action CAC 40

(Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer

Real estate investment firm Host Hotels & Resorts HST.O forecast Wednesday that its 2024 revenue would beat Wall Street estimates, anticipating a continued recovery in business travel demand.

U.S. travel companies have benefited from an increase in demand, primarily from small and medium-sized businesses.

Host Hotels & Resorts, which owns approximately 72 properties in the United States and five overseas, expects full-year 2024 revenue of between $5.59 billion and $5.74 billion, compared with expectations of $5.49 billion, according to LSEG data.

It expects 2024 adjusted funds from operations (FFO) to be between $1.92 and $2.04 per share. Analysts expected adjusted FFO of $1.94 per share.

The Bethesda, Maryland-based company reported adjusted FFO of 44 cents per share in the fourth quarter, matching analysts’ expectations.

Total quarterly revenue rose about 5% to $1.32 billion, above analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion.

2024-02-22 00:07:15
#Host #Hotels #Resorts #forecasts #revenue #estimates #business #travel #resumes

The Française des Jeux logo

FDJ launched a takeover bid on the online gaming group Kindred Group on Monday, an operation at the end of which the French group aims to become the European number two in the sector.

FDJ says it is offering 130 Swedish crowns per share, valuing Kindred at 2.6 billion euros. This offer represents a 24% premium on Kindred’s closing price on January 19.

Kindred’s board of directors unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer, the company said in a separate statement.

“The board believes that the terms of the offer recognize Kindred’s long-term growth prospects, taking into account the risks and uncertainties associated with achieving those prospects,” the company said.

“(This operation) will result in a strengthened strategic positioning and significant value creation for the benefit of our shareholders and all of the group’s stakeholders,” said Stéphane Pallez, CEO of FDJ in a press release.

FDJ, whose business includes lotteries and scratch games and in which the French state has a 20% stake, said the acquisition would boost its profits and result in a more than 10% increase in its dividend. from that paid for the 2025 financial year.

(Written by Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris, with contributions from Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen; French version Nicolas Delame and Diana Mandiá)

2024-01-22 07:45:50
#FDJ #offers #buy #Kindred #Group #enterprise #billion #euros

(Added investor quote to paragraph 3 and analyst quote to last paragraph)

Big U.S. banks reported falling profits Friday in a choppy fourth quarter clouded by special charges and job cuts, with signs that rising revenue from high interest rates is slowing. is fading and some consumer loans are starting to sour.

Nonetheless, JPMorgan JPM.N , Wells Fargo WFC.N , Bank of America BAC.N , and Citigroup CN , the nation’s largest lenders, struck an upbeat tone on the economy, noting that U.S. consumers remained resilient even as defaults on consumer loans were starting to return to pre-pandemic levels.

“This is a period of credit normalization, but banks have been well ahead in terms of reserves,” said Mac Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, which owns shares of JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. “The determining factor will be how the economy fares this year, but the big banks are well placed to weather any stress

The Fed raised rates last year to try to control inflation. But with price increases slowing, the potential pace of interest rate cuts this year and whether the economy will avoid a recession are the biggest questions weighing on markets.

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank and a bellwether of the economy, said consumers continued to spend and markets expected a soft landing, but he warned that spending government policies on green energy, health care and the military could continue to drive up prices.

U.S. consumer prices rose more than expected in December as Americans paid more for housing and health care.

“This could lead to higher inflation and higher rates than markets expect,” Mr. Dimon said. He also warned that Fed rate cuts could drain liquidity from the system and that wars in Ukraine and the Middle East could cause global disruption.

“These significant and somewhat unprecedented forces cause us to remain cautious,” he added.

Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Mike Santomassimo also warned that the rate cuts were creating more uncertainty in the market than usual.

JPMorgan gained 0.9% and Citi fell 1.2%, while Bank of America fell 2.4% and Wells Fargo fell 2.3%.

Banks set aside more than $8 billion to bail out the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (DIF) deposit insurance fund, which took a $16 billion hit after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and two other lenders last year.

Citi, America’s most international bank, had a disastrous quarter, with a surprise loss of $1.8 billion because of FDIC charges and because it stockpiled cash to cover currency risks in Argentina and in Russia.

Citi will cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years, its chief financial officer, Mark Mason, said. Wells Fargo also cut jobs, reporting severance payments of $969 million as well as a $1.9 billion charge to the FDIC.

Beyond these special charges, the basic income picture is mixed.

Last year’s high rates boosted banks’ net interest income (NII), the difference between what banks earn on loans and what they pay to depositors, but this revenue driver appears to be fading. running out of steam as the Fed suspends its hikes and banks pay more to hold these deposits.

Bank of America’s profit fell by due to the DIF charge, a one-time impact on how it indexes certain transactions, and a 5% decline in its NII as the bank spent more to retain customer deposits and loan demand remained subdued due to high interest rates.

Among the four banks, Wells Fargo was the only bank to post an increase in profits, thanks to cost reductions, beating analysts’ expectations. But it warned that its net profit for 2024 could be 7% to 9% lower than the previous year.

JPMorgan also performed well. Its quarterly profits fell, but the Wall Street giant posted a record annual profit of $49.6 billion and a 19% jump in net operating income.

(“My biggest concern is whether) has already benefited from interest rates,” David Wagner, a portfolio manager and equity analyst at Aptus Capital Advisors, which owns the four banks, wrote in an email to Reuters.

LOANS THAT TURN INTO VINEGAR

All lenders have set aside more money to cover bad debts and delinquencies, or debts that are unlikely to be recovered, on some consumer loans have increased.

At Bank of America, which has the largest consumer bank, delinquencies rose from $931 million in the third quarter to $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter, mainly for credit cards and office real estate.

Consumer delinquencies and delinquencies declined during the pandemic as government stimulus and business closures boosted consumer savings.

Jeremy Barnum, chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase, said the bank’s consumer credit metrics, including credit cards, are now all back to normal. Citi also said credit costs in the U.S. consumer banking division were increasing due to the “continued normalization” of non-performing loans in credit cards.

Credit card loss rates are still below long-term averages, according to rating agency Fitch.

However, some analysts said they would like to see banks set aside more cash in case trends worsen.

” Chris Marinac, director of research at advisory bank Janney Montgomery Scott, said: “There are still fears of a slow deterioration in credit. “I’m not very worried, but I prefer that banks build reserves in this environment

2024-01-12 17:43:06
#SUMMARY #2The #drop #margins #loans #exceptional #charges #causing #profits #large #American #banks #fall

“This will save certain companies,” underlined the minister.

Bruno Le Maire in Paris, December 20, 2023. (AFP / LUDOVIC MARIN)

Companies that benefited from a state-guaranteed loan during the pandemic will be able to reschedule them until December 31, 2026, the Ministry of the Economy announced on Sunday January 7.

“This will save some businesses.

I have always said that the loan guaranteed by the State was there to support businesses, not to be a burden”, indicated the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire on

France 3

. “So if some companies are still having difficulty repaying, they can continue to reschedule,” he continued.

107 billion euros

These loans, granted according to Bercy to the tune of 107 billion euros to VSEs/SMEs since 2020 to keep companies’ cash flow afloat during the health crisis, have also increased their debt.

If more than 50 billion loans have been fully repaid, some companies are having difficulty repaying their PGE and can call on a restructuring system via Credit Mediation. This device made it possible to

support around 560 companies in 2022 and 2023

by allowing them to spread out the EMP by two to four additional years compared to the initial schedule, with maintenance of the State guarantee, specifies the ministry in a press release.

This system was supposed to end on December 31, 2023.

2024-01-08 10:10:29
#Stateguaranteed #loans #Bruno #Maire #extends #repayment #limit