From submarine cable laying to the satellite weather instruments, ABB expands R&D
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss power and automation firm ABB announced two new ventures this week. The first is a $5.5 million deal awarded by the Canadian Space Agency for key applications for an instrument designed for meteorological observations on Polar Communications and Weather (PCW) mission satellites.
The R&D contract is for an imaging spectroradiometer, a device designed to measure the wavelengths of individual colors of light. “Currently there are limitations to the short-term weather forecasts, long-term climatological predictions, and other services offered in the high Arctic by existing satellites, particularly with respect to mobile communications for ships, planes and unmanned aerial vehicles,” ABB says in a statement.
“To help improve these services the PCW mission aims to place two satellites into a highly elliptical orbit approximately 39,900 km above the North Pole to provide reliable and continuous communication services and to monitor weather and climate changes throughout the Arctic region.”
The company also announced 23 November an agreement to buy Canadian transport company Envitech Energy “to expand its technology offering in the electrical equipment and solutions sector for rail infrastructure.” The Quebec firm, with 36 employees, is active mainly in urban public transport.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – ABB‘s financial report for the first quarter of 2011, published Wednesday, is upbeat, with a 25 percent increase in orders for the industrial engineering multinational, while net income rose 41 percent to CHF655 million.
ABB robotics packing furniture panels (photo: ABB)
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased 43 percent to approximately $1 billion. Company head Joe Hogan attributes the solid performance to lower costs and successful targeting of growth areas.
Credit Suisse published its results, the day after UBS, showing net income of CHF1.1 billion, in line with analysts expectations, with net new assets of CHF19.1b. Income was down 45 percent compared to a year earlier, but up 35 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2010.
The weaker performance compared to a year earlier was due, according to chief executive officer Brady Dougan, to “own debt and stand-alone derivatives relating to own funding liabilities” as well as to the franc’s continued strength against the dollar.”
Both net income and new inflows of money were lower for Switzerland’s second largest bank than for UBS.
St Louis, Missouri, USA (GenevaLunch) - A gunman killed three people and injured at least five others, three of them critically, at the offices of Swiss-Swedish multinational ABB in St Louis Thursday 7 January, according to police reports. The man entered the factory at 06:30. ABB was unable to give details or confirm more than the police information to wire services, at 19:35 Swiss time, saying the situation was still unclear. Initial media reports in the US indicate that the gunman was among those killed, and that he was a former employee who was in litigation with the company, but none of this has been confirmed officially.
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Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – ABB has announced a $1 billion profit in the third quarter, confirming the news it anticipated 10 days ago. Profits are up 12 percent over last year thanks to unforseen improvements that allowed it to release $380 million in provisions. But the outlook is uncertain, the company says. The need for energy-efficient power infrastructure world-wide remains, but the current economic climate means many customers – governments, mainly – are deferring infrastructure investments.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – ABB, Switzerland’s largest engineering group, says that positive developments will allow it to post a $1 billion profit when its official figures are announced 29 October. The more upbeat business environment has allowed the company to reduce its provisions against charges in the third quarter, boosting its profits. At the end of 2008, ABB announced that compliance, tax and restructuring costs would require it to reduce its forecast profits.
Energy conversion
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s main industrial engineering group, ABB, announced 4 September it had won a contract worth $41mn to upgrade the urban rail network in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sao Paulo’s light rail network moves 2mn commuters daily over 261km of tracks, and the city has plans to increase capacity by four times, making this the largest public transportation project in Brazil.
Scissors award 2008 for biggest salary spread: ABB
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The salary spread between the lowest-paid worker and a member of the board in Swiss companies has increased 72 percent since 2002. While ordinary workers’ salaries have increased 8.4 percent during this seven-year period, the average board member’s pay has gone up 83 percent.
The figures were relased by Travail.Suisse Monday 15 July. They are the result of the fifth survey it has carried out of 27 Swiss corporate groups’ pay packages.
Travail.Suisse is an independent association that represents the interests of workers. It gave its annual award for the greatest spread in salaries to ABB at a press conference in Bern 15 June and called on the government to heed public cries to stop what it calls “indecent” salaries for top managers and board members.
