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World News

Barclays beats revenue estimates and ups shareholder funds

Barclays and HSBC buildings are seen amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain October 20, 2020.

Matthew Childs | Reuters

Barclays beat second-quarter profit expectations on Wednesday and boosted returns to shareholders, with its investment banking and equities businesses posting record incomes.

The British lender posted a quarterly attributable profit of £2.1 billion ($2.9 billion), up from £90 million for the second quarter of 2020. Analysts had expected net reported income of £1.7 billion for the three months until the end of June, according to Refinitiv data.

Equities and investment banking fees were up 38% and 27%, respectively, in the second quarter.

Barclays also announced increased capital distributions to shareholders, with a half-year dividend of 2 pence per share and a further share buyback of up to £500 million.

The bank has also seen a significant reduction in credit loss provisions, as outlined in its first-quarter earnings report.

Barclays shares are up by around 15% year-to-date, but were as much as 31% higher at the end of April.

Other highlights for the quarter:

  • Group revenues hit £5.4 billion, fractionally up from £5.34 billion a year ago.
  • CET 1 ratio, a measure of bank solvency, came in at 15.1%, up from 14.2% a year ago.

Barclays has previously indicated that it expects costs to rise in 2021 compared to the previous year, due to coronavirus-related expenses, a real estate review, further structural cost action and pay increases.

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Business

British EV start-up Arrival North Carolina manufacturing unit to construct a UPS fleet

A UK electric vehicle company has roots in the US and plans to roll out its new production concept globally as the demand for new mobility systems increases.

Arrival, which develops electric vans and buses, announced last week that it is building a second microfactory in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company plans to assemble vehicles for a fleet order from United Parcel Service there from the second half of 2022.

President Avinash Rugoobur told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday that its vertically integrated micro-factories require less space and capital investment than traditional manufacturing facilities.

“We’re working with the city of Charlotte to create a whole transportation ecosystem together,” he said in a Mad Money interview. “If you look at the global scale that needs to be switched to electricity, we expect microfactories all over the world.”

Arrival is investing more than $ 41 million in the Charlotte plant, where the US headquarters are located.

The company plans to go public as part of a blank check merger with Ciig Merger and expects to hire more than 250 employees at the site. This is in addition to the 650 jobs that will be brought into the region as part of the corporate offices announced in December.

According to Arrival, it is a mission to accelerate the transition to zero-emission commercial vehicles. The company claims a competitive advantage by designing its own batteries and other components in-house and writing its own software, Rugoobur said.

“The interesting thing about the microfactory is that you can use existing warehouses and turn them into production facilities,” said Rugoobur.

UPS ordered 10,000 Generation 2 electric vehicles from Arrival almost a year ago to electrify the fleet of delivery vehicles. At the same time, the delivery company took part in Arrival.

The electric vehicles are expected to hit the streets in the next four years.

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Business

UPS This fall 2020 earnings: Revenues beat projections

An independent contractor driver wears a face mask while operating a delivery truck to deliver N95 respirators outside of a United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) floor sorting facility in Louisville, Kentucky, USA on Monday, April 13, 2020.

Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

UPS shares rose more than 4% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company reported better-than-expected sales and profits during the busy Christmas shopping season, driven by a boom in online shopping due to the Covid-19 pandemic .

Revenue for the Atlanta-based logistics and delivery company increased 21% to $ 24.9 billion for the fourth quarter ended December 31. This was a record for UPS, which posted unprecedented e-commerce sales over the holidays.

The company’s domestic parcel business saw revenue jump 17.4% year over year as the network was filled to the brim with parcels from online retailers, including Amazon.

Here’s how UPS fared relative to investor expectations in the fourth quarter, based on Refinitiv estimates:

  • Adjusted earnings per share: $ 2.66 per share versus $ 2.14 expected.
  • Revenue: $ 24.9 billion versus $ 22.87 billion expected.

The company posted a sizeable loss of $ 3.26 billion for the quarter after reporting fees of $ 5.6 billion. These charges included a $ 4.9 billion market value annuity, an after-tax impairment loss of $ 114 million, and an impairment loss of $ 545 million related to the Company’s sale of UPS Freight.

UPS did not provide an outlook on future earnings due to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

“Our fourth quarter financial performance exceeded our expectations and I thank all UPS employees for their extraordinary efforts to provide industry-leading service during the vacation.” CEO Carol Tome said on the income statement.

The results come from a record-breaking shipping season fueled by the pandemic. The buyers were already tempted to distribute the number of packages in the system at the same time with Christmas sales in October.

At times, UPS asked drivers to stop collecting packages from some major retailers such as Nike and Gap after they exceeded the capacity allocations set by the delivery company. UPS also introduced surcharges to offset higher costs associated with increased package volumes and the pandemic.

The company’s adjusted operating margin increased slightly to 11.5% for the quarter, although the margin for the domestic shipping unit decreased slightly to 8.8%.

In addition to vacation deliveries, UPS and rival FedEx began shipping Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to the US in December to bolster their health care business.

“As we look to the New Year after 2020, we are optimistic. We started shipping COVID-19 vaccines in the fourth quarter and are ready to bring hope and health to people around the world,” said Tome.

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Business

UPS and FedEx say plans to ship the vaccine are underway.

UPS and FedEx said they would also put their own tracking tags on vaccine shipments. And Mr. Wheeler told the Senators that every UPS truck that carries the cans will have a device that tracks its location, temperature, exposure and movement. The company’s trucks will also have escorts, he said. It’s not clear if he was referring to the local police or other government officials, or possibly private guards, and the company declined to disclose.

The vaccine delivery kits were put together by McKesson, a medical supplier that has been asked by federal agencies to act as the central distributor of the vaccines and supplies such as syringes and alcohol wipes. Unlike Pfizer, Moderna, whose vaccine could soon be approved, plans to have McKesson package its vaccines alongside supplies, Smith said.

In the case of Pfizer, UPS plans to ship the kits – from a McKesson location in Kentucky – before the vaccine so that errors can be identified with addresses in its system, Wheeler said. The kits include a syringe, a substance used to dilute the vaccines, personal protective equipment, instructions and mixing vials, he said.

Shippers have spent months upgrading the cold store infrastructure for the Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. UPS, for example, has installed ultra-low temperature freezers capable of keeping goods as low as minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit near their air freight centers in the US and Europe. Its Louisville hub also plans to produce more than 24,000 pounds of dry ice a day. FedEx has also added ultra-cold freezers to its US network.

The airlines have also prepared to ship the vaccines, working with aircraft manufacturers and the Federal Aviation Administration to safely move more dry ice than is normally allowed. UPS also sends the agency a daily file of their flights so it can prioritize others, Wheeler said. The company is in daily contact with officials involved in Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to accelerate vaccine development.

Categories
Health

GPS monitoring, precedence touchdown for coronavirus vaccines, FedEx, UPS say

Wesley Wheeler, President of Global Healthcare at United Parcel Service (UPS), holds up a sample of the vial used to ship the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, as presented during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the Senate testifies on logistics for shipping a COVID-19 vaccine on December 10, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images

Location tracking and priority flights are among the special treatments FedEx and United Parcel Service are planning to deliver coronavirus vaccines, executives said Thursday.

The shipping giants told a Senate transportation subcommittee that even when the busiest shipping season peaks during the holiday season, vaccines will be given priority over all other items. Richard Smith, executive vice president of FedEx Express, said the company is calling it the “Shipathon.”

Smith and Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Global Healthcare, expressed confidence that their companies could get the vaccines to administrative centers in the US and explained how they plan to divide the work.

Your comments come as federal health officials appear to be on the verge of deciding whether to accelerate approvals for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.

“Just to point out how deep this is, you have two strong rivals … in FedEx and UPS who are literally joining forces to make this happen,” said Smith. UPS also supplies materials for the vaccine kits such as diluents, syringes, and protective equipment for the medical personnel who administer the shots.

According to Wheeler from UPS, vaccine and dry ice shipments – Pfizer’s vaccine must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit – will each have special labels with tracking technology. Vaccine shipments are also transported using devices that monitor temperature, location and movement.

He added that vaccines are loaded first and unloaded first on UPS planes. Executives said they are working with the Federal Aviation Administration to alert them to airplanes carrying the vaccine so that they can get priority take-off and landing permits.

“We are in constant communication with the aviation industry on daily command center calls and weekly calls with industry executives,” the FAA said in a statement. “We’re working with the industry to identify priority flights and prioritize our resources to meet the greatest demand.”