Company news in brief

Heineken posts strong first-half
Heineken NV yesterday posted higher-than-expected first-half earnings, as consumers bought more beer despite inflationary pressures, but the world's second-largest brewer shelved its margin target for 2023 as costs spiked.
The brewer of Heineken, Europe's top-selling lager, Tiger, Sol and Strongbow cider, said operating profit before one-offs rose by 24.6% to 2.16 billion euro, against the consensus of a 17% increase in a company-compiled poll.
Heineken previously set a target to raise its operating margin to 17% in 2023, but it cast doubts in February on achieving that due to increased economic uncertainty and sharply higher input costs.
For the first half, Heineken reported a 7.6% rise in beer volume, with an acceleration in the second quarter and expansion in all regions, notably Asia-Pacific recovering from Covid-19 lockdowns, and solid Americas and Europe, where more consumers were drinking at bars or restaurants.
Heineken also repeated its outlook that its margin would be stable or increase modestly this year. For 2023, it said its objective now was for a mid- to high-single-digit percentage increase in operating profit itself. - Reuters

China's Alibaba in audit dispute
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd yesterday said it would work to maintain its New York Stock Exchange listing alongside its Hong Kong listing after the Chinese e-
The company on Friday became the latest of more than 270 firms to be added to the US Securities and Exchange Commission's list of Chinese companies that might be delisted for not meeting auditing requirements.
The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA) is intended to address a long-running dispute over the auditing compliance of US-listed Chinese firms.
It aims to remove foreign companies from US exchanges if they fail to comply with American auditing standards for three consecutive years.
The US rules give Chinese companies until early 2024 to comply with auditing requirements, though Congress is weighing bipartisan legislation that could accelerate the deadline to 2023. – Reuters

AstraZeneca lifts revenue guidance
AstraZeneca said it expected prescriptions of its Covid therapy to drive sales growth of more than 20% this year, as company reported second-quarter profit that topped analyst estimates.
The injection, called Evusheld, which is designed to protect against Covid infection for at least six months, has been deployed in many countries for people with compromised immune systems who see little or no benefit from vaccines.
The long-acting antibody therapy, launched in December last year, generated sales of US$445 million in the quarter.
Astra's best-selling product Tagrisso against lung cancer had a quarterly increase in revenues of 7% to US$1.4 billion, while sales of cardiovascular and diabetes treatment Farxiga jumped 51% to US$1.1 billion in the quarter, both slightly ahead of market expectations.
Second-quarter adjusted earnings almost doubled to US$1.72 cents per share for the three months ended June 30, on revenue of about US$10.8 billion, up 31%. - Reuters

Toyota group casts doubt on output goal
Toyota Tsusho Corp, part of the Toyota group, does not expect Toyota Motor Corp to meet its target to produce a record 9.7 million vehicles worldwide this business year, an executive at the trading firm said on Friday.
The comment is likely to add to speculation among analysts and investors that the world's biggest automaker will have to slash its production goal for the year to March 2023.
Hideyuki Iwamoto, chief financial officer at Toyota Tsusho Corp, told an earnings news conference he expected Toyota Motor's production to come in below target based on the automaker's monthly production results and unofficial announcements on future output.
"We haven't received an unofficial announcement showing (Toyota Motor) can produce 9.7 million, so we are being a little conservative with our estimate while looking at the unofficial announcements we have received," Iwamoto said.
The Japanese automaker has repeatedly cut back output because of global semiconductor shortages and Covid-19 lockdowns in China that have thrown supply chains into disarray. - Reuters

Amazon sees resilient consumer demand
Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it expects a jump in third-quarter revenue, as the retailer collects bigger fees from Prime loyalty subscriptions and as consumer demand remained high in spite of rising inflation.
Amazon, like much of the retail industry, is facing a reckoning. Major rival Walmart Inc last week said it would make much less this year than it once expected. US consumer confidence has tumbled to a recent low, and some are sticking to lower-priced essentials to manage economic woes.
That has not stopped Amazon. The online retailer projected net sales between US$125 billion and US$130 billion for the summer period.
Adjusting for items, Amazon reported earnings per share of 18 cents, above the consensus for a per share profit of 13 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. - Reuters