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 (DAST.PA).

"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 (BSY.L).

"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 (MAGN.MM).

"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 (SL.L).

"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 (ERICb.ST) 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 (TECF.PA).

"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 (MCB.L), 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 (LOOK.L).

"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 (LSE.L) 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 (LOG.L)(LOG.AS), 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 (STM.PA).

"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 (CBRY.L), told a conference call.

"Overall leasing conditions in the U.S. are very challenging," said Steven Lowy, co-managing director at Westfield Group (WDC.AX), 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)