FRANKFURT, Feb 15 (Reuters) – German sportswear group
Puma said it aimed to capitalise on soccer’s Euro 2012
tournament to grow its business in the sport, when forecasting a
near 10 percent rise in group sales for 2012.

Along with larger rivals Adidas and Nike,
Puma has enjoyed rising sales over the past year and reported
record 2011 sales of 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion), driven by
demand from Asia and Latin America.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday it had found examples of recently identified wing cracks in all six of the Airbus A380s on which it carried out mandatory inspections, as a senior pilot issued reassurance over the superjumbo’s safety.

The discovery of more instances of cracked wing components was expected after Airbus (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said last week it had found the problem and predicted that until it had time to conduct repairs, a consistent pattern would emerge in further tests.

FRANKFURT/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Research in Motion Ltd’s (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) could have chosen a fiery, inspirational new CEO but they chose a stoic engineer instead, dashing investor hopes for a quick turnaround for the struggling BlackBerry maker.

The softspoken and bespectacled Thorsten Heins, who had worked at Germany’s Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) for more than 20 years before RIM, failed to inspire Wall Street on Monday as he pledged to continue on the same path as his predecessors.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Insider Thorsten Heins, the new chief executive at BlackBerry maker RIM, is a surprise choice for those looking for a “transformational” leader from outside to turn around the Canadian group’s fortunes.

Tall, soft-spoken and bespectacled, the Munich-born Heins, 54, spent most of his working life at German engineering giant Siemens, where he oversaw a mobile telephone business which faced fierce pricing pressure and quality issues.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – SAP, the world’s biggest maker of business software, was upbeat on its topline growth this year citing its investment in new technologies and robust corporate spending.

Investors have worried that they may have overestimated the resilience of corporate tech spending in a deteriorating global economy, especially after SAP’s big rival Oracle Corp reported weak quarterly results last month.

FRANKFURT, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Insider Thorsten Heins,
the new chief executive at BlackBerry maker RIM, is a surprise
choice for those looking for a “transformational” leader from
outside to turn around the Canadian group’s fortunes.

Tall, soft-spoken and bespectacled, the Munich-born Heins,
54, spent most of his working life at German engineering giant
Siemens, where he oversaw a mobile telephone business which
faced fierce pricing pressure and quality issues.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s SAP (SAPG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s biggest maker of business software, reported a better than expected rise in fourth-quarter sales and profits on Friday, sending its shares up 4 percent.

Operating profits were up 10 percent at 1.78 billion euros ($2.28 billion) in the quarter, ahead of the consensus forecast of 1.65 billion euros expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Audi, the premium car brand of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), posted record sales in 2011 as demand for luxury cars in China and Russia helped it gain ground on bigger rivals like BMW (BMWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Daimler’s (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Mercedes-Benz.

Audi on Monday unveiled sales growth of 19.2 percent for last year, outpacing 12.8 percent for the BMW brand and 8.0 percent at Daimler’s luxury brand.

FRANKFURT, Jan 6 (Reuters) – European retailers,
already battling weak consumer demand, look set to find their
shelves laden with scarves, coats, toboggans and de-icers due to
an unseasonably mild winter.

Toboggans, a hot commodity during last year’s snowy winter,
are shelf warmers this year, Germany’s retailers’ association
HDE said on Friday. It also said sales of winter clothes and ski
equipment were so far falling short of year-earlier levels.

FRANKFURT, Jan 3 (Reuters) – A bidding war over rights
to show top-flight German soccer league matches could prove
risky for Sky Deutschland.

The German pay-TV broadcaster’s stock has lost about a
quarter of its value over the past three months on concern that
a battle with Deutsche Telekom for Bundesliga rights
could hurt profit and that it may need a capital increase soon.