The British FTSE 100 index fell 1.4%, the German DAX fell 0.16%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.65%. Italy's FTSE MIB lost 1.11%, while Spain's IBEX 35 lost 0.8%.
French telecommunications company Bouygues SA cut its net profit to 696 million euros last year from 1.18 billion euros in 2019. The company's annual revenue fell to 34.69 billion euros from 37.93 billion euros. Analysts interviewed by the company itself expected its net profit to be 607 million euros on revenue of 34.39 billion euros. Bouygues also announced the appointment of Olivier Russa as CEO, who was previously Deputy CEO Martin Bouygues. Bouygues will retain the position of chairman of the board of directors. Bouygues lost 1.8% after rising earlier in the day.
The German battery manufacturer Varta AG increased its revenue to 870 million euros in 2020 from 362.7 million euros. Adjusted EBIT of the company increased to 239 million from 97.5 million euros. Varta plans to pay a dividend of about 2.5 euros per share. In 2021, the company expects revenue growth to 940 million euros. Despite this, Varta's share price dropped 13.2%.
Pre-tax profit of the international recruiting company Hays Plc in the first half of 2021 fiscal years fell by 78% - to 21.1 million pounds. Revenue fell to 2.76 billion pounds from 3.1 billion pounds a year earlier. The board of directors did not recommend special dividends, but said it would resume dividend payments at the end of the current fiscal year. The market value of Hays declined 3%.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the French IT company Atos SE reported a decrease in revenue to 2.91 billion euros from 3 billion euros in the same period in 2019. At the end of 2020, the company's revenue decreased by 3% on an organic basis to 11.18 billion euros. Net profit increased to 550 million euros from 414 million euros. Operating profit fell to 1 billion euros from 1.16 billion euros. The company plans to pay dividends of € 0.9 per share. The price of Atos shares fell 6.3% on Thursday.
The French energy company Electricite de France SA in 2020 reduced its net profit by 87.4%, to 650 million euros. EDF's revenue for the full year of 2020 decreased to 69.03 billion euros from 71.35 billion euros in 2019. The company has confirmed its financial targets for 2021-2022. EDF shares fell 2.9%.
The net loss of Air France-KLM in October-December amounted to 1 billion euros, compared with a net profit of 155 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Air France-KLM's revenue fell 64% to € 2.36 billion. The airline's shares fell 0.3%.
Nestle on Thursday reported a decrease in net profit in 2020 to 12.23 billion Swiss francs ($ 13.65 billion) from 12.61 billion francs a year earlier. Analysts polled by the company had expected the figure at 11.97 billion francs. The company's revenues were 84.34 billion francs, showing organic growth of 3.6%. Experts predicted revenue of 84.78 billion euros. Nestle shares were down 1.1%.
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