Conrad Black: I'll Keep My Seat In The Lords

Former media tycoon Conrad Black, who was jailed for defrauding investors, says he has nothing to be ashamed of and will continue to sit in the House of Lords.

The peer was released in May after serving three years in a US jail. In an interview with Sky's political editor, Adam Boulton, he insisted he had done nothing wrong.

When asked if he planned to continue to sit in the House of Lords, he said: "Presumably, but I haven't decided that.

"I do not accept that these charges in this manner have any validity and they certainly would not have occurred in this country."

He insisted he had been unfairly targeted by the US legal system.

"The fact that 99.5% of prosecutions in that country end in convictions … it's such a stacked deck. We so dismembered their case and struck down the prosecuting statute as unconstitutional, I feel I've done quite well."

Black was sentenced to more than six years in prison after his conviction for fraud and obstruction of justice at a high-profile trial in Chicago in 2007.

Prosecutors said he received millions of dollars in payments from companies who had bought newspapers from his Hollinger International group, in return for promises that he would not compete against them.

It was alleged he and other executives pocketed the money, which should have gone to shareholders, without telling Hollinger's board of directors.

Black was released two years into his sentence to pursue an appeal that was partially successful.

A judge reduced his sentence to three years and he returned to prison last September.

Black is now British, having renounced his Canadian citizenship to take his seat in the Lords several years earlier, but the country of his birth has given him a one-year residency permit.

However, Black insisted he is "not a refugee" struggling to find a place to live.

He said: "I am a passport-carrying citizen of the EU, I can live anywhere I want of these 27 countries. I'm not a refugee struggling desperately from place to place for some place to lay my head you know? I'm alright, I'm doing fine."

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Insurance Report: AA Says It's Good And Bad News

Car insurance costs are going down - but home insurance premiums are rising, the AA has revealed.

Taking an average of the cheapest five premiums, fully-comprehensive car insurance policy fell 2.9% to £844 in the period July-September 2012 compared with the previous three months, according to AA Insurance.

But after a summer of storms and floods, a similar survey of home buildings insurance revealed an average rise of 2.4% to £181, while home contents insurance rose 1% to £242.

Over the late summer period, young male drivers saw their premiums fall 0.7% to £1,603 on average, while those for young women fell 2.2% to £1,127.

All regions of the UK saw average car insurance premiums fall except Anglia, where they rose 1.4%.

Scotland remains the cheapest region in which to buy car insurance, averaging £438, while Greater Manchester and Liverpool are the most expensive areas at £1,059.

On home buildings insurance, the AA reported a rise in every region in the UK over the late summer period.

The biggest regional increase, of 3.5% to £177, was in Yorkshire and East Anglia, while London and southeast England were the regions with the highest average premiums, up 2.9% to £200.

Wales and the West Country had the cheapest home building premiums, up 1.1% to £157.

AA Insurance director Simon Douglas said: "I am very concerned that no agreement has yet been reached in finding an affordable option to the 'statement of principles' between the insurance industry and the Government.

"(This) ensures that families in flood-prone properties can continue to obtain flood cover.

"This expires in June next year, and if no agreement is reached soon, could lead to the most vulnerable homes becoming uninsurable."

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Beer Sales Fall Over Summer 'Due To Tax'

The beer industry claims taxes are crippling sales following revelations almost 120 million fewer pints were drunk over the summer, despite the Euro 2012 football championship and the Olympic Games.

The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) said sales of beer in pubs fell 4.8% in the quarter to September while supermarkets and off-license sales were down by 6.5%.

It blamed taxes for the 5.6% overall reduction and said there was an urgent need to freeze the beer duty escalator.

The Government's controversial policy means increases of 2% above inflation until 2014/15.

The BBPA warned that the reduction in sales was hitting Government revenues as well as jobs.

It said beer prices have endured an "astonishing" 42% tax hike since the 2%-above inflation escalator was introduced in 2008.

There is pressure for a full Parliamentary debate on the impact of beer taxes, following a petition signed by over 100,000 people which demanded Government action on the issue.

Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the BBPA, said: "If the Government wants to encourage growth, back British business and support local communities, then it must end the beer duty escalator."

A Treasury spokesman responded: "The Government hugely values the economic contribution made by pubs and breweries. We have introduced a range of tax measures that will help the alcohol industry, and pubs in particular.

"Cutting employers' national insurance contributions will make it cheaper for pubs to employ people on incomes of less than £21,000.

"The industry will also benefit from the reductions in corporation tax, fuel duty cut and extension of the small business rates relief holiday. Small beer producers are also benefiting from the small breweries relief.

"However, at a time when we are working hard to get down the deficit, alcohol duty revenues do make an important contribution to the public finances.

"Crucially, the Government has not made any changes beyond what was announced at the Budget in 2008," he said.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Yahoo!'s Marissa Mayer Promises Mobile Focus

Yahoo!'s new chief executive has insisted the company does not need a "giant pivot" in direction as it reported better-than-expected financial results.

Marrisa Mayer - who was poached from Google after 13 years with the company - instead said Yahoo! needed to focus on its mobile offerings.

She said Yahoo! had underinvested in the technology, and would update its websites - which include sports results, news and email - to make them more smartphone-friendly.

"Our vision is to make the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining," she said in her first public appearance since taking the helm in July.

"Mobile represents not only a daily habit, but a platform shift we have to ride in order to be relevant."

Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California

Excluding $2.8bn (£1.7bn) earned from the sale of its shares in Chinese internet giant Alibaba, Yahoo!'s income was $177m (£110.5m) in the third quarter of this year.

Its revenues rose slightly to $1.09bn (£0.68bn) compared with $1.07bn (£0.66bn) a year ago.

Rather than invest in a different businesses strategy, Ms Mayer said Yahoo! would improve its performance by finding opportunities in its existing businesses, including internet search.

"We're committed to going back to our roots as a consumer internet company focused on user experience," she said, adding: "We intend to win."

But she said her top priority was to invest in the industry's transition to mobile devices - which even companies like Facebook and Google are struggling with.

"We do need more mobile engineers here," Ms Mayer admitted.

"It is clear that at some point in the future Yahoo! will have to be a predominately mobile company."

Ms Mayer is Yahoo!'s third boss in a year, after former boss Scott Thompson resigned less than six months at the top over a controversy about his academic credentials.

The company makes the majority of its money from advertising online, but has fallen behind rivals like Google in recent years, and missed out on the online social networking boom.

Yahoo! still gets around 700 million users visiting it every month, but the amount of time people spend on its websites is declining.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

4G: EE Unveils Mobile Broadband Tariff Plans

EE has revealed how much customers will be paying for 4G broadband - with packages costing up to £56 per month.

Its 4G service will be the first in the UK when it launches on October 30, and the company claims it will offer typical speeds five times faster than 3G.

Fourth generation, or 4G, mobile services will deliver much faster data speeds to phones and other wireless devices, such as tablets and laptops, enabling rapid downloads and live television streaming on the go.

EE is also launching a new fixed-line fibre service for homes and offices, with speeds roughly 10 times faster than current standard broadband plans.

The basic £36 monthly 4G service gives users an allowance of 500MB of data, extending up to 8GB for the £56 plan.

Unlimited calls and texts are standard across all payment packages.

Whichever plan a customer chooses, they will receive a warning text once 80% of their monthly data allowance has been used up, with a further alert once it has all been used.

Users can either pay more to keep themselves online until the next month, or choose to go without.

4G promises a huge increase in data speeds to wireless devices like phones

EE's 4G customers will be able to download or stream one film each week without eating into their data allowance.

Further films can be downloaded or streamed, with prices starting at 79p, and the cost can be charged to a customer's mobile bill, or credit or debit cards.

The EE Film service, which combines 2-for-1 cinema ticketing, listings, trailers and film downloads or streaming, will have more than 700 films available in total at launch.

But technology site Tech Radar pointed out that the films will only be available in standard definition, which it said was disappointing as the 4G handsets feature full HD displays.

However, customers will be able to watch a film on their mobile, on their PC or even on their TV via their laptop.

A Pause & Play feature means they can view the film on one device, such as their smartphone, pause it, then pick it up on another device, such as their laptop.

The launch of the EE brand, called 4GEE, will be backed by a multi-million-pound marketing campaign.

The 4G service will initially be available in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester, with a further six cities coming online before Christmas.

More cities and rural locations are planned for next year, and 98% of the population is due to be covered by the end of 2014. 

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Consumer Spending Worries Hit London Stocks

London stocks have dipped for a third day as research reveals incomes in Britain are continuing to fall and households are reluctant to take on more debt.

The economic downturn and high levels of inflation have hit UK incomes, according to the Office for National Statistics.

It found national income per head fell by more than 13% this year, compared to its pre-recession level at the start of 2008.

"An over-reliance on the housing bubble and personal debt exaggerated income growth in the run-up to the recession," the TUC's general secretary Brendan Barber said.

"Now families have been hit by the biggest squeeze in their living standards in nearly a century."

Meanwhile, a separate study found, despite the tough times, households have "no appetite" to take on more debt.

Financial uncertainty was having a "dampening" effect on companies and households, the British Bankers Association (BBA) said, adding that demand for loans remains weak.

It found unsecured borrowing through loans and overdrafts fell by 7.7% in the year to September, as people continue to save.

The negative outlook for consumer spending - combined with Mulberry's surprise profit warning - helped drag the FTSE 100 to a one-week low.

Mulberry's rival Burberry - which also warned on profit last month - was one of the biggest fallers on the index, which had fallen by around 1.3% in afternoon trading.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

FSA Warned On RBS 'Shadow Directorships'

By Mark Kleinman, City editor

The City watchdog risks breaching rules on shadow directorships in relation to the size and shape of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), institutional investors in the taxpayer-backed lender warn today.

A number of leading shareholders in the bank have contacted me to say they believe that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is "treading a very fine line" over the bank's strategy and the execution of that strategy by Stephen Hester, RBS chief executive.

The intervention of these powerful institutions follows a letter sent by Andrew Bailey, managing director of the FSA, to Mr Hester a couple of weeks ago that encouraged the RBS boss to consider selling Citizens, its US arm, and further shrink its investment banking arm.

I revealed the existence of this letter last week.

A senior investor said today that the RBS board should only consider selling Citizens if it was deemed to be in the interests of all shareholders.

It is not clear that that would be the case at the moment, this investor said, because of the valuation attributed to Citizens and the impact that a discounted sale would have on RBS's capital position.

The shadow directorships issue is important because it would mean that the FSA, the custodian of stock market rules, could potentially be in breach of them itself. It would also make FSA employees personally liable for the decisions of the bank – although many would argue that that would be a virtue rather than a vice given the scale of the financial crash that took place under the watchdog's nose four years ago.

It also underlines the dilemma confronting the City regulator as it migrates its role from a passive supervisor of banks towards being an intrusive inquisitor of bank executives' strategic decision-making.

Sources at the FSA tell me that they do not agree with the institutional investors that there is an issue over shadow directorships because the letter from Mr Bailey to Mr Hester was a suggestion about what the RBS board might like to consider rather than a direct instruction.

It is not the first time since its £45bn rescue in 2008 that this issue has been raised in relation to RBS.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, was accused of acting as a shadow director of the bank last year when he announced in the House of Commons that RBS would be scaling back its presence in investment banking.

UK Financial Investments, the body which manages the taxpayer's 81 per cent stake in the bank, has also been forced to tread carefully in its engagement with RBS.

And in a report last week on the FSA's probe into RBS's near-collapse, the Treasury Select Committee also addressed the subject.

"Mr [Hector] Sants [former FSA chief executive] has maintained that for the FSA to have interfered with the running of banks would have risked acting as a shadow director. We agree that were this to transpire, boards of banks would be less accountable. Boards might attempt to deploy the argument that the regulator had become a shadow director as a defence in any subsequent enforcement action against them.

"The PRA's use of judgement-based regulation in the future may, at times, also lead to the appearance that the PRA is acting as a shadow director. A similar risk is run by the FCA in undertaking product intervention. We expect both the PRA and the FCA to examine how they will minimise the risk of appearing to act as shadow directors under their new approaches to regulation, and publish their findings."

RBS declined to comment, while the FSA could not be reached for comment.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mulberry's Profit Warning Over Asia Demand

Iconic British fashion brand Mulberry has shocked investors by warning that its profits will be lower than last year.

Following in the footsteps of rival Burberry, the company described a slowdown in demand from Asia, which it described as a "more challenging" environment.

It said its revenue would be less than expected because of a 4% slump in wholesale shipments and lower international sales.

Mulberry has named a bag after Alexa Chung

"Primarily due to lower wholesale revenue, Mulberry now expects group revenue growth for the year to 31 March 2013 to be below market expectations," a company statement said.

"As a result of this, combined with the previously highlighted investment being made in international retail expansion, we now expect full year profits to be below last year."

The warning caused shares to fall almost 30% to 945p in early trading.

It follows several upgraded profit forecasts over the last year, and in June the company announced a 54% hike in full-year profits to £36m.

Mulberry's new chief executive Bruno Guillon, who joined the company from luxury brand Hermes in March, insisted the firm is still profitable.

"The Mulberry brand continues to gain recognition globally and we remain very confident in the outlook for the business," he said in a statement.

It reported a 7% rise in like-for-like retail revenue for the six months to the end of September, and UK sales increased by 13% compared with same period last year.

The company is known for its high-end leather handbag, such as the popular Alexa bag, named after the television presenter and model Alexa Chung.

It is due to begin building a second UK factory in Somerset in the next few weeks, which will double its UK capacity.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Female Boardroom Quotas: EU Delays Decision

The European Commission (EC) has postponed a decision on whether to back mandatory 40% female quota on company boards.

Commissioner Viviane Reding had hoped the EC would support quotas for all listed companies in the European Union (EU) - enforced with sanctions - to correct the gender imbalance on company boards.

Her proposal followed research that revealed just one in seven board members at Europe's top companies is female, and it would take more than 40 years to reach a significant gender balance at the current rate.

But, following an afternoon of debate, the officials postponed their decision until November 14 when Ms Reding will present an altered proposal.

If the commissioners agree with the new plan, it will be put to the European Parliament which will then vote on whether to make the quotas mandatory across the EU.

Fraser Younson, head of the employment team at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, said the postponement demonstrated the pressure being put on the quota proposal.

"Businesses and government alike are becoming more vocal in their opposition of the plans," he said.

"This development keeps the issue up in the air for employers - if the proposals do progress through the European Parliament, they will be inconsistent with the UK's laws on positive discrimination.

"As we wait for the next announcement on 14 November, it is clear that opposition to this proposal is unlikely to die down."

A number of its 27 member states had publically said they would not support the original proposal, and last month nine European countries had sent a strongly-worded letter to the EC's president opposing the plan.

The UK has always rejected gender quotas, but some European countries have already imposed national quotas, including France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mining Firm Sacks 8,500 Striking Workers

The mining firm Gold Fields has fired 8,500 miners amid the bitter disputes crippling the industry in South Africa.

The company, the world's fourth-largest bullion producer, said it had carried out its threat against strikers at its KDC East mine after they failed to meet a new deadline to return to work.

Spokesman Sven Lunsche said negotiations had failed and the company had issued dismissal notices to employees, who have 24 hours to appeal.

"We have now reached a situation where the mine is becoming economically very marginal - we need to resume production as soon as possible to prevent total closure," he told Sky News.

"We have dismissed the miners, but hopefully they will use the appeal process to come back to work."

The move was described as a "last throw of the dice" by the firm, which says the dispute has cost it more than £107m.

Mr Lunsche said Gold Fields would begin hiring new staff shortly, adding: "We need to resume production, and we need workers who are willing to do that."

Its larger KDC West mine has seen around half the usual staff numbers return to work.

The development is the latest twist in a wider dispute that has left the South African mining industry battling its worst industrial unrest for decades.

More than 80,000 miners have gone on strike since August, hitting growth and investor confidence in the continent's biggest economy.

Related stories:

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More