Revista-E

Madrid (Revista E) - Telefónica’s acquisition of 50% of Brasilcel, the 60% holder of Brazilian cellphone operator Vivo, consolidated the Spanish company’s grip on a key emerging market where the local regulator Anatel recorded a penetration rate of 91.33% with an extra 1.64 new mobile subscribers in January.

Beijing (Revista E) - Rolls-Royce presented the first series production of the Rolls-Royce Ghost to China and will make its first deliveries of Ghost within days of Auto China to Chinese customers. The Chinese market is of vital importance to the company, with mainland China overtaking a number of established markets in 2009, and featured in the top five worldwide. Indeed, China and the Asia Pacific region are shaping new trends for Rolls-Royce cars, from Phantom Extended Wheelbase to the bespoke preferences of its customers in this region, which have now become standard features in the cars. Rolls-Royce Shanghai was again one of the top 10 performing dealerships last year, having consistently featured in the top 10 since 2007. With Rolls-Royce’s dealer expansion programme, there are now more dealers in China than in any other country except the USA.

Göteborg (Revista E) - During the first quarter of 2010, the Volvo Group’s sales amounted to SEK 58.6 billion, which adjusted for currency was a 12% increase compared with the year-earlier period. Operating income improved considerably to SEK 2.8 billion, compared with a loss of SEK 4.5 billion in the same quarter in the preceding year. All of the Group’s business segments were profitable. The operating margin rose to 4.8% as a consequence of the actions taken to reduce the Group’s costs and as an effect of improved capacity utilization and productivity in the industrial system.

Stockholm (Revista E) - Defence and security company Saab announced that order bookings increased to SEK 5,478m (approx. US$ 766m) in the first quarter 2010, compared to SEK 4,101m (approx. US$ 573m) for the same period in 2009. The order backlog at the end of the period amounted to SEK 39.6 billion (approx. US$ 5.5 billion), compared to SEK 44.2 billion (approx. US$ 6.2 billion) the previous year. Sales amounted to SEK 5,384m (approx. US$ 753m), compared to SEK 5,412m (approx. US$ 757m) in the first quarter 2009, with marginal exchange rate effects. Net income for the period was SEK 72m (approx. US 10m), compared to SEK -27m (approx. US$ -4m) in Q1 2009.

Brussels (Revista E) - The Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler AG announced on April 7 a broad strategic cooperation that will enable both groups to already realize benefits quickly from a range of concrete projects as well as sharing of best practices. The two groups also announced an equity exchange that will give the Renault-Nissan Alliance a 3.1% stake in Daimler and Daimler a 3.1% in Renault and a 3.1% stake in Nissan.

United Arab Emirates (Revista E) - Emirates, the international airline of the United Arab Emirates, arrived in Tokyo on Sunday March 28 with its inaugural non-stop flight, following a day of celebrating all things Japanese in Dubai. Japan was Emirates’ theme in its hospitality suites at this year’s Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest day of horse racing, which took place on March 27 at Meydan Racecourse. Emirates, the Title Sponsor of the US$10 million Dubai World Cup, hosted its guests in suites specially decorated to celebrate the airline’s newest destination on its ever expanding network.

Switzerland (Revista E) - Zurich Financial Services Group’s (Zurich) latest issue of Insights Magazine, its online customer magazine, focuses on risk in the real estate sector. Topics addressed include how to deal with vacant property, the promise of green building methods, protecting property from hurricanes and wind, and some of the practical steps owners can take to limit their liability exposure to slips, trips and falls.

Scotland (Revista E) - The Royal Bank of Scotland Group announced its 2009 annual results. Stephen Hester, CEO of RBS Group, reported a loss of £3.6 billion. He said that RBS has clearly signposted the way towards the full process of rebuilding and recovery. Hester commented on RBS core businesses constituting the RBS of the future which made £8 billion of profits in 2009. He also confirmed that RBS have reduced its balance sheet by nearly £700 billion in 2009 and the company is already.

Copenhagen (Revista E) - Major reductions in carbon emissions cannot be achieved in the short and medium term without a bigger commitment to gas, said Statoil’s chief executive Helge Lund at a meeting held by the International Gas Union. He arrived in Copenhagen on 13 December, in connection with the UN climate summit to present his views on the contribution natural gas can make to a sustainable future. Carbon emissions can be substantially reduced by replacing coal with natural gas, he said. Gas is also important for realising new energy forms, in part as a back-up for intermittent wind power. He emphasised that no quick fix exists for a non-carbon future, but that natural gas as an energy bearer and carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a technology could give good results.

US (Revista E) - Ericsson was selected  as successful bidder to acquire certain assets of the Carrier Networks division of Nortel relating to Nortel’s GSM business in the US and Canada. The purchase is structured as an asset sale at a cash purchase price of USD 70 million on a cash and debt free basis, subject to adjustments. This announcement follows the completion of the auction process initiated by Nortel, and the transaction is subject to approval by courts in the US and Canada and customary regulatory approvals and other conditions.