International Business / The Pacific

Daimler-Benz Reports Loss for 1995, Skips Dividend: Daimler-Benz’s final accounts showed it lost $3.9 billion in 1995, and it failed to pay a dividend for the first time since 1950. The loss, just less than Daimler’s projection of a $4-billion loss, came as a major blow to the industrial conglomerate, which in many ways symbolizes corporate Germany. Daimler, which made a net profit of $604 million in 1994, reported an operating loss for 1995 of $742 million contrasted with a profit of $1.8 million a year earlier, but said operating results were improving in the second half because of currency market factors. The bottom line in 1995 was hit by restructuring costs totaling $3.4 billion.