LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Company executives in Europe and Asia remained cautious about the outlook for their markets when reporting earnings and at various events on Wednesday.
Following is a compilation of their comments:
UNICREDIT
"What we have seen from the asset quality is that the pace of deterioration is slowing. We are still cautious but we are less negative than we were," said Alessandro Profumo, chief executive at UniCredit, Europe's fourth-biggest lender.
ENRC
"We believe it would be premature at this point to claim that better-than-expected demand experienced in Q1 marks the beginning of a sustainable recovery," said Miguel Perry, chief financial officer at Eurasian Natural Resources Corp.
"We remain concerned that any recovery will be in shape of a 'W' as opposed to a 'V'."
ARKEMA
"2009 will remain a very difficult year. That will be the basis of our working plan," said Thierry Le Henaff, chief executive at French speciality chemicals maker Arkema, adding that apart from a pick-up in demand in China "we don't see any tangible improvement".
ALLIANZ
"We are strongly capitalised, our investment portfolio is of high quality and liquid, and our operating profitability proves resilient," said Helmut Perlet, chief financial officer at German insurer Allianz.
ING
"Market conditions remained challenging in the first quarter as equity markets declined further, credit spreads remained elevated, real estate prices continued to fall and loan losses increased as the crisis spread from the financial markets to the real economy," said Jan Hommen, chief executive of Dutch banking and insurance group ING.
COMPASS
"The second-half has been a continuation of the last few months with growth in business wins and in healthcare and education," said Richard Cousins, chief executive at Compass, the world's biggest caterer.
"We removed 50 million pounds of costs from business in the first-half and we expect a higher figure in the second half."
LEGAL & GENERAL
"There is greater confidence in markets that the worst of the financial crisis is behind us," said Tim Breedon, CEO at British insurer Legal & General.
"Our sales figures for Q1 demonstrate that Legal & General has made a good start to the year. This reflects the diversity of our product and distribution model."
PIK GROUP
"The economic outlook is still uncertain, and substantial challenges lie ahead. We believe that the next 12 months will continue to be difficult for the Russian economy and for Russian real estate developers," said Kirill Pisarev, chief executive at Russian developer PIK Group.
NIKON
"We expect demand for machines that shrink chips to kick in towards the end of this financial year and to pick up momentum next year," said Ichiro Terato, chief financial officer at Japan-based camera and precision equipment maker Nikon Corp.
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA
"Operating conditions remain challenging, with a continuing slowdown in the domestic economy," said Ralph Norris, chief executive officer at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"Rising unemployment and slowing credit demand will have negative implications for the Australian banking sector, particularly for volume growth and loan impairment charges."
(Compiled by Simon Jessop; Editing by Dan Lalor)