A round-up of today's other business news in brief
Santander reports solid 2.21bn profit
Santander, the largest and most acquisitive Spanish bank, has reported a solid 4.4 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit to €2.21 billion from €2.11 billion a year earlier.
Santander has profited from its focus on retail banking and the takeover of Brazil's Banco Real from ABN Amro.
The Spanish bank recently bought Alliance Leicester in Britain, as well as the branches and deposits of the nationalised Bradford Bingley, and has agreed to take over Sovereign Bancorp in the US. It is now likely to focus on rebuilding its core capital to compete with European and US banks recapitalised by their governments.
Santander said its core capital stood at 6.31 per cent at the end of September. The bank's executives acknowledged it would dip below 6 per cent after the recent €5 billion of acquisitions and said they wanted to raise the ratio to at least 7 per cent by the end of next year. - (Financial Times service)
Irish adults still optimistic
The confidence of Irish adults about their financial future has dropped by less than expected, according a quarterly survey from Standard Life Ireland.
Its financial confidence index at the end of September was down 0.9 points at 56.2 from June. "It's a smaller fall than we expected, given the survey took place during heightened financial market turbulence," said Brendan Barr of Standard Life.
He added that the most important factor in financial confidence was job security, not the stock market.
Over half of those surveyed (52 per cent) said they expected to have the same level of job security in 12 months time. Some 28 per cent think their employment will be less secure within one year. With regard to property, 44 per cent of the 1,000 respondents to the survey believed their house will be worth less in 12 months, a rise of 4 percentage points since June.
Lufthansa trims profits target
Deutsche Lufthansa has cut its full-year operating profit target, citing high fuel prices and the impact of the global financial crisis.
The German airline said it now expected operating profit of about €1.1 billion compared with a previous estimate of about last year's level of €1.38 billion.
The news hit Lufthansas share price, which was down 7.2 per cent at €9.62 . It is due to publish full third-quarter results today. - (Reuters)
Repossessions soar to 11,054 in Britain
The number of homes that were repossessed in Britain during the three months to the end of June soared by 71 per cent compared with a year earlier, figures showed yesterday.
The Financial Services Authority said 11,054 homes were repossessed in the three months to the end of June, compared with just 6,476 during the same three months of 2007. - (PA)
BP's third-quarter profit of $10bn
Oil giant BP has beaten the forecasts of analysts and has reported a 148 per cent rise in third-quarter replacement cost profits, compared with the same period in 2007, to $10.029 billion, due to higher oil prices.
Production rose in the quarter, while analysts had expected a fall. - (Reuters)
BG Group turns up heat Down Under
British gas producer BG Group has launched a Aus$5.6 billion (€2.71 billion) friendly takeover bid for Australia's Queensland Gas Co Ltd (QGC), its latest effort to boost its position in Asia's fast-growing natural gas market. BG, which acquired a near-10 per cent stake in QGC in February, offered to pay A$5.75 each for the shares it did not already own, an 80 per cent premium to QGC's last traded price, the two firms said. -(Reuters)
