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Family business roundup: Profits down at Haniel, Loews and Indofood

By Giulia Cambieri

Full-year profits have halved at Haniel, the German conglomerate controlled by the Haniel family, but two family businesses in North America and Asia have fared slightly better.

Duisburg-based Haniel, which has stakes in firms such as pharmaceutical company Celesio and retailer Metro Group, said on 30 April that its pre-tax profit dropped 50% in 2011 to €390 million, from €620 million one year earlier.

However, revenues at the family business, which traces its roots to a small storage company opened in Ruhrort in 1756, remained steady during the year at €27.35 billion, compared to €27.43 billion in 2010 – a 0.29% decrease.

Haniel blamed “government austerity measures affecting the healthcare sector” and “difficult” trading conditions for the weak results, adding that 2012 will be another challenging year.

In the US, family-controlled Loews Corporation, which has interests in a number of companies spanning property, insurance and hotels, reported a small fall in its profits. Net income at the New York-based firm was $367 million (€276.98 million) during the first quarter of 2012, down 3% from $379 million during the same period one year earlier.

The decrease was due to lower earnings at drilling firm Diamond Offshore Drilling and gas producer HighMount Exploration & Production, said the Tisch family-controlled business on 30 April.

In Asia, Indofood Sukses Makmur saw its revenues increase 9.9% to 11.83 trillion Indonesian Rupiahs (€973.01 million) during the three months to 31 March.

However, gross profit at the Jackarta-based food group, which is controlled by the Salim family through its Salim Group, decreased by 1.5% to 3.27 trillion Indonesian Rupiahs, from 3.32 trillion Indonesian Rupiahs during the same quarter last year.

In a statement released on 30 April, the company said this was because of falling profits at its agribusiness division.

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