Lucie Rychla
November 3rd, 2016

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AP Møller-Mærsk’s shares took a massive dive yesterday morning after the shipping and oil conglomerate announced highly disappointing financial results for the third quarter of 2016.

Maersk’s shares plunged more than 7 percent on Wednesday as the company’s net profit fell by 16 percent to 2.8 billion kroner compared to the same quarter last year.

The group is continuously being challenged by weak freight rates and low oil prices and is expecting to finish this fiscal year with a net profit of less than 6.7 billion kroner compared to 20.8 billion in 2015.

FLSmidth to build cement facility in Iraq
The Danish engineering company FLSmidth has signed a contract with Iraq Cement Company worth more than 1.3 billion kroner to build production facilities in the Al Muthana region with a total capacity of 6,000 tonnes of cement per day.

The agreement includes engineering, a complete supply of equipment from FLSmidth, construction, installation and training once the facilities are finished.

The cement plant will be equipped with the most advanced technologies and devices in order to ensure an environmentally-friendly and energy efficient production process.

“We are pleased it’s us who have been chosen to support [Iraq Cement] on this journey,” stated Per Mejnert Kristensen, the head of the cement division at FLSmidth.

“FLSmidth has a long presence on the Iraqi and Middle Eastern markets and has over the years maintained a leading position in the rapidly expanding cement market.”

Biotech company upgrading financial results
The biotech company Genmab announced yesterday that it is improving its financial guidance for 2016 following better results for the first nine months of the year.

Genmab’s net revenue grew by 59 percent and totalled 889 million kroner, which is 331 million more compared to the same period last year.

The better financial results are mainly down to the sales of Darzalex, an immunotherapy product used for the treatment of cancer patients with multiple myeloma.

Previously, the company expected net revenue between 975 million and 1.025 billion kroner, which has now been upgraded to 1.2-1.25 billion kroner. As a result, the company’ shares increased by 0.3 percent on Wednesday.

Coloplast to pay more for US lawsuits
The medical device producer Coloplast has allocated an additional 750 million kroner to cover the costs of its legal proceedings in the United States, where the company faces lawsuits from hundreds of women.

Last year, Coloplast already set aside 4.5 billion kroner to deal with the cases, in which women complain about painful transvaginal mesh injuries caused by an insert device made by the Danish manufacturer.

In January, Coloplast agreed to pay over 107 million kroner to settle some 400 lawsuits.

“We are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel” Anders Lonning-Skovgaard, the CFO of Coloplast, told Berlingske Business. “Some 90 percent of the cases we are involved in have been settled.”

Thousands of American women have taken legal action against several medical suppliers selling defective vaginal-mesh implants, which are supposed to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress incontinence, but cause undesired long-term issues.