LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Snow dampened sales at Germany’s Metro AG (MEOG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Britain’s Marks & Spencer (MKS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) over Christmas, with the UK retailer warning of tougher trading ahead as household budgets are squeezed and commodity prices rise.

Retailers across northern Europe were hit by heavy snowfalls in the run-up to Christmas and although M&S defied the unusually harsh weather to report better-than-expected sales on Tuesday, its shares suffered after it sounded a cautious note.

“We continue to expect the trading conditions ahead to be more challenging as consumers’ disposable incomes come under pressure from increased VAT rates and the impact of public spending cuts,” Britain’s No.1 clothes retailer said. [ID:nLDE70919U]

“In addition, we are facing increased commodity prices and significantly tougher comparatives,” it added, voicing fears shared by the wider industry over whether retailers can pass on higher costs for key commodities such as wheat and cotton.

M&S shares had fallen nearly 1 percent to 380.7 pence by 0825 GMT. Metro’s shares were 0.3 percent lower at 52.45 euros by 0827 GMT after it reported slower-than-expected 2010 sales growth.

The German group said the snow and ice dampened fourth-quarter demand, but it still expects to post 2010 operating profit of 2.3 billion euros ($2.98 billion).

“Sales trends improved once the recent milder weather kicked in,” Metro Chief Executive Eckhard Cordes said in a statement.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Holders of a controlling stake in Germany’s Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) played down talks of a potential sale to U.S. peer Procter & Gamble (PG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) after shares of the Nivea skin cream maker had jumped to a 4-week high.

Maxingvest, the vehicle through which the Herz family owns 50.46 percent of Beiersdorf, said its was committed to its holding in the company, following a 2.9-percent rise in the shares as investors speculated on a sale.

“The investment in Beiersdorf is for the long term,” said a spokesman for Maxingvest, declining to comment any further.

Beiersdorf, which is due to publish preliminary 2010 figures on Jan 11, declined to comment on the speculation.

A source close to the company said, however, that there has been no contact between Maxingvest and Procter & Gamble.

Its shares were up 1.3 percent at 42.30 euros by 1230 GMT after gaining as much as 2.9 percent to a 4-week high on Wednesday, valuing the company at 10.5 billion euros ($13.94 billion).

Traders cited talk the Herz family, which also owns coffee roaster and retailer Tchibo, may be willing to sell its controlling stake to P&G, maker of Gillette shaving products and Ariel detergents.

FRANKFURT, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Holders of a controlling stake in Germany’s Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) downplayed talk of a potential sale to U.S peer Procter & Gamble (PG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) after shares of the Nivea skin cream maker had jumped to a 4-week high.

Maxingvest, the vehicle through which the Herz family owns 50.46 percent of Beiersdorf, said its was committed to its holding in Nivea company.

“The investment in Beiersdorf is for the long term,” said a spokesman for Maxingvest, declining to comment any further.

Beiersdorf, which is due to publish preliminary 2010 figures on Jan 11, declined to comment on the speculation.

Its shares were up 1.4 percent at 42.37 euros by 1000 GMT after gaining as much as 2.9 percent to a 4-week high on Wednesday.

Traders cited talk the Herz family, which also owns coffee roaster and retailer Tchibo, may be willing to sell its controlling stake to P&G, maker of Gillette shaving products and Ariel detergents. [ID:nWEA9794]

After paring gains, Beiersdorf shares were still the top riser on a 1.1-percent lower German blue chip index .GDAXI.

FRANKFURT, Dec 17 (Reuters) – An unexpectedly snowy start to winter has curbed Christmas spending in Germany a little, but not enough to worry retailers as much as their peers in the UK and France, a retail industry group said on Friday.

“Christmas sales in the last week have been down a little on the first two weeks of the season, but still better than in 2009,” a spokesman for Germany’s HDE retail association said.

HDE maintained its forecasts for Christmas sales to rise 2.5 percent from 2009, with online sales to jump 8 percent.

Freezing temperatures, ice and snow brought transport networks to a halt across Europe earlier this month and more snow is forecast as retailers enter the busiest shopping week of the year. [ID:nLDE6BC16L]

UK retailers HMV Group (HMV.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Kesa Electricals (KESA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Carpetright (CATVU.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Travis Perkins (TPK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have already voiced concerns about a prolonged cold snap and France’s Auchan said on Wednesday it feared a white Christmas would hit sales. [ID:nLDE6BE15E]

By contrast German fragrance to fashion retailer Douglas (DOHG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said the weather had less of an impact this year than last.

“We are very pleased with Christmas sales in Germany so far,” Chief Executive Henning Kreke said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters. He added that jewelery and perfume were performing especially well.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German tourism group TUI AG (TUIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is confident it can float its stake in container shipper Hapag-Lloyd HPLG.UL in 2011, a first step in plans to focus on its travel business.

Chief executive Michael Frenzel told journalists on Tuesday his preferred option would be an initial public offering but added that he was in no hurry.

“We currently see a favorable time window for exiting our Hapag-Lloyd position. Container shipping is healthy and on an upwards trend,” Frenzel said in a conference call after the group reported a 25 percent rise in underlying 2009/10 profit.

Shares in TUI, which owns Europe’s largest tour operator TUI Travel (TT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), rose 4.8 percent to a two-year high of 9.79 euros at 0846 GMT, topping the German mid-cap gainers , also helped by its forecast for a positive group result in 2010/11.

Analysts at WestLB welcomed the optimistic outlook so early in the new financial year.

“The attractive valuation in combination with several share price drivers in the coming weeks (for example, IPO of Hapag-Lloyd, further good booking situation for the summer season) makes TUI AG one of the most attractive stocks in the sector,” they wrote in a note to clients.

TUI had previously planned to sell Hapag-Lloyd to a consortium, but falling freight rates and volumes as a result of the financial crisis meant it ended up pumping more money into the company and keeping a larger stake than it expected.

FRANKFURT, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Nivea maker Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said profit will be hit by restructuring as the Hamburg-based company cuts the number of products to focus on skin care to counter a decline in market share.

Beiersdorf, which also makes hair products and make-up and the La Prairie luxury skincare brand, has been losing ground in the consumer and personal goods market to rivals such as Henkel (HNKG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and L’Oreal (OREP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and has disappointed investors with its results so far this year. [ID:nLDE6A30CN]

The package of measures, which will include investment in new skin and body care products, will cost the company 270 million euros ($357.6 million) by 2012, 120 million of which will be taken as charges in the current year, it said on Friday.

Some of the total charges also stem from write-downs on the goodwill of brands it acquired when it moved into China three years ago.

This means that the 2010 target for earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) as a percentage of sales will now be 9 percent, down from a previous EBIT margin outlook of about 11 percent.

Shares in the company, which have far underperformed rivals this year, reversed earlier gains after the statement on Friday and were down 3.2 percent at 44.91 euros at 1504 GMT.

Analyst Robert Greil at Merck Finck said the relatively high amount of additional costs for 2010 was especially surprising, almost half of which he said was likely for the writedowns in China.

FRANKFURT, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Austrian online gaming company bwin (BWIN.VI: Quote, Profile, Research) hopes to make a profit in its newest market, France, by the end of 2011 after start-up costs there hurt earnings for the last two quarters.

Bwin, which is merging with London-listed PartyGaming (PRTY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to create the world’s biggest listed Internet gambling company, on Thursday reported third-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) down 42 percent at 9.8 mln euros ($13.2 million).

Like in the second quarter, it said earnings were knocked by start-up costs for the French market, liberalised earlier this year, along with work on a new IT platform. It booked marketing costs of 31.3 million euros for the quarter, 31 percent higher than a year ago.

“We are slowly normalising marketing investments in France,” joint CEO Norbert Teufelberger told Reuters. “What we have learned from Italy is that you have to invest in the early days.”

The two companies also announced approval for the merger from the German Federal Cartel Office and bwin said the deal was on track to complete in March 2011.

Shares in bwin were up 3.2 percent at 31.09 euros at 0950 GMT, outperforming a 1.1 percent rise in the wider Austrian bluechip index . PartyGaming was up 2.8 percent in London.

Teufelberger said bwin was looking ahead to new markets in Europe such as Denmark, Spain, Greece and Germany and that he expected most European countries would be open or regulated in the next two or three years.

FRANKFURT, Nov 16 (Reuters) – With the shipping market improving and people starting to book holidays again, is now a good time to be investing in TUI AG (TUIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which covers both these areas with its Hapag-Lloyd [HPLG.UL] and TUI Travel (TT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) units?

Hapag-Lloyd on Tuesday said it swung to a profit in the third quarter and TUI earlier this month said holiday bookings in its home market are on the up. [ID:nLDE6A41T1]

Shares in TUI have dropped 7.5 percent over the last month, however, compared with a 3 percent gain for the German mid-cap index . Its shares had hit a two-year high of 9.54 euros in September.

BUY – RISKS OVERBLOWN

TUI — which describes itself as the “coal to beaches” company, referring to its origins as a mining and steel firm – is also entering a decisive restructuring and refinancing phase.

After the global financial crisis led to TUI selling a smaller stake in shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd than originally planned, TUI propped it up last year with a loan of about 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion).

It is now eyeing an exit again and many analysts expect the company to use the proceeds to buy out the minority stake in TUI Travel.

FRANKFURT/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – German truckmaker MAN SE (MANG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Swedish group Scania (SCVb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are in merger talks, Scania said, as Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) aims for full control of both to take on bigger rivals.

Scania and MAN said no decision has been reached as they reacted to reports Volkswagen, which owns key stakes in both, has a new plan for its truck business to better take on world leader Daimler (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and number two Volvo (VOLVb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The reports had said Volkswagen was planning to increase its stake in Scania to between 75-80 percent from nearly 46 percent, with its near-30 percent stake in MAN going to the Swedish firm.

Scania would then bid for the rest of MAN, the report said, in what would be a piquant turnaround from the hostile 2006 bid which MAN made for Scania under an earlier CEO and which failed.

“Financially, it’s a very neat solution,” said Metzler Equities analyst Juergen Pieper of a possible takeover of MAN by VW via the Swedish company.

At Friday’s closing price MAN was worth about 11.86 billion euros ($16.22 billion) while Scania was valued at nearly 116 billion Swedish crowns ($16.90 billion).

MAN’s shares were up 6.2 percent at 87.57 euros by 1443 GMT on Monday, their highest in 2-1/2 years, while Volkswagen was up 3.3 percent at 103.5 euros. Scania rose 1.3 percent to 147.90 crowns.

FRANKFURT, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Germany’s Henkel KGaA (HNKG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the maker of Persil detergents and Pritt stick glue, raised its 2010 targets for the third time thanks to a surge in third-quarter profit driven by its adhesives division.

Henkel’s shares jumped were up 6.7 percent at 44.85 euros at 0951 GMT, the top blue-chip gainer in Germany .GDAXI, with the wider index down 0.3 percent.

“2010 is likely to be the most successful fiscal year in our corporate history, taking us an important step closer to our 2012 financial targets,” CEO Kasper Rorsted said on Wednesday after a 35 percent jump in quarterly adjusted net profit.

The group now expects 2010 adjusted earnings per preferred share (EPS) to rise by more than 45 percent, compared with a previous target of more than 25 percent. [ID:nLDE67305C]

“(This) is still very prudent but now more realistic … We were at +49 percent before the over-delivery in Q3,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note.

Henkel said it expected the margin for earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the year to widen to “well above” 12 percent. It is targeting a margin of 14 percent by 2012.

In contrast to German peer and Nivea maker Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Henkel said it had succeeded in gaining market share for its cosmetics and toiletries products, which include Right Guard deodorant and Taft hair products. [ID:nLDE6A30CN]