Corporate Bits | Emirates: profits up amid lower oil prices

The Middle East’s biggest airline, Emirates, said yesterday that its profits were up by about 56 percent to USD1.9 billion in the last fiscal year largely due to lower oil prices that drove down fuel operating costs.
The Dubai government-owned airline said revenue, however, fell in 2015-2016 by four percent to $23.2 billion from $24.2 billion in 2014, mostly because of a stronger U.S. dollar that impacted currencies in many markets where Emirates operates.
Emirates President Tim Clark said that despite the drop in revenue, the airline’s fuel bill decreased to $5.4 billion over the last year, comprising around 26 percent of operating costs, compared to 35 percent the year before. Still, fuel remains the airline’s biggest cost.
“The revenue fall has been well managed, let me say that. It could have been a lot worse,” said Clark, who added that the company was also able to save on its supply costs.

nokia sees fall in q1 profits

Nokia reported yesterday a first-quarter net loss of 513 million euros (USD584 million) due to lower demand in mobile networks as well as the impact of its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, and warned of a further decline in earnings.
In the company’s first earnings report since the 15.6-billion-euro acquisition, Nokia said the loss compared with a profit of 177 million euros a year earlier.
Net sales were 5.5 billion euros, compared with the 2.9 billion euros it reported a year earlier. Combined net sales in the period in 2015 would have come in at 6.1 billion euros, Nokia said.
CEO Rajeev Suri described the revenue decline as disappointing and said the climate remained “challenging” in mobile networks. He warned of further cuts and layoffs as the company searched for savings with the merger. He did not give figures but said that layoffs had begun globally, including in the United States.
Nokia’s share price fell 3 percent to 4.87 euros in afternoon trading in Helsinki.
Hannu Rauhala, senior analyst at Pohjola Bank, said the result was much as expected.