GM to refresh management December 6, 2009 GENERAL Motors will announce a major overhaul of its European management structure this week as it seeks to reassert control over its lossmaking operations. Nick Reilly, European head of GM and chief executive of Opel and Vauxhall, is expected to unveil a new “one tier” management that combines the three brands’ executives. The shake-up follows [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 6, 2009 AshurstThe law firm’s board has reappointed Simon Bromwich to serve a further three-year term as managing partner.Bromwich was first appointed to the role in January 2004, while his new term will come to an end in January 2013.The firm’s senior partner Charlie Geffen said Bromwich had “dealt decisively” with the tough market conditions the firm [...]
Pensions burden prevents firms from restructuring for recovery December 6, 2009 DEFICIT payments on final salary pensions have damaged restructuring and recovery plans for more than a third of firms, double the number compared to 2007, says a survey released today by the CBI and Watson Wyatt. Three quarters of the 192 companies questioned, representing over one million employees, say they will have to pay more [...]
Financial services sector has a key role for climate change December 6, 2009 The world’s eyes will turn to Copenhagen today as policy makers from across the globe gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. They are faced with a huge – some would say almost impossible – challenge. Achieving any meaningful agreement on the successor to the Kyoto treaty will require bridging national agendas as far [...]
CBIcalling for global carbon trading plan December 6, 2009 BUSINESS body the CBI is set to call for a global carbon trading scheme today, as the UN’s climate change talks kick off in Copenhagen. The group will argue the case for a scheme to cap emissions, and to allow firms worldwide to buy permits for carbon – like the EU Emissions Trading Scheme – [...]
Oxfam accuses European politicians of repackaging budgets for climate change December 6, 2009 ANTI-POVERTY campaign group Oxfam yesterday accused European politicians of planning to “cannibalise” existing development aid budgets and repackage them as part of a deal to fight climate change. Oxfam said it had found evidence that exposed “undercover accounting” in some rich nations’ pledges to help poor nations to tackle the climate threat. But Sweden, holder [...]
Pharma stocks to surprise in 2010 as market gets exciting December 6, 2009 A STOCK that is safe, highly defensive and very boring is not exactly the sort of thing that you might be looking for in order to add excitement to your portfolio at a time when the world is emerging from recession and global equity markets are booming. But boring old pharma is back in favour [...]
JAPAN GETS SERIOUS ON YEN STRENGTH December 6, 2009 BRIAN DOLANCHIEF CURRENCY STRATEGIST, FOREX.COMAFTER months of confusing rhetoric over currency policy, the new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government led by Yukio Hatoyama appears to have finally got serious over combating yen strength. Japanese investor and corporate sentiment have been pummelled by daily gains in the yen, which have undercut exporters’ profits and caused [...]
THE TIPSTER TESCO COMES UNDER SELLING PRESSURE December 6, 2009 THERE’S no doubting supermarket Tesco’s market dominance nor its ability to make billions of pounds worth of profit. But its share prices has come in for a little profit taking ahead of its third quarter sales, which are due tomorrow. From a technical point of a view, the chart suggests that a head and shoulders [...]
ECONOMIC DIARY December 6, 2009 Monday 7 DecemberUSUnited States Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is set to speak at Economic Club of Washington lunch (5pm)October consumer credit (8pm)New York Fed president William Dudley speaks at Columbia UniversityJapanNovember bank lending (11.50pm)November money stock (11.50pm) Tuesday 8 DecemberUKBRC November retail sales monitor (12am)Manpower employment outlook for Q1 (12am)October industrial production (9.30am)October manufacturing [...]
