End of an era as Glencore names Patrice Merrin as first female director June 26, 2014 The last bastion of male-only boards at a blue-chip company fell yesterday when Glencore Xstrata appointed Patrice Merrin as its first female director. The Anglo-Swiss mining and trading giant had come under heavy criticism from the government, its shareholders and Club 30% – which aims to get FTSE 100 boards to be made up [...]
Glencore share price higher as miner’s appointment frees FTSE 100 of all-male boards June 26, 2014 Miner Glencore Xstrata has finally appointed a woman to its board of directors, and investors seem to like the news. Shares moved around one per cent higher in early trading as the miner finally responded to pressure, adding mining veteran Patrice Merrin to its board with immediate effect. Merrin brings with her a wealth of [...]
Inside Track: Banks in clover as new issues continue to defy critics June 19, 2014 Far from being on its uppers as some of the moodier fund managers have predicted, London’s new issues market continues to show resilience as we come up to the half-way point in the year. Mid-June is when the City’s big investment bank houses conduct their mid-year reviews and on the whole they make for positive [...]
Inside Track: Tesco’s boss is out on a limb with a limp recovery plan June 4, 2014 PHILIP Clarke is beginning to sound like the corporate equivalent of Alastair Cook at the end of England’s disastrous Ashes defence. On yesterday’s conference call to discuss Tesco’s worst like-for-like sales performance in roughly 20 years, his insistence that his strategy is working sounded faintly ridiculous. “We are more competitive now than we have been [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 04 June 2014 June 3, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Bildt warns of British Balkanisation Sweden’s foreign minister has warned that Scottish independence would lead to the “Balkanisation of the British Isles” and have far-reaching consequences for the rest of Europe, in the strongest expression of concern from another EU government so far. Carl Bildt told the Financial Times that there would be [...]
Ruspetro and Glencore sign oil deal May 27, 2014 Siberian oil producer Ruspetro yesterday said it has signed a one-year deal worth 750m roubles (£13m) to deliver 1,680 barrels of oil per day to Energo Resurs, a subsidiary of Glencore. “This facility is part of the company’s ongoing cash flow management and broadens our partnership with Glencore to include a prepayment facility for domestic [...]
Glencore avoids investor revolt and vows to hire female director May 20, 2014 MINER-TRADER Glencore Xstrata saw off a protest vote at its annual shareholder meeting yesterday, with a pledge to hire a female board member by the end of the year. Glencore is the last FTSE 100 company with an all-male board, attracting criticism from major shareholders. Yesterday business secretary Vince Cable said the firm has “consistently [...]
FTSE 100 to be free of all-male boards by the end of 2014 May 20, 2014 Responding to shareholder pressure at its annual general meeting today, Glencore Xstrata chairman Tony Hayward has pledged to appoint a female director to its board by the end of the year. In March this year, the 2014 Cranfield Female FTSE board report found that two FTSE 100 companies still had all-male boards: miners Antofagasta and [...]
Essar directors resign ahead of delisting plan May 19, 2014 ESSAR Energy yesterday said seven of its non-executive directors have resigned with immediate effect, ahead of the majority stakeholder’s plan to take the oil and gas company private next month. Chairman Prashant Ruia and vice chairman Ravi Ruia, two members of the billionaire family that founded Essar, have resigned. The Ruia family is a beneficiary [...]
CNBC Comment: How Qatar became Europe’s power broker May 19, 2014 WHEN in distress, US banks call Warren Buffett. In Europe, banks have turned to Qatar. It may only be the size of Yorkshire, but Qatar’s swoop on Deutsche Bank confirms its role as Europe’s power broker, having struck similar deals with Barclays, Credit Suisse, Dexia, KBL and Greece’s Alpha Bank. Germany’s largest bank has announced [...]