Shell net profit tumbles 71pc on low oil prices

LONDON: Royal Dutch Shell’s net profit collapsed in the second quarter on low oil prices, weak refining margins and production outages, the British energy giant said Thursday.

Net profits sank 71 per cent to $1.175 billion in the three months to June, compared with $3.986bn in the same part of 2015, Shell announced in a results statement.—AFP

Volkswagen net profit falls 57pc

FRANKFURT: Scandal-struck car manufacturer Volkswagen said Thursday that its profits fell in the second quarter by 57 per cent to 1.15 billion euros ($1.3bn).

Second-quarter profits were weighed down by almost 2.5bn euros of special items, mostly related to 2015’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.

“Further enormous feats of strength will be needed to contain the high costs of the diesel question,” finance director Frank Witter said in a statement.—AFP

Nippon Steel swings to loss

TOKYO: Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal said on Thursday it swung to a loss in its fiscal first quarter as slowing Chinese demand and lacklustre sales at home dented its bottom line.

The Tokyo-based firm, one of the world’s biggest steel producers, posted a net loss of 14.6 billion yen ($139 million) in the April-June period, reversing a 72.7bn yen net profit a year ago.

Revenue tumbled nearly 17 percent to 1.05 trillion yen, it said.—AFP

Renault posts record profitability

PARIS: Renault on Thursday posted a 7.5 per cent increase in net profit in the first half, a result the French automaker said was a record in terms of profitability.

Net profit came in at 1.5 billion euros ($1.66bn) on sales of 25.2bn euros, up 13.5pc, as strong sales of new car models kicked in.

“Success of our new models, our regional diversification and the efforts of all our employees have allowed the group to set a new record for its first half operating margin and to have confidence in the outlook for the full year”, the company’s chairman Carlos Ghosn said in a statement.—AFP

SoftBank profit jumps 19pc on Alibaba sale

TOKYO: Japan’s SoftBank said on Thursday net profit jumped 19 per cent in its fiscal first quarter owing to gains from selling some of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, offsetting losses at US mobile unit Sprint.

The company, which also pointed to upbeat results in its domestic business, reported a 254.16 billion yen ($2.4bn) net profit in April-June. The profit largely came from booking some of its partial sale of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.—AFP

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2016