Implenia looks back on a successful first half of 2010. With its CHF 1.06 billion in group revenue, a slight increase over the previous half-year, Implenia managed to significantly increase the operating income to CHF 19.4 million (previous year: CHF 10.5 million) and consolidated profit to CHF 12.5 million (previous year: CHF 6.2 million). Thanks to a steady stream of new orders, order book volume remained high, totalling CHF 3.5 billion (previous year: 3.3 CHF billion). Link: Click Here

Emmi's sales were stable in the first half of 2010 compared with the previous year, with net profit up by 21.5 %. This is a very positive result, given the challenging environment. Sales amounted to CHF 1,275.2 million (prior year CHF 1,280.9 million). Link: Click Here

Bossard: Bossard Group's sales amounted to CHF 244 million, an increase of CHF 38.1 million or 18.5 percent. Percentage growth expressed in local currencies was even higher reaching 21.5 percent. Through this clear sales increase and continuing consistent cost management the Group achieved a veritable profit leap. Compared to the first six months of 2009, consolidated net income quadruplet, reaching a total of CHF 22.4 million. Thus the CHF 15.3 million result for the entire prior year was already clearly surpassed in the first six months of 2010. Link: Click Here

Sulzer is selling the real estate portfolio and activities of Sulzer Real Estate: The Winterthur real estate portfolio and the development unit are being acquired by Implenia Ltd for CHF 82.1 million. The real estate services are being sold to Auwiesen Immobilien AG for CHF 2.5 million. The implementation of Sulzer’s long-term strategy of selling all operationally non-essential real estate in Switzerland to third parties will be successfully concluded with these last steps. The two purchasing companies will retain all employees. Link: Click Here

Siegfried: Strong Growth in 1st Half of 2010. With sales of CHF 135.4 million during the first six months of 2010, the Siegfried Group (SIX: SFZN) achieved a 12.4% jump over 2009 (15.4% in local currencies). Active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) & intermediates earned CHF 103.9 million, a 14.5% increase over the previous year, while the business with finished dosage forms grew by 5.8% to CHF 31.5 million. Link: Click Here

Nestlé: Richard Laube, Executive Vice President in charge of Nestlé Nutrition, has decided to pursue personal opportunities outside Nestlé and is therefore leaving the company with immediate effect. Link: Click Here


Economy
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Paper presented at Jackson Hole suggests recovery may be slow. At the Jackson Hole summit last weekend, which brought together about 110 central bankers and economists, a paper presented by C. M Reinhart, an economist of the University of Maryland, generated considerable debate. The paper basically says that the American economy could experience slow growth and stubbornly high unemployment for a decade or longer as a result of the 2007 collapse of the housing market and the economic turmoil that followed. Link: Click Here

UK consumer confidence rises for first time since February, forward looking components improve markedly. Headline consumer confidence rose 4 points to -18 in the August GfK consumer confidence survey, marking the first month since February that confidence has improved on this measure. While a seasonal adjustment of the data reveals that the move in August was not so pronounced, the headline balance of this survey rarely provides the best insight into the outlook for consumers (the headline balance takes both forward and backward-looking components into account). Link: Click Here

The European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to extend emergency support for the euro area banking industry into next year, The Financial Times reported, without saying where it obtained the information. ECB President J-C Trichet will probably announce on 2 September that demands from banks for one week, monthly and probably three-monthly liquidity will be met into 2011, the newspaper said. Link: Click Here

BlackRock Investment Commentary - 31-08-2010. Stocks endured another down week last week, but thanks to a rally on Friday, the losses were trimmed. For the week as a whole, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.6% to 10,151, the S&P 500 Index fell 0.7% to 1,065 and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.2% to 2,154. Link: Click Here