterpillar narrowed its 2009 forecast range to $1.85 to $2.05 a share, from $1.15 to $2.25. The average estimate was $1.48 a share and the highest prediction was $1.75. The revenue forecast is now $32 billion to $33 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $32 billion to $36 billion. The company is considered a bellwether for its ties to the construction and mining industries and its overseas presence. To contact the reporter on this story: Will Daley at wdaley2@bloomberg.net

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`Problem’ U.S. Banks Rise to 15-Year High of 416 on Bad Loans, FDIC Says

August 27, 2009

By Alison Vekshin Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. added 111 lenders to its list of “problem banks” in the second quarter, a 36 percent increase that pushed the group to a 15-year high. A total of 416 banks with combined assets of $299.8 billion failed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s grading system for asset quality, liquidity and earnings, the most since June 1994, the Washington-based FDIC said in a report today. Regulators didn’t identify companies deemed “problem” banks. “For now, the difficult and necessary process of recognizing loan losses and cleaning up balance sheets continues to be reflected in the industry’s bottom line,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in a statement. Regulators have taken over 81 banks this year, including Guaranty Financial Group Inc. in Texas and Colonial BancGroup Inc. in Alabama. Twenty-four banks collapsed in the second quarter as the pace of failures accelerated amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The surge in failures prompted the agency to charge the industry an emergency fee in the second quarter to raise $5.6 billion to replenish its insurance fund, which fell to $10.4 billion as of June 30 from $13 billion in the previous quarter, the agency said. An $11.6 billion increase in loss provisions for bank failures caused the decline in the fund, the FDIC said. FDIC-insured banks reported a net loss of $3.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with a $5.5 billion gain in the first quarter. The loss, the second quarterly one the industry has reported in 18 years, was driven by increased expenses for bad loans, the FDIC said. Loan Losses Funds set aside by banks to cover loan losses rose to $66.9 billion in the second quarter from $60.9 billion in the first quarter. The FDIC insures deposits at 8,195 institutions with $13.3 trillion in assets. The agency is a state-bank regulator that insures bank customer deposits, helps find buyers for failing banks and liquidates lenders that have collapsed. The agency this week approved new guidelines for private- equity firms that invest in failed banks to increase the pool of buyers beyond traditional lenders and reduce costs to the banking industry and taxpayers. To contact the reporter on this story: Alison Vekshin in Washington at avekshin@bloomberg.net .

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Pulte Posts Loss as Unemployment, Foreclosures Hurt Demand for New Houses

August 3, 2009

By Brian Louis Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) — Pulte Homes Inc ., the U.S. homebuilder that agreed to buy Centex Corp. for $1.3 billion, reported a wider second-quarter loss as rising unemployment and record foreclosures cut demand for new houses .

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Legg Mason Posts First Quarterly Profit Since 2007 as Stock Funds Recover

July 20, 2009

By Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam July 20 (Bloomberg) — Legg Mason Inc. posted its first quarterly profit since December 2007 as the Baltimore-based asset manager improved investment returns and ended losses on money-market funds. Net income for the fiscal first quarter was $50.1 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $36.1 million, or 26 cents, a year earlier, the company said today in a statement

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