It will feel the impact of the global economic slowdown thisyear and expects to see sales shrink by 12-15 percent and to notbe profitable this current fiscal year as previously planned. But O’Neill said SEN aims to achieve that goal in 2009/2010by cutting costs. The company was also in negotiations withunions to agree on short-time work. O’Neill said altogether a fundamental restructuring of thebusiness had been concluded and SEN had good potential forgrowth in the mid- and long-term. “The future looks good,” O’Neill said, adding there weresigns that the worst was over for the sector. He also said both Siemens and Gores had no plans to exit thejoint venture.
The company was free of debt and the Gores group was in agood financial state, he said ($1=.7327 Euro) (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter). * Q4 net profit slumps 92 percent China | Japan * Hedging losses total $371 mln * Drop in air travel levelling out * Recovery will be held back by ’swine flu’ fears * Revenue under pressure from promotional spending (Adds details) By Harry Suhartono and Kevin Lim SINGAPORE, May 14 (Reuters) – Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI),the world’s largest carrier by market value, posted a sharpdrop in quarterly net profit, hit by fuel hedging losses and aweak travel market, and warned that a recent flu outbreak coulddelay air travel recovery. Singapore Air, which ranks just ahead of Air China(601111.SS), said weak demand for business travel and spendingon promotions will also keep revenue under pressure. “Advance bookings indicate that the drop in demand for airtravel is levelling out. However, the probability of asustained recovery has been set back by uncertainties arisingfrom the Influenza A epidemic,” the company said in astatement. Singapore Air has seen falling passenger and cargo demandthis year as the global slowdown hurt business and leisuretravel, forcing it to reduce capacity and cut staff workinghours. Andrew Herdman, director-general of the Association of AsiaPacific Airlines, an industry lobby group, said the outlook forcarriers such as SIA, which relies more on long-haul flightsand premium passengers, remains weak.
“Airlines have been cutting capacity, but load factors arefalling faster … In particular, premium traffic has continuedto weaken.” “We haven’t seen a downturn of this severity before. Thedepth of the downturn has taken many people by surprise.” Singapore Air, valued $9.8 billion, recorded $$543 millionin hedging losses, which included S$112 million in losses fromthe early termination of some fuel hedging contracts beforematurity. January-March net profit slumped to S$41.9 million ($28.6million) from S$527.5 million a year ago, well below a forecastof S$176 million by analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. Full-year net profit halved to S$1.06 billion, in line withmarket forecasts.
The company’s overall load factor dropped to 62.6 percentin March from 65.8 percent in December. The airline has said itplans to cut capacity by 11 percent in the year from April[ID:nSIN378742]. Earlier this week, Japan Airlines Corp 9205.T posted a$643 million annual net loss and forecast more losses for thisyear. The Nikkei newspaper said JAL could cut 1,200 jobs.[ID:nBNG458189] Last month, regional rival Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN.AX)forecast a first second-half loss in six years and said it wascutting capacity and jobs as it battles a slump in passengerdemand and rising competition. [ID:nSYD466179] The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had saidtotal losses of world airlines in 2009 are likely to exceed the$2.5 billion forecast previously as the global economic crisishits passenger and cargo traffic.
[ID:nKLR423398] Singapore Air shares have risen just 3 percent so far thisyear, lagging a 21 percent gain on the city-state’s main stockindex .FTSTI (Editing by Ian Geoghegan) China Japan. LISBON, May 14 (Reuters) – Portuguese cable TV and internetcompany Zon Multimedia’s (ZON.LS) new generation fibre-opticnetwork rollout has reached over a million homes, board memberLuis Lopes said on Wednesday. Media He added that the company plans to triple this coverage bythe end of the year, allowing the 3 million homes in its networkto access advanced Internet, television and voice servicesthrough broadband access at a speed of 100 Mbps. “We are also starting tests with other speeds, and with 200and 400 Mbps we can launch products this year or at the start of2010,” he said. Lopes added that the company had a cost of around 20 eurosto add each home to the fibre-optic network and that a largepart of its network in Lisbon and Porto had already beenupgraded.Portugal Telecom said in a statement on Wednesday that itexpected to exceed 1 million homes on its own new generationnetwork by the end of the year and would raise its 650 millioneuro capital expenditure forecast by 10 percent to reach thistarget.
