International company news in brief: Tesla chair rejects plan to replace Musk

Tesla chair rejects plan to replace Musk

BENGALURU — Tesla chair Robyn Denholm on Thursday denied a Wall Street Journal report that said board members had reached out to executive search firms to find a new replacement for CEO Elon Musk.

The Journal had reported on Wednesday that Tesla’s board members had reached out about a month ago to several executive search firms to find the company’s new CEO, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Denholm said on X that the report was “absolutely false” and said that the EV maker’s board is “highly confident” in Musk’s ability to “continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead”. Musk also said on X that the report was a “deliberately false article”. Reuters

UK’s Drax expects annual profit to top estimates

BENGALURU — British power company Drax Group on Thursday said it expects its annual adjusted core profit to be at the top end of analyst consensus estimates, helped by sturdy pellet production and biomass generation.

Drax said its pellet production business is performing effectively, with output ahead of last year, with operations at Drax Power Station, the UK’s largest single source of 24/7 renewable power, also progressing well.

Drax, which generates about 6% of Britain's electricity, said it continues to aim to generate recurring adjusted ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of £600m-£700m beyond 2027. Reuters

Rolls-Royce upbeat on offsetting global tariff effects

LONDON — British engineering company Rolls-Royce said on Thursday it expected to be able to offset the effect of global tariffs to keep it on track for 2025 profit targets, after a strong start to the year.

Rolls-Royce said the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, with President Donald Trump imposing taxes of up to 145% on Chinese goods and Beijing hitting back with a 125% tariff, was causing uncertainty for the industry.

For 2025, Rolls-Royce still expects to make underlying operating profit of £2.7bn-£2.9bn. Reuters

Woolworths posts third quarter sales growth

BENGALURU — Woolworths, Australia’s largest supermarket chain, said cost-conscious shoppers were increasingly looking for cheaper alternatives amid rising living costs, spurring its push into more private-label offerings, similar to rival Coles.

Cost-of-living pressures loom as an important issue for Australians voting in a general election on May 3.

Woolworths, which sells more than one-third of Australian groceries, posted better-than-expected third-quarter sales on Thursday, as price cuts boosted volumes in its core grocery business.

Shares ended 1.2% higher at $31.94 on Thursday. Reuters

LSEG reports higher first-quarter income

BENGALURU — The London Stock Exchange Group on Thursday reported stronger than expected first-quarter income, driven by robust growth in its markets division, and a strong performance across its other businesses.

LSEG, which runs the London Stock Exchange and provides data and analytics to banks and other institutions, said total income, excluding recoveries, in the first quarter was £2.26bn, up 7.8% on an organic constant currency basis. Analysts were expecting a 7.6% increase on average, based on a company-compiled poll.

The markets division had growth of 13.5% on a constant currency basis and the data and analytics business produced growth of 5.1% in the quarter. Reuters

Investor calls for removal of Ricardo chair

BENGALURU — Science Group on Thursday said that it has requisitioned a general meeting of shareholders at Ricardo to propose the removal of its chair Mark Clare, ramping up calls for change at the British consulting firm.

The UK-based science and technology consultancy firm, which holds about 20% of Ricardo, has sought changes at Ricardo, citing underperformance and structural inefficiencies. Its bid to replace Clare and two other directors was rejected in March.

“In effect, the general meeting requisition is a vote of no-confidence in the leadership of the Ricardo Board,” Science Group said. Reuters

Serious Fraud Office arrests Blu-3 bribery suspects 

LONDON — Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has arrested three people as part of an international bribery investigation into British infrastructure provider Blu-3 and “former associates” of the global construction firm Mace Group.

The SFO said in a statement on Wednesday that more than 70 of its staff searched four homes and one commercial property in Britain and Monaco authorities searched another suspect's premises.

The SFO said people at Blu-3 were suspected of paying more than £3m in bribes to individuals they referred to as former associates of the Mace Group relating to the construction of a data centre in the Netherlands for Microsoft.

Blu-3 said it was supporting an external SFO investigation and was fully co-operating with the agency.

Reuters