COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Snap missed user growth estimates

Snap Inc said a bump in user growth at the start of coronavirus-led lockdowns petered sooner than expected, and it forecast fewer current-quarter users than the Wall Street consensus.

Shares of Snap fell 11% in after-hours trading before paring losses to around 6%. The Snapchat owner said daily active users (DAUs), a widely watched metric by investors and advertisers, rose 17% to 238 million in the second quarter ended June 30.

Snap has focused on helping advertisers increase sales directly from its ads, which boosted revenue growth even as many brands have been cutting marketing budgets due to the pandemic.

Snap has positioned itself as a safe ad platform focused on friendly interactions, as more than 1 000 companies have paused ads on larger rival Facebook Inc due to concerns about hate speech.

"The growing focus on brand safety and privacy across the entire industry places us in a unique position of strength as we have invested in these areas from the beginning of our business," Snap chief executive Evan Spiegel said during an earnings call with analysts. – Nampa/Reuters

RBS hires top climate expert

Royal Bank of Scotland has hired climate change expert Nicholas Stern to help shape its sustainability strategy as the state-backed lender prepares to rebrand as NatWest Group.

RBS chief executive Alison Rose has made helping to tackle climate change a big part of her strategy to rebuild its brand and break with its chequered recent past.

Stern, who authored the influential Stern Review in 2006 that helped set the agenda on the economic costs of global warming, will advise the group on meeting targets to make its own operations carbon neutral by the end of this year and halving the climate impact of its financing activity by 2030.

His two-year appointment comes as the bank said it signed up to the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative's Collective Commitment to Climate Action, which sets out how banks will align their services and lending with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

This is an absolutely crucial decade for taking action to protect future generations," Stern said, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the "dangers, fragility and inequities of the old economy". – Nampa/Reuters

China's Huatai joins chase

China's Huatai Financial Holdings has big plans for a billion-dollar overseas push, said chief executive Levin Wang - it aims to overtake top players like Futu Holdings in the fast-growing market for Chinese retail investors trading offshore.

Traditionally focused on institutional business, last week Hong Kong-based Huatai Financial formally launched retail stock trading app "Zhangle Global", aimed squarely at attracting the millions of Chinese investors living outside the mainland.

The number of rich Chinese - those with investable assets of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.43 million) - was expected to reach 2.2 million by the end of 2019.

Huatai Financial's push comes after parent Huatai Securities - China's third largest securities house - last year became the first Chinese firm to use the London-Shanghai stock connect mechanism, raising US$1.7 billion.

At least 60% of that will be used to develop international business and overseas expansion, according to the prospectus for the fund-raising. – Nampa/Reuters

Texas Instruments sees strong quarter

Texas Instruments Inc forecast third-quarter revenue above estimates as a global shift to work-from-home boosted demand for chips used in tablets, personal computers and servers, offering some hope to an industry reeling from disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

TI, which supplies chips for everything from smart phones to automobiles, often reports quarterly results before its peers. Investors watch its numbers closely as a proxy for both the health of the industry and other sectors.

The company's sales to the personal electronics market shot up 20% in the second quarter due to the switch to remote work, Dave Pahl, head of investor relations, told analysts on a conference call.

When asked if TI sees China's efforts to ramp up domestic semiconductor capabilities as a meaningful threat, chief financial officer Rafael Lizardi said the company's competitive advantages put it in a good place to compete against any challenges.

Shares of TI, which also beat second-quarter revenue and profit estimates, were up more than 1% in extended trading. TI said it expects current-quarter revenue in the range of US$3.26 billion and US$3.54 billion. – Nampa/Reuters

Best Buy sales get online boost

Best Buy Inc said its quarter-to-date sales rose about 2.5%, driven by a surge in online shopping for electronic devices and appliances, sending its shares up 4% in extended trading.

The company, like other retailers, has been spending more on expanding its delivery network as more customers shop online due to the coronavirus crisis.

Best Buy said its online sales jumped more than three-fold in the current quarter through July 18, while overall sales rose about 15% since it started reopening stores on June 15.

"Best Buy's preliminary Q2 sales results, with stores only open for a relatively brief period, reflect the importance of its products and the effectiveness of its multi-channel model," Moody's retail analyst Charlie O'Shea said.

Best Buy also said it would raise hourly wages for its employees by 4%, replacing its short-term incentive pay it introduced during the pandemic, from Aug. 2. It added it would raise the starting wage to US$15 per hour. – Nampa/Reuters