Business in brief: Jubilant profits up after purchase
Acquisition of Spokane-based Hollister-Stier Laboratories helped buoy 2008 revenues for Indian pharmaceutical company Jubilant Organosys Ltd. to the equivalent of about $622 million, a 37.5 percent increase from the last fiscal year.
Jubilant, which bought privately held Hollister-Stier in June for $122 million, reported yearlong net profits after taxes of roughly $98 million, or about $549,000 per diluted share, compared with profits of $58 million last year, according to a news release.
The company had revenues of about $172 million, a 48.7 percent increase over last year, for the quarter ending in March. That included about $24 million from Hollister-Stier.
Jubilant expects more than 35 percent revenue growth in 2009, and better net profits due in part to more capacity for making sterile injectables at Hollister-Stier.
– Parker Howell
Ambassadors Group reports loss
Ambassadors Group on Wednesday reported a $5.5 million loss for the first quarter, a period usually the slowest for the Spokane-based student travel promotion company.
The loss of 29 cents a share compared with a 25-cents-a-share deficit on a net loss of $5 million in the 2007 period.
President Jeff Thomas attributed some of the deterioration to an Antarctic cruise that did not book as well as it had in past years. Ambassadors increased the number of travelers in the quarter to 3,365 from 3,000 last year, and gross receipts rose 14 percent to $8.9 million, he said.
The company returned $6 million to shareholders during the quarter, $3.8 million in share repurchases and $2.2 million in dividends, Thomas said.
Ambassadors has enrolled 20 percent fewer travelers so far for 2008 but expects to be profitable for the year, he said.
– Bert Caldwell
MILAN, Italy
Ballmer: Yahoo offer won’t grow
Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer said Wednesday his company’s $44 billion offer for Yahoo Inc. reflects Yahoo’s worth and the software maker has no plan to raise it.
“We know what Yahoo’s worth; $44 billion is a lot of money,” Ballmer said at a conference in Milan.
The cash and stock bid – valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 per share, when it was first made – is now worth about $43 billion, or $29.88 per share.
– Associated Press
NEW YORK
Starbucks earnings likely to fall short
Starbucks Inc. says its second-quarter earnings will likely miss analyst expectations, as store traffic fell in the U.S. amid weak consumer spending.
The Seattle-based coffee chain is forecasting second-quarter earnings of 15 cents a share on a 12 percent revenue increase.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were predicting a profit of 21 cents a share for the quarter that ended March 30.
Starbucks says it now expects full-year earnings per share to be “somewhat lower” than the 87 cents a share recorded the previous year.
– Associated Press