ING net falls 26% on US insurance writedown; plans 2 IPOs by Dec end
ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch financial-services company, reported a surprise 26% drop in third-quarter profit after a writedown at its US insurance business. Net income fell to 371 million euros ($511 million), from 499 million euros a year earlier, Amsterdam-based ING said in a statement on Wednesday. Earnings missed the 938.4 million-euro average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg as the company wrote down goodwill at the insurance unit by 513 million euros. ING agreed to split its insurance and banking units by the end of 2013 to gain European Commission approval for a government bailout, which included 10 billion euros of state aid and the transfer of 21.6 billion euros of US mortgage assets. The company plans to separate the two businesses by the end of the year as it prepares to sell the insurer. "While the option of one IPO remains open, we are going to prepare ourselves for a base case of two IPOs for our insurance businesses: one Europe-led IPO with solid cashflow combined with strong growth positions in developing markets, and one separate US-focused IPO with a leading franchise in retirement services," chief executive officer Jan Hommen said in the statement.
Prudential Q3 group sales up 17% on demand from emerging mkts
Britain's largest insurer Prudential Plc on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected 17% rise in third-quarter sales, helped by strong growth in its flagship Asian markets. Prudential has focused on expanding in fast-growing Asia to offset stagnant sales at home. The region now accounts for almost half its revenue, making Prudential one of the biggest foreign-owned insurers operating in Asia. Prudential said it had sales of 809 million ($1.3 billion) on an annual premium equivalent basis in July-September, ahead of a consensus forecast of 773 million , and up from restated 689 million a year earlier. The company reported new business profit of 1.3 billion pounds for the first nine months of 2010, up from 1.1 billion last year and in line with expectations. It did not give a figure for the third quarter. Prudential said it expected sales in India to suffer in the months ahead as a result of regulatory changes that will force insurers there to design new products and seek authorisation to market them.
Lenovo Q2 profit beats forecasts; growth in China market could slow
Lenovo, the world's No. 4 PC brand, posted its best profit growth in four quarters, helped by its mature markets returning to profitability but warned that growth in its key China market could slow. Lenovo saw the biggest improvement among the top PC brands in the third quarter of this year, with shipments up 33% during those three months, according to research firm IDC. This was better than rivals Hewlett-Packard, Acer and Dell, and also about three times the speed of the overall market's 11%growth. The PC brand's earnings also top off with a string of better-than-expected earnings from technology peers such as Microsoft and Google, pointing to continued strength in the sector. PC demand growth in China will likely be moderate given the high comparison base, the company said in a statement. Lenovo posted a net profit of $76.6 million in its fiscal second quarter through September, up 43% from the $53.1 million recorded a year ago, according to Reuters calculations based on data supplied to the Hong Kong stock exchange. China continued to make up the largest portion of Lenovo's sales, accounting for 47% of its total revenue in the second quarter, down from 48.7% in the April-June quarter.
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