Chinese earnings

•China’s third-largest lender, Bank of China Ltd., said first-half profit rose 43 percent, to $6.2 billion. China’s banks have largely avoided the credit crisis that has battered Western lenders.

•China Telecom’s first-half earnings slipped 8 percent, to $1.85 billion, hurt by an 11.8 percent drop in fixed-line voice service revenue.

European earnings

•Bertelsmann AG, the owner of book publisher Random House, said its first-half profit of $419.4 million compared with a loss of $75 million a year ago.

•No. 1 world alcoholic beverage producer Diageo PLC of London, the maker of Johnnie Walker whisky, Guinness stout and Smirnoff vodka, earned $2.8 billion for the year ending June 30, up 2.7 percent from the previous year. Revenue rose 8 percent, to $14.9 billion.

•Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch owner of the Stop & Shop and other grocery chains, earned $497 million in the second quarter, down from $3.28 billion a year ago. Sales were down less than 1 percent, to $8.5 billion.

Airline plan

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government passed changes to a bankruptcy-protection law Thursday, a crucial step in its plan to save the struggling airline Alitalia.

The plan for the state-run carrier would break it into its profitable assets, to be taken over by a group of Italian investors ready to inject $1.5 billion into the airline; and the bad assets, which would be covered by bankruptcy protection.

German jobs

The unemployment rate in Germany dropped 0.1 percent in August, to 7.6 percent. That is its lowest in 16 years. Germany’s federal employment office said Thursday that the number of people without work fell by 14,000, to a total of 3.19 million unemployed.

Lagging sales

British retail sales fell to a record low in August — the lowest in the 25-year history of the survey — as the housing market slump and rainy weather hit consumer spending. The Confederation for British Industry said Thursday that 60 percent of retailers had lower sales in the first half of August than they did in the same period last year. Only 13 percent reported higher sales.

source:kansascity