Company news in brief

Unilever's Dutch entity to replace parent company

FTSE Russell said on Tuesday consumer goods giant Unilever Plc would be deleted from all its indexes by the end of the year and replaced by New Unilever NV.

New Unilever NV will be incorporated in the Netherlands and listed on Euronext Amsterdam, FTSE Russell said in a statement.

The exchange’s announcement comes hours after the Dove soap and Lipton tea maker provided details for its December listing of its new Dutch entity.

-Nampa/Reuters

LG Display struggles for footing

The chief executive of South Korea’s LG Display, Han Sang-beom, was determined to deliver a strong message when he appeared before 1 000 employees at the firm’s main manufacturing plant last spring.

So he donned a pair of goggles, picked up a hammer, and smashed a liquid-crystal display screen to bits.

The symbolism was impossible to miss: LCD panels, the company’s mainstay for years, were being relegated to the industrial dustbin. The company’s future would depend on a newer technology, organic light-emitting diode, or OLED.

“I’ve never seen him do such a thing,” said one company official who was present. “His performance showed a grim determination to weather this crisis.”

-Nampa/Reuters

Apple's newest iPhone could have big screen

Apple Inc is expected to blast further past the US$1 000 price barrier when it launches new iPhones later yesterday, but Wall Street is most intrigued by how deep into its larger-than-ever lineup prices hikes may go.

Apple’s market capitalisation has passed US$1 trillion and the company needs to sustain revenue growth from its signature product even as global demand for smart phones plateaus. One way to do that is to get people to buy more expensive phones.

“There’s no real game changer on the table,” said Hal Eddins, chief economist at Apple shareholder Capital Investment Counsel. “It’s a matter of getting people to keep moving up.”

-Nampa/Reuters

Boeing 737 production rebounds

Boeing Co bounced back from a production snarl to deliver 48 single-aisle 737s in August and extended its lead over rival Airbus for new orders.

Boeing’s August 737 deliveries, announced on Tuesday, were an improvement from the 29 delivered in July, which was one of its lowest monthly tallies in years, due to ongoing supplier delays that caused unfinished aircraft to pile up at its Renton, Washington plant.

The world’s biggest planemaker said it was making “good progress” toward fixing the logjam by year end.

-Nampa/Reuters

Cadbury owner Mondelez builds Brexit chocolate stash

Cadbury owner Mondelez International is stockpiling ingredients, chocolates and biscuits in Britain to avoid interruptions to business in the event of a hard Brexit.

The preparations are the latest from a growing list of big companies unsettled by the lack so far of an exit deal as Britain’s planned March 29 departure from the European Union looms ever larger.

While many manufacturers in Britain clearly desire a Brexit deal that would allow the free flow of products, Mondelez is preparing for the worst, The Times reported on Tuesday, citing the president of the company's European division.

“We are stocking higher levels of ingredients and finished products,” Hubert Weber was quoted as saying, with the paper adding that the Mondelez contingency plans are in place because the UK is not self-sufficient in terms of food ingredients.

-Nampa/Reuters