Olympus execs plead guilty in £1bn fraud trial September 25, 2012 JAPANESE camera and medical equipment maker Olympus Corp and three of its former executives pleaded guilty yesterday over charges related to a $1.7bn (£1.05bn) accounting cover-up in one of Japan’s biggest corporate scandals. The scandal was exposed last October by chief executive Michael Woodford, who was sacked by the Olympus board after querying dubious deals [...]
BlackBerry outage hampers RIM’s bid to bounce back September 25, 2012 IF Research in Motion could have chosen a day to have a second BlackBerry outage in less than a year then last Friday, when Apple’s record-breaking iPhone 5 hit the shelves in the UK, would probably not have been first choice. Yet that is what transpired. Last year RIM suffered an outage that went on [...]
Rentokil catches US pest firm to become world’s third-biggest September 25, 2012 PEST CONTROL firm Rentokil Initial yesterday announced it had snapped up US firm Western Exterminator for up to $115m (£70.9m), in a move that will make it the world’s third-largest company of its kind. The move continues Rentokil’s strategy of expanding into North America, Latin America and the Middle East. “This acquisition significantly increases Rentokil’s [...]
Quintain deputy chief executive steps down to start up new firm September 25, 2012 QUINTAIN announced yesterday that its deputy chief executive Becky Worthington is to step down after 14 years with the developer to set up her own firm. Worthington – Quintain’s finance director until her promotion in May – will leave the company on 31 October. Some of her duties will go to Richard Stearn, who was [...]
Stobart picks KPMG for audit September 25, 2012 LOGISTICS business Stobart Group, the company behind the iconic Eddie Stobart lorries, yesterday appointed KPMG as its new auditors, ending a decade long relationship with the incumbent Ernst & Young. The Carlisle-based lorry firm, listed on the FTSE 250, appointed KPMG Audit after it beat off Ernst & Young and another unidentified professional services firm [...]
TNK-BP seals $675m finance September 25, 2012 RUSSIA’S third-largest oil company TNK-BP has signed a $675m loan with a group of banks, falling short of its targeted $750m after one bank was unable to commit to the financing, banking sources said yesterday. The firm, which is in the middle of a tug-of-war between the Kremlin and shareholders BP and AAR, will use [...]
Sanofi to cut fewer jobs in France September 25, 2012 French drugmaker Sanofi scaled back planned layoffs under pressure from the French government, which has been struggling to contain a burgeoning unemployment rate. Sanofi said it could shed around 900 jobs in France in the next three years, fewer than the 2,500 predicted in July by trade unions, as part of the company’s planned reshuffle [...]
Foxconn China plant reopens September 25, 2012 Apple-supplier Foxconn Technology Group’s plant in Taiyuan in northern China resumed production yesterday morning after a riot that involved 2,000 workers had forced the company to close the factory on Monday. Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo said he saw no impact on supply to clients after the closure. “We have 79,000 people working in Taiyuan campus, [...]
SAB hires ex-Centrica director September 25, 2012 Centrica’s former communications chief Catherine May yesterday became the latest woman to be hired on the board of a FTSE 100 company after being named as SABMiller’s director of corporate affairs. May will join the brewing giant on 15 October after half a decade at Centrica. She will replace Sue Clark, who was promoted to [...]
Meet the hero of the Audi range September 25, 2012 The Neckarsulm facility, near Stuttgart in Germany, is the home of Audi’s R8 supercar production and where it builds its RS line of high-performance vehicles. It’s also where quattro GmbH and its motorsport division is based, which is why we’re racing across Europe from the UK to Neckarsulm on a 600-mile drive in Audi’s latest [...]
