Chirpy Angry Birds maker eyes IPO golden egg
Angry Birds maker Rovio Entertainment said sales jumped tenfold to $100 million last year as gamers flocked to download its titles, adding business was now strong enough for a stock market listing. The Finnish startup making Angry Birds games ? in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal the birds? eggs ? has been valued by analysts at up to $9 billion, just short of that of struggling world No.2 phonemaker Nokia. Rovio said on Monday its finances were good enough for a listing after revealing a highly profitable 2011 in its first public disclosure of business results and forecast a bumper year ahead. Rovio, originally founded in 2003, became a global phenomenon after it launched Angry Birds for Apple’s iPhone in late 2009. Since then it has remained at top of the gaming charts with more than 800 million downloads and it had 200 million monthly users at the end of 2011, just short of U.S.-based Zynga’s 240 million.
CSM to sell bakery ops with $3.1 bn revenues
Dutch company CSM NV plans to sell its main operations, the bakery ingredients division, which makes processed flour and products such as bagels, English muffins, pizzas, tortillas, and sweet glazes. The company said Monday it does not have a buyer. But investors liked the idea: shares soared 23 percent to (euro) 13.37 in early Amsterdam trading. The division, which competes against General Mills, among others, had sales of 2.4 billion euros ($3.1 billion) in 2011. Operating profit before depreciation and amortization of goodwill was 127.5 million euros.
EU Commission to revamp state aid rules
EU competition regulators are set to overhaul state aid rules to make it easier for governments to fund schemes to stimulate economic growth, as part of a wider strategy to deal with a second recession in three years in the crisis-hit bloc. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who has the task of ensuring public subsidies do not give an unfair advantage to firms receiving aid, will unveil the revised rules at a news conference at 1030 GMT on Tuesday.
According to a Commission document obtained by Reuters, the revised rules aim to ensure a faster exit from the crisis by helping member states’ public spending to become more efficient, effective and targeted at growth-promoting policies.
Etihad drops more A350s in setback to Airbus
European planemaker Airbus suffered a fresh setback to its largest twin-engined jet development, the A350-1000, when it emerged that Gulf carrier Etihad had cancelled seven aircraft worth $2.3 billion at current list prices. The Abu Dhabi-based airline has now halved its order for the 350-seat jet in four months from 25 in November to 12 at the end of April, Airbus monthly figures showed on Monday.
Airbus has not sold any of the largest variant of its next-generation A350 since beefing up the design with bigger Rolls-Royce engines last June, while Boeing has been notching up record orders of the wide-body 777.
Toyota says China sales up 68% in April
China sales by Japan’s Toyota Motor and its two local joint-venture partners rose 68 percent in April from a year earlier to about 81,700 vehicles, according to a company spokesman. For the first four months of the year, the Japanese auto maker sold a total of about 293,200 vehicles, a 14.3 percent increase from the same period last year, said the spokesman, Takanori Yokoi. Yokoi said the large year-on-year jump in April sales was due chiefly to the fact that sales during April last year were comparatively low because of the massive earthquake on March 11. The earthquake and tsunami paralyzed production of key components and affected Toyota’s vehicle production around the world, including China.
