Company news in brief

Exxon posts second straight quarterly lossExxon Mobil Corp on Friday reported a US$1.1 billion second-quarter loss on sharply lower energy demand and prices from the Covid-19 pandemic, and confirmed plans to make deeper spending cuts.It was Exxon's first back-to-back quarterly loss in at least 36 years, but was small in comparison to rivals who took giant charges last quarter. The top US oil producer took no asset write-downs during the quarter, and got a 44-cent-a-share boost to earnings by increasing the value of inventories.Chevron Corp, Total, Royal Dutch Shell, and Eni each wrote down their oil and gas properties last quarter by several billion US dollars apiece, while BP signaled an up to US$17.5 billion hit.Exxon slashed capital spending 30% this year to around US$23 billion, and senior vice president Neil Chapman said it expects to spend less than US$19 billion in next year. That would be the lowest spending for the company since at least 2005.The US oil major reported a loss of US$1.08 billion, or 26 cents per share, compared with a profit of US$3.13 billion, or 73 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding inventory adjustments, the loss would have been US$3 billion, it said. – Nampa/ReutersBAT first-half beats expectationsBritish American Tobacco reported stronger-than-expected first-half profit on Friday, as consumers bought more vaping products and higher-priced cigarettes in the United States, its biggest market.The Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarette maker said consumption in the United States was "resilient" with the company increasing its share of the US cigarette market by 30 basis points in the first half of the year.BAT said total cigarette and tobacco heating product volumes declined 6.3%, slightly better than the consensus forecast for a 6.5% drop, mainly due to Covid-related disruptions in markets such as South Africa and Mexico.Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) rose 5.7% to 157.8 pence, while revenue rose 0.8% to 12.27 billion pounds in the first half. Both were higher than analysts' forecasts for EPS of 154.5 pence and revenue of 12.20 billion, according to Refinitiv Data.The London-based company also kept its forecast for full-year adjusted revenue growth and EPS in constant currency. – Nampa/ReutersNokia posts surprise Q2 profit jumpFinnish telecom network equipment maker Nokia reported an unexpected rise in its second-quarter underlying profit on Friday despite the Covid-19 crisis, while its new chief executive officer Pekka Lundmark took over this weekend.Lagging behind its rivals China's Huawei and Sweden's Ericsson in 5G network sales, Nokia said its April-June underlying earnings rose to 0.06 euro per share from a profit of 0.05 euro a year ago, beating the 0.03 euro consensus in a Refinitiv poll.Nokia, which had warned of a weak second quarter due to the virus, upgraded its forecast for 2020 underlying earnings per share to between 0.2 and 0.3 euro from 0.18 to 0.28 euro.However, Nokia's quarterly revenue fell 11% to 5.09 billion euro (US$6.05 billion), missing the 5.28 billion euro consensus figure, according to Refinitiv data.The company estimated that Covid-19 hurt net sales by about 500 million euro in the first half of the year. – Nampa/ReutersChevron posts US$8.3 bn lossChevron Corp on Friday reported an US$8.3 billion quarterly loss, its largest in at least three decades, and joined rival oil producers in writing down billions of US dollars in assets due to plunging demand for fuel.Chevron's oil and gas production writedowns totalled US$5.6 billion, mirroring those in recent days at Total, Royal Dutch Shell, and Eni, and an anticipated asset writedown of up to US$17.5 billion from BP.Chevron's writedowns included its entire investment in crisis-ravaged Venezuela, where it was the last major US oil company still operating. The Trump administration has directed it to wind down its business there.The loss includes US$1 billion to cover severance pay for up to 15% of its 45 000-person workforce as part of an ongoing restructuring of its global operations.Chevron's latest writedowns follow a US$10 billion charge it took to reduce the value of mostly natural gas properties in the fourth quarter of 2019. – Nampa/ReutersHammerson plans to raise 800 mln poundsBritain's Hammerson Plc plans to raise some 800 million pounds (US$1.1 billion) from a rights issue and the sale of its 50% stake in VIA Outlets, Sky news reported on Saturday, as the mall operator tackles the fallout from coronavirus lockdowns.The pandemic has left retailers struggling to pay rents as fewer customers visited stores, leading some, including major high street names John Lewis and Debenhams, to shut stores.The rights issue alone could fetch Hammerson about 600 million pounds, according to the report, which said JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are advising.The report said Hammerson is in detailed talks with VIA Outlets' co-owner, Dutch pension fund APG, about the share sale in the company, whose portfolio includes fashion outlets in Amsterdam, Gothenburg and Prague.At June-end Hammerson had managed to collect only 16% of rents due in the UK during the third quarter. Rival Intu Properties, Britain's biggest mall owner, has already gone into administration. – Nampa/Reuters

Company news in brief

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