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O’Leary downplays Ryanair profits
Chief executive Michael O’Leary downplayed the figures — saying they compared to a bad corresponding weather-hampered quarter in the preceding year, which had resulted in a third quarter net loss of €10.3m — but still said that the company should come close to recording record profits for the year to the end of March. Indeed, on the back of the latest figures, Ryanair has — for the second consecutive quarter — increased its full-year net profit guidance by 10%; saying the final figure should amount to €480m and not the previously anticipated €440m.
During the three months to the end of December, Ryanair’s passenger numbers dipped by 2% to 16.7 million. However, after-tax profits amounted to €14.9m and basic earnings per share came to 1.02c.
Those last two figures were up from a net loss of €10.3m and a loss per share of 0.69c for the same quarter last year. Quarterly revenues, m
Apple announce record sales of iPhones and iPads
Record sales of iPhones and iPads resulted in record profits at Apple in the final quarter of 2011, the first since the death of its co-founder, Steve Jobs.
Apple more than doubled its profits: to $13.06bn (£8.35bn), compared with $6bn for the same quarter in 2010. The result easily beat analysts’ forecasts, taking pressure off the chief executive, Tim Cook, handpicked by Jobs as his successor. Last October Apple shares recorded their biggest single-day dollar drop after iPhone sales missed their forecast.
Cook said he was “thrilled” the company sold a record 37.04m iPhones in the final quarter of 2011, a 128% rise on a year ago. “We could have sold more if we’d had more supply,” he said. The recently launched iPhone 4S proved to be the company’s best seller in the quarter. “We could not be happier,” said Cook.
In record sales across nearly all product categories, Apple sold a record 15.43m iPads over the quarter, more than double a year ago.
Sports broadcaster finds online audience
Jon Wekkin is a sports broadcaster whose play-by-play accounts of Twin Cities high school and college sports aren’t carried on any TV channel, cable network or radio station.
Instead, Wekkin and a team of professional announcers broadcast games at , where the menu includes live and archived hockey, football and basketball games, plus a smattering of wrestling and volleyball. Hundreds of viewers watch for free on nights when the website broadcasts multiple games simultaneously, most produced by a company crew on site.
Webcasting, or streaming live video and audio over the Internet, is hardly new. But in the age of YouTube, Wekkin’s Minnesota Sports Broadcast Network (MSBN) appears to be offering the most extensive high school sports webcasts in the Twin Cities. Schools pay $1,000 a year or more for the service.
Wekkin, MSBN’s owner and CEO, got the idea while he was a communications student at the University of Minnesota in the early 1990s.
EDA’s tax credit to Prudential ‘corporate welfare at its worst,’ landlords charge
If Prudential vacates nearly 1 million square feet of office space at the Gateway Complex in Newark in favor of a new building, it could take 10 years for the citys commercial real estate market to recover, Gateways landlords charged yesterday.
The insurance giant has said it is considering its options before its leases there expire in 2014, including constructing a new tower elsewhere in the city or staying at Gateway. In November, the state Economic Development Authority said it would award a $250.8 million Urban Transit Hub tax credit to the company for its proposed $369 million, 600,000-square-foot office tower on land across the street from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Calling the decision “corporate welfare at its worst,” the owners of Gateway 2, 3 and 4 have filed a lawsuit with the state appellate court, arguing the EDA failed to consider the “devastating financial impact” its decision would have on the city and state, and it approved the award without notice to or consultation with the landlords.
Trib $uit: Go to Zell
Billionaire Sam Zell sued former shareholders of the bankrupt Tribune Co., claiming he should be paid along with other creditors should a court rule the 2007 buyout he engineered was a fraud.
The suit, filed by the Zell-controlled company EGI-TRB, defends the buyout as legitimate while also attempting to preserve Zell’s ability to collect money should a court disagree.
Anglo’s attempt to reclaim €19.4m in loans adjourned
The bank is seeking judgment against Mr Moran arising from his guarantees of loans to companies which operated a pub and hotel in Dublin city, but he disputes the bank’s entitlement to judgment and has also brought a counterclaim against it.
Mr Moran has counterclaimed on grounds including alleged fraudulent misrepresentation arising from aspects of the conduct of the bank’s affairs leading up to its nationalisation in 2008.
When the case came before Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday, Ross Maguire SC for Mr Moran said an issue had arisen which was of some importance related to documents provided by the bank, including a deed of confirmation alleged to have been executed in June 2008.
Jim Breslin SC, for Anglo, said he was “puzzled” by the claims and the issues raised had been fully addressed. Wall Street opened with solid gains as America welcomed progress towards resolving Europe’s debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose over 1% to 12125 points, and the Nasdaq composite index gain 0.69% to reach 2614, as America’s trade deficit narrowed to its lowest in 10 months. US Commerce Department data set the October deficit at $43.5 billion, and revised Septembers deficit up from $43.1bn to $44.2bn. The narrowing trade gap suggests more domestic demand is being met by US production. However, imports from China hit a record high. Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at analyst High Frequency Economics, said the drop would “prove temporary” because oil prices have risen significantly since October. He added:Wall Street follows Europe into positive territory
Exports to Europe are bound to weaken substantially, while imports will pick up steam as US companies rebuild inventory after the unexpected decline in the third quarter.
A Reuters report that said China planned a new $300 billion vehicle to invest in Europe and the US also helped buoy investor sentiment.
Upbeat end to bank loan fiasco
There was no shortage of risky bank loans that turned bad in the wake of the Great Recession. But the failed $28.5 million loan from a group of banks to boy band creator Lou Pearlman will surely go down as one of the state’s more unusual.
Now, the banking drama comes to a close — and on a surprising note. Late Thursday, a federal jury in Minneapolis concluded that a South Carolina bank helped the music mogul defraud his lenders, awarding $16 million to 26 banks, many in Minnesota.
John Skopinski, chief credit officer at American Bank of St. Paul, said the decision is justice that was “a long time coming.”
Pearlman was the mogul behind the musical acts Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. He’s serving a 25-year sentence in Texas after pleading guilty to running a Ponzi scheme and bilking banks and investors out of $300 million or more.