ROUNDUP 2: Amazon surprises with high profit - share rises

SEATTLE - Amazon earned significantly more than expected in the past quarter thanks to a recovery in online retail and cost-cutting measures. The world's largest online retailer posted a profit of $6.7 billion (6.1 billion euros). That was almost twice as much as analysts had expected. In the prior-year quarter, Amazon had still lost two billion dollars.

ROUNDUP: Apple with third sales decline in a row - services business supports

CUPERTINO - Apple can't escape the general downturn in smartphones and computers - but spending hundreds of millions of customers on digital offerings is cushioning the declines. As a result, the company can remain highly profitable even as it sells fewer iPhones and iPads. Apple's consolidated revenue fell 1.4 percent year over year to $81.8 billion (74.7 billion euros). But bottom-line profit rose to about $19.9 billion from $19.44 billion a year earlier. Shares in the world's most valuable company, with a stock market value of around three trillion dollars, fell almost three percent in the aftermath.

ROUNDUP 2: High interest rates boost Commerzbank - share buyback disappoints

FRANKFURT - After an unexpectedly strong second quarter, Commerzbank believes it is on track to meet its full-year targets. Higher interest rates allowed the Frankfurt-based bank to absorb new charges from its Polish subsidiary mBank. On balance, Commerzbank earned 565 million euros, a fifth more than a year earlier, it said Friday. However, investors were disappointed by the planned next share buyback - because it is to be at the expense of the dividend.

ROUNDUP 3/Economic weakness and high energy prices: Lanxess closes plants

COLOGNE, Germany - Specialty chemicals group Lanxess is fighting the current slump in the chemical industry with a cost-cutting program. Plants in Germany - and possibly elsewhere - are on the list to be cut; in addition, administration is to be streamlined, as the company announced on Friday when it presented its figures for the second quarter. Like many representatives of energy-intensive industries, Lanxess CEO Matthias Zachert has long criticized Germany's high electricity prices by international standards.

ROUNDUP: Vonovia posts billion-dollar loss - properties devalued again

BOCHUM - Germany's largest residential real estate group Vonovia, like the rest of the industry, is being hit by rising interest rates. That's why Vonovia wants to reduce its debt by selling properties, for example. Due to the current difficult market environment for real estate sales, the company again devalued its real estate portfolio. The bottom line was therefore a loss of billions in the second quarter. The share initially fell by more than three percent in early trading on Friday before recovering somewhat. Nevertheless, with a minus of 1.5 percent in the morning, the share was one of the weakest stocks in the leading Dax index.

ROUNDUP: Carl Zeiss Meditec again dampens targets - but Management Board sees light

JENA - After a weak first half of the year, there are signs of recovery at medical technology group Carl Zeiss Meditec for the first time. But the company is still struggling with delivery problems. Management is therefore becoming more cautious once again with regard to profitability in fiscal year 2022/23. Meanwhile, company CEO Markus Weber and his CFO Justus Felix Wehmer were quite confident about the further development in the coming months in an interview with the financial news agency dpa-AFX on Friday.

ROUNDUP: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen starts fiscal year with growth

HEIDELBERG - Machinery manufacturer Heidelberger Druck has started the new 2023/24 fiscal year (ending March) with an increase in sales and earnings. This was helped by a recovery in Asia and growth in the packaging printing segment. "Heidelberg got off to a good start to the new financial year with the first quarter," said company CEO Ludwin Monz in a conference call with journalists on Friday. The opening quarter of the year went according to plan, he said. The Group confirmed its targets for the year.

ROUNDUP: Freenet with slight increase in operating profit - Internet TV growing

BÜDELSDORF - Telecommunications provider Freenet closed the past quarter with slightly improved profitability. On the one hand, the company benefited from higher revenues in its service business, and on the other hand, overhead costs did not increase as strongly. In addition, the Büdelsdorf-based company's TV business is also picking up. Management confirmed its targets for the year.

Airbus delivers 65 aircraft in July

TOULOUSE - The world's largest aircraft manufacturer Airbus succeeded in delivering 65 commercial jets in July, its second-best month of the year so far. Only in June had the manufacturer handed over more aircraft to its customers with 72 deliveries. After the first seven months of the year, deliveries totaled 381 aircraft, as the DAX-listed company announced in Toulouse on Friday. This corresponds to around 53 percent of the annual target of 720 jets. Meanwhile, Airbus brought in orders for 60 new aircraft in July and had to accept three cancellations, according to a spokesman.

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Customer Notice:

ROUNDUP: You are reading a summary in the company overview. There are several reports on this topic on the dpa-AFX news service.

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