Bucher Industries: Sales growth in local currencies of 27%. Bucher Industries achieved a substantial increase in sales and order intake in the 2011 financial year, despite significant negative currency effects. Sales growth was 27% in local currencies, and the Group started 2012 with the order book at a high level. For 2011, the Group expects a percentage increase in both operating profit and profit for the year on a par with the first half of the year. Link: Click Here

Rieter reports significant increase in sales. Rieter recorded pleasing growth in the 2011 financial year. Sales rose by 22% to 1 060.8 million CHF. Orders received were 34% lower than the exceptionally strong outcome in the previous year, but remained at a healthy level (958.3 million CHF). Rieter thus still has a good backlog of orders in hand. Link: Click Here

Emmi: Sales targets exceeded in a challenging international environment. Emmi generated net sales of CHF 2,721.3 million in 2011. This corresponds to an increase of 1.4%. The positive result is thanks to the encouraging performance of its latest acquisitions, to significant growth outside Switzerland, to the strong performance of Emmi Caffè Latte and to the products newly launched in Switzerland. The net profit margin for 2011 will be around 3%. Link: Click Here

Kuehne + Nagel announced today that is has entered into an agreement to take over the specialised Australian freight forwarder Link Logistics International Pty. Ltd. The acquisition is in line with Kuehne + Nagel’s strategy to globally expand its activities in the field of perishables logistics. Link: Click Here
 

Peach Property Group has purchased an investment property portfolio east of Düsseldorf in the centre of Erkrath-Hochdahl. The portfolio comprises 143 apartments covering a total surface area of 10,431 m2 as well as 28 business units with a total surface area of 9,324 m2. Link: Click Here

Peach Property Group today provided a forecast of its annual result 2011. In light of the fact that – as scheduled on the timeline – no major property development projects were concluded during the reporting year, income from property development will be considerably lower than that reported during the previous year. Link: Click Here

Kuehne + Nagel and Roche develop environment-friendly transport solution. The global pharmaceutical Group Roche has awarded logistics contracts for Greece to Kuehne + Nagel. The two companies have jointly developed an environment-friendly logistics solution which can substantially reduce CO2 emissions. Link: Click Here

Leclanché S.A. (SIX: LECN), a Swiss company specialized in the production of large-format lithium-ion cells and energy storage solutions, expects to receive gross proceeds of approximately CHF 28 million from the capital increase. The subscription period ended on February 1, 2012 at 12:00 noon (CET). Link: Click Here


Economy
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French, Italian and Spanish new car registrations very weak in January; bleak prospects for 2012. Based on our seasonally adjusted calculations, the pace of new car registrations in France, Italy and Spain in January remained weak, reflecting the ongoing concerns of households towards big-ticket expenditure. German data are unavailable at the moment, as they are published with a lag of a couple of days. Link: Click Here

UK manufacturing PMI stronger than expected. The manufacturing PMI was stronger than expected in January and consistent with positive sentiment among manufacturers for the first time in four months. The headline index rose by 2.4 points to 52.1 (BarCap: 51.0, consensus: 50.0), its highest since May last year. Link: Click Here

Major «bet» on a weaker euro. The euro has lost around 9% of its value against the US dollar since October 2011. The worsening of the European debt crisis and doubts over the stability of many European banks have been keeping up the pressure on the single currency. Link: Click Here

January global manufacturing confidence: Stabilisation is on course for 2012. Following the publication today of January ISM and PMI manufacturing confidence data for various countries, our global manufacturing aggregate continues to signal that the global industrial sector is stabilising and are slightly more positive than was the case in Q4 11. Link: Click Here