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LONDON (TheStreet) – U.K bank Barclays(BCS Quote) reported first-half 2009 earnings rose 10% to 1.89 billion pounds ($3.16 billion) from 1.72 billion pounds a year earlier on strong results in its Barclays Capital division.
The earnings fell short of the estimates of analysts.
Pretax profit in the period was 2.98 billion pounds vs. 2.75 billion pounds in the same period in 2008. Impairments in the first half of 2009 were 4.56 billion pounds compared with 2.45 billion a year earlier.
The bank said impairment charges for bad loans increased 73% to 3.9 billion pounds, and unpaid credit card bills in the U.S. and Britain, both symptoms of the recession, also hit earnings. Barclays said a third of the increase was because of currency movements and methodology revisions, with the remainder attributed to the recession.
Pretax profit from Barclays Capital increased 100% to 1.05 billion pounds, boosted by the acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ business in North America. The gain, however, was offset by a charge of 893 million pounds relating to own credit on structured notes.
The bank said it wouldn’t be paying an interim dividend, but said it expects to resume payments by the end of 2009.
Revenue net of insurance claims was up 37% in the first six months of 2009 to a record 16.25 billion pounds.
The bank said the second half of the year would be challenging but said a broadly based business outside of Britain would help the bank weather the recession.
“The investments we have made, particularly in our international businesses, are driving very strong income performance and allowing us to absorb the consequences of the economic downturn,” CEO John Varley said in a statement.
NEW YORK (AP) — Health insurer Humana says second-quarter profit rose 34 percent on higher premiums from the company’s Medicare and commercial insurance programs.
Profit rose to $281.8 million, or $1.67 per share, from prior year earnings of $209.9 million, or $1.24 per share. Revenue jumped 8 percent to just under $7.9 billion from $7.35 billion.
Wall Street forecast profit of $1.64 per share on $7.77 billion in revenue.
Medicare Advantage premiums rose 19 percent to $4.15 billion during the quarter, while commercial unit premiums rose 1 percent to $1.87 billion.
Looking ahead, the Louisville,Ky.-based company expects full-year profit between $6.10 and $6.20 per share, while analysts expect $6.12 per share.
(Reuters) – Conglomerate Loews Corp (NYSE:L – News) on Monday reported a lower-than-expected second-quarter profit, hurt mainly by higher investment losses.
The New York-based company, run by the billionaire Tisch family, posted earnings from continuing operations of $341 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a profit of $511 million, or $1.00 a share, in the same period a year ago.
Analysts were looking for a profit of 98 cents a share, excluding items, according to Reuters Estimates.
Earnings were dragged by commercial insurer CNA (NYSE:CNA – News), in which Loews has a 90 percent stake, as the company took impairment losses of $297 million for the period, mostly related to CNA’s available-for-sale portfolio.
Loews’ shares closed at $30.02 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Osaka-based Panasonic /quotes/comstock/!6752 (JP:6752 1,500, +54.00, +3.73%) /quotes/comstock/13*!pc/quotes/nls/pc (PC 15.81, +0.41, +2.66%) posted a net loss of 53 billion yen ($559 million) in the quarter, swinging from a profit of 73 billion yen in the year-earlier period. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected an average loss of 58.3 billion yen.
April-June sales were down 26% to 1.595 trillion yen from 2.152 trillion yen in the year-ago period, as demand for flat panel TVs and digital cameras slowed against the weaker global economic backdrop.
The company maintained its full-year net loss forecast of 195 billion yen in the period through March 2010, deeper than analysts’ estimate of a 185 billion yen loss. That compares with last year’s loss of 379 billion yen.
But in the half-year through September, Panasonic now expects to post a net loss of 100 billion yen, compared with its May forecast for a loss of 195 billion yen.
Last week, Sony Corp. /quotes/comstock/!6758 (JP:6758 2,675, +170.00, +6.79%) /quotes/comstock/13*!sne/quotes/nls/sne (SNE 27.96, +0.68, +2.49%) , Panasonic’s main Japanese rival, also posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly losses despite a strong yen and heavy restructuring costs, and it too left its full-year loss forecast unchanged. See full story on Sony.
Shares of Panasonic closed up 0.1% ahead of the announcement, while the benchmark Nikkei 225 Average closed down less than 0.1%.
