EARNINGS AND THE ECONOMY-2009 seen challenging for most

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Company executives in Europe
and Asia continued to describe a challenging a year ahead when
reporting earnings on Thursday, although, depending on the
sector, some were cautiously optimistic.
Following is a compilation of their comments:

"The first quarter brought further deterioration of the
economic environment, which led to a significant decrease in our
new licence activity across brands and geographic regions," said
Bernard Charles, chief executive at French software firm
Dassault Systemes .
"Looking ahead, we believe the environment will continue to
be difficult," added Chief Financial Officer Thibault de
Tersant.

"Looking ahead to the rest of calendar 2009, we expect
conditions to remain challenging," said Jeremy Darroch, chief
executive at British pay-TV operator BSkyB .

"On the whole, our performance in the first months of the
year gives us confidence that the company will operate in a
stable way throughout 2009," said Viktor Rashnikov, chairman of
Russia-based Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works .

"Across quite a few of our product lines, there are strong
pipelines of new business. We're optimistic as regards the
pipeline that we have," said David Nish, finance director at
British life insurer Standard Life .

"For us to return to a profit on our operations, that might
be in the second half of this year," Jerry Shin, chief executive
at Netbook PC pioneer Asustek <2357.TW>, told an analysts'
meeting. "It might be difficult in the second quarter."

"So far the effects are limited, but we see some," Ericsson
Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg told reporters.
"We see some operators are delaying longer-term investment in
fixed, and the fixed operators are affected on revenues."

"Looking forward, market conditions remain uncertain ...
Many major project investment decisions are subject to delays as
certain clients look to their suppliers to bring down overall
project costs before making final investment decisions," said
Thierry Pilenko, chief executive at French oil services group
Technip .

"We've actually had a very buoyant period in terms of
profitability and cash flow over the past four months and we
don't see that stopping," Miles Roberts, chief executive of
McBride , Europe's biggest maker of supermarket own-brand
household and personal care goods, said in a telephone
interview.

"We continue to believe that continuing consumer confidence
fragility dictates that 2009 will be challenging for the new car
market," said Ken Surgenor, chief executive at British car
dealer Lookers Plc .

"I fully expect the IPO market to bounce back by next year
... There is a strong pipeline of companies looking towards an
IPO but we need more confidence for those to start coming
through," Marcus Stuttard, the head of the London Stock
Exchange's market for junior and growth companies, told
Reuters.

"The lead indicators we see in our business suggest the
market will not improve through 2009," Seamus Keating, CFO of
Anglo-Dutch computer services company Logica ,
told reporters in a conference call.

"We believe that the destocking phase is substantially over,
even if we have yet to see signs of a broad-based pick-up of
demand in our industry," said Alain Dutheil, chief executive of
wireless chip maker ST-Ericsson .

"We sell affordable treats and, in difficult times with a
growing stay-at-home culture, it is making us be in the sweet
spot of what the consumer wants," Todd Stitzer, chief executive
of British confectionary group Cadbury , told a
conference call.

"Overall leasing conditions in the U.S. are very
challenging," said Steven Lowy, co-managing director at
Westfield Group , the world's biggest shopping mall
landlord by market value.

"We are seeing very strong growth in our revenue," Rick
Tsai, chief executive of Taipei-based chipmaker TSMC <2330.TW>,
told an investor conference. "We believe the second half should
be better than the first half. However, it's still a difficult
year for the industry and for us."

"It will probably be a while before the economy stages a
convincing recovery, and the yen is likely to stay much higher
than a year ago," said Masahiro Osawa, managing director for
Japan-based electronics company Canon Inc <7751.T>. "We will
continue operating in a tough business environment."

(Compiled by Simon Jessop; Editing by Dan Lalor and Rupert
Winchester)
((martin.howell@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6252; Reuters
Messaging: martin.howell.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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