Financial Director articles from January 2006

Financial Director archives from January 2006

Editor's letter - Brown's blues.(Gordon Brown)(Editorial)
January 30, 2006... Byline: Andrew Sawers, editor, editor@FinancialDirector.co.uk. What is it with Gordon Brown right now? Just a few weeks ago he suddenly waded into the corporate governance debate, wearing the mantle of a man pre-ordained to lighten the...

European law - Heath's legacy. The erosion of Britain's tax sovereignty was far from Edward Heath's mind when he signed the UK up to the European Economic Community. David Rae investigates how his decision is now impacting on the chancellor's control over tax revenue.(tax law)
January 30, 2006... When in 1973 Edward Heath signed Britain up to the European Economic Community, the chances are that the implications his decision would have for the UK's tax-making powers were very far from his mind. By entering the Common Market Heath...

Companies to proceed with OFR.
January 30, 2006... OFR "a missed opportunity" Gordon Brown's questionable decision to abolish the statutory OFR angered investors, but 60% of Corporate Executive Board members said they would continue with their compliance projects as planned. Just 5% of...

Brown's month.(Gordon Brown)(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... OFR scrapped - Chancellor Gordon Brown announced on 28 November that he was scrapping the regulations for a mandatory operating and financial review, proclaiming the move as part of a broader attack on red tape. But the OFR rules were to...

Brown drills deeper for taxes. The Chancellor's windfall tax on the oil giants may not be politically sensitive with voters, but its long-term effect on the industry could ultimately leave the Treasury out of pocket, writes Anthony Harrington.
January 30, 2006... Speaking on a radio interview some days after his [pounds sterling]2bn raid on the North Sea oil and gas sector, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, gave a lofty dismissal to a highly negative response from the UK Offshore Operators Association...

Embrace change. UK business must accept that abolishing statutory OFR is a step in the right direction.
January 30, 2006... Byline: Peter Williams, a chartered accountant and freelance journalist. UK plc appears to be suffering from the corporate equivalent of the Stockholm Syndrome. Chancellor Gordon Brown tears up the statute book on Operating and Financial...

Corporate governance - United in their dismay. OFR farce shows how out of touch the Chancellor is with the business world.
January 30, 2006... Byline: Robert Bruce, a leading commentator on accountancy issues. Bizarre political decision-making can end up creating distinctly odd bedfellows. Who would have thought that we would have Friends of the Earth and the Institute of...

IT strategy - Common ground. It's time IT and finance functions worked together if IT projects are to provide real business benefits.
January 30, 2006... Byline: David Rae, deputy editor of Financial Director. Another day, another survey claiming that every IT project any company ever bothers to embark on is an abject failure. In fact, on this particular day it was two. Both came from...

Economics - Time to say sorry. Rather than admit to mistakes, the Chancellor is quick to change the rules when the figures don't add up.(Gordon Brown)
January 30, 2006... Byline: Dennis Turner, chief economist at HSBC. There were no surprises when the Chancellor delivered his ninth pre-Budget report (PBR) at the start of December. His assessment of what was happening in the economy today was in line with...

The financial director interview - Switch board. Ofcom's review of the telecoms sector has forced BT to restructure, but for some it did not go far enough.(Office of Communications)(Interview)
January 30, 2006... Byline: David Rae. "We describe it as changing the engines of a Boeing 747 while it's flying," says Peter Cross, chief financial officer of Openreach, the new division created by BT Group in response to regulator Ofcom's review of the...

The Financial Director interview - Acquired taste. SABMiller has sent one foreign brewery after another down the hatch. CFO Malcolm Wyman explains why the company won't get a hangover.
January 30, 2006... Byline: Andrew Sawers. The last time Malcolm Wyman bought the beers, the round cost him $7.8bn. The time before that, EUR162m. And in 2002, "Miller Time" set him back $5.6bn. As chief financial officer of the FTSE-100 group formerly...

3G telecoms - Mobileage. With mobile devices now offering genuine business benefits, operators are well placed to recoup some of the losses incurred from the infamous 3G auction.
January 30, 2006... Byline: Anthony Harrington. When the UK's mobile operators all but bankrupted themselves in 2000 in a wildly over-the-top auction for 3G licences, the technology was supposed to be no more than a year away. The justification for five...

OFR update financial director briefing - The devil is in the lack of detail. Although the OFR is no more, companies will still be obliged to meet many of its requirements.
January 30, 2006... Byline: Sarah Perrin. At the end of November Gordon Brown announced that the government was abandoning the mandatory Operating and Financial Review, replacing it with a simpler business review in line with the minimum requirements of the...

Financial director briefing the turner report - Turner's retirement plan, age 67.(Lord Turner)
January 30, 2006... Byline: Anthony Harrington. Lord Turner's National Pension Savings Scheme may be controversial, but will it be pensioned off before it starts? The Turner report: A new Pensions Settlement for the 21st Century - the second report of the...

Financial Directions - Tax functions central to business planning.
January 30, 2006... Transfer pricing continues to be the most important tax issue for large multi-national companies, with almost two-thirds of respondents to an Ernst & Young survey admitting they had been on the receiving end of a transfer pricing audit in the...

Financial Directions - IFRS conversion helps investors decide.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... Fund managers are taking real value from the conversion to IFRS, with 50% claiming that the transition has influenced them to either divest from a company or not to invest in the first place. A survey of 75 fund managers, representing more...

Financial Directions - FDs' strategic role in jeopardy as regulatory burden takes its toll.(financial directors)
January 30, 2006... FDs feel the strain Finance directors are becoming less influential in strategic decision-making within the business because of the increase in regulation and compliance. Despite having a positive effect, in terms of finance and IT...

Financial Directions - Financial bites.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... "Business does not interest me anymore." Dame Anita Roddick on her decision to leave the business world and give [pounds sterling]51m to charity, Daily Telegraph, 12 December 2005. "I have no comment today, and probably not for the rest of...

Financial directions - Oil-fuelled inflation fears may be overdone. Inflationary pressures would suggest a hike in interest rates is inevitable, but overly aggressive measures could hit economic growth. Concerns remain over the US external deficit, which could trigger a weakening of the US dollar, writes David Kern.
January 30, 2006... Byline: David Kern, economic adviser to the British Chambers of Commerce and to RSM Robson Rhodes. Inflation has risen in recent months, mainly due to surges in oil prices. Core inflation (excluding energy & food) remains low, wage...

Extraordinary items - Performance bed-panned.(spending)(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... Back in March 2004 we interviewed Richard Douglas, finance director of the National Health Service. As someone who was in charge of spending [pounds sterling]60bn of taxpayers' money, he was clearly a force to be reckoned with. More...

Extraordinary items - When guinea pigs cost 21/-.(pricing)(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... If you remember popping into the shops in 1947, you won't be surprised to hear that prices are now 25 times what they used to be almost 60 years ago. The Office for National Statistics recently published this little numerical nugget, revealing...

Extraordinary items - FDs try to mark the market.(financial directors, stock markets)(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... It's time to catch up with how well the FDs we interviewed in 2004 fared at forecasting the end-2005 FTSE-100 index. A year ago, the market was at 4,750, having edged up only slightly throughout the year from 4,500. It was hardly a bullish...

Extraordinary items - Tax-deductible humbug.(spending survey)(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... It can't be easy being an accountant at Christmas. After all, Ebenezer Scrooge wasn't exactly a sales and marketing director, was he? It is while in what Charles Dickens calls Scrooge's "counting house" that he first utters the words "Bah,...