Top UBS shareholder pins rebound hopes on private wealth

LONDON (Reuters) - UBS's wealth management business will help it bounce back from a $1.5 billion rap for rigging interest rates, one of its largest investors said, although fears of costly civil lawsuits could cast a pall over its shares for some time.Paras Anand, European equities head at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said legal action sparked by the Libor scandal posed an unpredictable threat to...

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Top UBS shareholder pins rebound hopes on private wealth

LONDON (Reuters) - UBS's wealth management business will help it bounce back from a $1.5 billion rap for rigging interest rates, one of its largest investors said, although fears of costly civil lawsuits could cast a pall over its shares for some time.Paras Anand, European equities head at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said legal action sparked by the Libor scandal posed an unpredictable threat to...

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Drugs group Lundbeck's shares hit by profit warning

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Shares in Danish drugs firm Lundbeck fell to their lowest level in over 12 years on Wednesday after it cut its profits forecast for the next two years as European sales slow and spending on new products rise to combat generic competition.The company has already warned that earnings would stall until 2015 due to cheap generic competition for its existing drugs, meaning new products...

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New Mauritius Hotels posts 25 pct drop in full-year profit

PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Luxury hotels group New Mauritius Hotels (NMH) reported a 25 percent fall in full-year pretax profit, citing higher finance costs and fewer tourists, and forecast a 15 percent drop in first-quarter earnings.Ranked among the Indian Ocean island's most-traded stocks, NMH said on Wednesday that pretax profit for the year to September 30 fell to 603 million Indian rupees, with earnings...

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FedEx: cost plan can counter sluggish growth

NEW YORK (AP) — FedEx is more pessimistic about the U.S. economy than it was three months ago, but more assured of its own ability to grow earnings.The world's second-largest package delivery company lowered its economic forecast for the U.S., saying that there remains a lot of uncertainty for the company and the country.Its forecast for the current quarter, which incorporates the critical holiday...

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Maintenance deals drive Micro Focus earnings beat

LONDON (Reuters) - Information technology company Micro Focus International  posted better-than-expected first-half core earnings after it moved towards more lucrative maintenance contracts, with fewer low-margin consultancy deals.The British mainframe software specialist posted a 3 percent rise in adjusted core earnings of $92.2 million on Thursday, ahead of analysts' average forecasts of about...

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Rona says looking to sell non-core assets

(Reuters) - Canadian home-improvement retailer Rona Inc , the target of a C$1.8 billion takeover proposal by U.S.-based Lowe's Cos Inc  earlier this year, said it expects to dispose of non-core assets and redeploy capital to leverage core assets.The company wants to improve its retail EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margin in line with industry standards...

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Exclusive: U.S. likely to extend Iran sanction waivers-sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is likely to exempt India, South Korea, Turkey and others from Iranian financial sanctions for another six months on Friday as a reward for reducing crude purchases from the Islamic republic, two U.S. government sources said. Oil shipments by Iran have more than halved in 2012 in the face of U.S. and European Union sanctions aimed at cutting...

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Aetna reaches $120 million settlement over reimbursements

(Reuters) - Aetna Inc , the third-largest U.S. health insurer, has agreed to pay as much as $120 million to settle nationwide litigation over how it reimburses members for out-of-network medical services. The accord calls for Aetna to pay $60 million into a general settlement fund, plus as much as $60 million more, depending on how many people submit claims. Aetna...

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Scotiabank profit rises 31 percent on wholesale banking

(Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia  capped off the fourth-quarter earnings season for Canadian banks with a slightly stronger than expected 31 percent profit gain on Friday, as strong wholesale banking income made up for more sluggish international growth.Following the trend of most of its peers this quarter, profit gains were driven by trading and investment banking income, while domestic loan...

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