Company news in brief

Novartis to streamline production

Switzerland’s Novartis plans to streamline its worldwide production to increase its operating profit margin despite falling prices for its drugs in the United States, its chairman was reported as saying.

Proceeds from the sale of drugs in its key US market declined between 1 and 2% last year, Joerg Reinhardt told Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag. This was due to discounts pharmaceutical companies have to grant large buyers to sell their drugs in the Unites States, he said in an interview that will be published on Sunday.

Drugmakers can still charge slightly higher or stable prices in Europe, according to Reinhardt.

-Nampa/Reuters

Senate cancels postal service hearing

A Senate hearing about reforming the US Postal Service that could have scrutinized what Amazon.com Inc and others pay for package delivery has been delayed, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, moving back President Donald Trump’s effort to hike the world’s largest online retailer’s rates.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Amazon on Twitter for treating the Postal Service as its “delivery boy” by paying less than it should for deliveries and contributing to the service’s US$65 billion loss since the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, without presenting evidence.

The president ordered a task force in April to study the Postal Service, an independent establishment of the executive branch of the US government, looking at its financial health and what it charges customers such as Amazon for package deliveries, in a report due Aug. 10.

-Nampa/Reuters

Starbucks gets new NZ partner

Starbucks Corp will have a new partner in New Zealand after the license holder said it will not renew its two-decade-old deal in a region where an entrenched coffee culture has made it difficult for the world’s largest coffee chain to thrive.

Fast-food group Restaurant Brands New Zealand Ltd said in Monday it would let its license deal expire in October, though Starbucks would keep its doors open and frappuccinos flowing under a new licensee, Tahua Capital, which had acquired the license for a price of up to NZ$4.4 million (US$2.9 million).

-Nampa/Reuters

Petrobras to meet with presidential candidates' aide

Executives from Petróleo Brasileiro Sa will meet with economic aides to presidential candidates this month to discuss their agenda for the state-controlled oil company, newspaper Estado de S.Paulo said on Sunday.

Executives Nelson Silva, Rafael Grisolia and Eberaldo de Almeida Neto will schedule meetings this month to showcase the firm’s debt-cutting and divestment efforts, the report said, without specifying how it obtained the information.

-Nmapa/Reuters

Sky to invest in Israeli VC fund

Pay-TV group Sky plans to step up investments in tech start-ups in Europe and the Middle East by opening a new office in Germany and investing US$4 million in an Israeli venture capital fund.

Europe’s biggest pay-TV group has built one of the most technically-advanced platforms in Europe, helped in part by investments and partnerships it has made with more than 20 companies in the United States, Britain and France.

One of its early investments was in Roku, a provider of devices that connect televisions to streaming services which listed last year.

-Nampa/Reuters