Europe Intelligence Wire articles from April 2003

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from April 2003

Walker takes the bus to his next job.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) National Express Group has named Adam Walker as FD. Walker joined the group in 2001, previously holding the role of corp-orate development director. He served as a director of corporate finance at Arthur Andersen...

Insight - Out on a limb.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Roger Trapp. In many modern organisations, human resources departments are increasingly finding themselves in a sticky situation. Continuing talk - even in these less exuberant times - of the war for...

Insight - The tax-free budget.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Andrew Sawers. Almost exactly 150 years ago, on 18 April 1853, Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone delivered one of the most memorable Budget speeches in parliamentary history. His five-hour...

Accounting - Auditor liability - up to a point.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Peter Williams, a chartered accountant and freelance journalist. The collapse of Andersen amidst the wreckage of Enron looks likely to bring about one result that accountancy firms - and the Big Four,...

Movers & shakers.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) John Sandland has been named FD of Midland Expressway Limited, the company responsible for design and construction of the UK's first toll motorway. Age 52 Qualifications: CIMA 1980 Would you rather...

Insight interview - Smith's not so scary.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Peter Williams. The country's leading finance directors seem largely in favour, or unmoved, by the guidance penned by a working party chaired by Sir Robert Smith. In an interview with Financial...

Corporate governance - Information is the key to survival.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Robert Bruce, a leading commentator on accountancy issues. The Higgs Report addresses one crucial issue which seems to have become lost in rhetoric - gauging whether the information that company...

Pension provisions.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Pension reform proposals could force 80% of UK companies to change their executives' pension provision, according to a survey of 156 organisations by PwC, in conjunction with Monks Partnership. It believes 70,000...

Economics - Will EMU fly?
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Dennis Turner, chief economist for HSBC. The end of the first week of June is the deadline the Chancellor has set for announcing whether the UK has met the Five Tests for entry into the single...

Cover story - Headlines & bottom lines.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry. At the Marconi annual general meeting in July 2001, a couple of photographers from the national press were having a conversation within earshot of Financial Director magazine. We were all...

Working capital software - That'll 'e' the day.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Gary Flood. You have lovely new offices, have invested millions in state-of-the-art IT and communications equipment, and you use a PR company where everyone has a double-barrelled surname and drives...

Business intelligence - Balanced score keeper.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Advisors and practitioners alike repeatedly stress the importance of talking about a scorecard 'programme' rather than a scorecard 'project'. As Professor Andy Neely of Cranfield School of Management...

The Financial Director interview - Forget about the earnings.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Ken Lever doesn't believe in making life easy for himself. As finance director of Tomkins, he bears a large part of the credit for the group's return to the FTSE-100 index, and for helping to keep it there. At the...

Extra ordinary items - Too much of a good thing.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Investment analysts reduced the share price of Canary Wharf Group plc by 20% recently when they discovered that one of their favourite property development companies had negotiated secret deals allowing some of...

Financial directions - CFOs play strategists and stewards.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) The CFO's strategic and financial duties are set to evolve and become more onerous, according to two reports, writes Kevin Reed. A survey of 500 global senior executives by Deloitte Consulting and BusinessWeek...

Financial directions - Investors seek performance over style.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Financial performance has overtaken quality of management as the most important factor for analysts and investors when judging a company. Over 33% of investors and 68% of analysts think the quality of...

Financial directions - Top execs speak out on acquisitions, ROI and IT.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Change is a good thing Nearly all UK companies have undergone organisational restructuring in the past two years, according to Roffey Park's fifth annual survey of UK managers. Nearly two-thirds of the...

Financial directions - Financial bites.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) "I have a secret plan. I'm going to do it anyway." President Bush's response to then leader of the Conservative party William Hague asking the President in 2001 how he was going to deal with Europe's...

Decisions supplement - Chauffeurs - The driving force.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Catherine Chetwynd. The Executive Reward Survey, published last October by employment consultants Woodrow Wyatt, revealed that less than one chief executive in four has sole use of a chauffeur. This...

Decisions supplement - Employee benefits - Key to change.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Catherine Chetwynd. In anticipation of the changes in company car tax last April, much was written about the impending death of the car as a perk. Pundits suggested that company cars would cease to be...

Decisions supplement - Congestion charging - Proceed with caution.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. From the outset, London's Mayor, Ken Livingstone, took care to try to get fleet operators on side with the London congestion charging scheme. There are two fleet schemes - one...

Decisions supplement - Car reviews - Top 10 fleet cars.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) The most popular company cars in the UK, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, account for nearly half of all fleets. But how do they compare? Read our guide by Abby Jones of WhatCar? to...

Decisions supplement - Health & safety - Easy does it.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. No company wants any of its executives or commercial vehicle drivers to be involved in road accidents, yet government figures show that company car drivers figure disproportionately...

Decisions supplement - Fleet management - Information highway.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: John Maslen is editor of Fleet News. Internet-based services and new technology can bring massive cost savings and much greater control of fleet operations to companies. Every area of company transport...

Editor's letter - Still a great job to be done.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) We've lost count of the number of times we've written about that well-worn cliche, 'the changing role of the finance director'. The role has changed. It changed years ago - perhaps even decades ago. It is still...

Insight - Compliance is not enough.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Andrew Sawers. Corporate governance is probably one of the top-three concerns that any finance director has to consider, but many FDs are not convinced that either they or their board of directors have...

Extra ordinary items - Homerun hitter.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Warren Buffett has always been noted for the things that never change: a consistently outstanding financial performance; the fact that he never pays dividends; and he doesn't split the shares, so the Berkshire...

Financial directions - Global economy copes with uncertainty.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Graeme Johnston. Economic background Globally, economic numbers continued to give mixed signals, but overall there was a positive tone. Business surveys in the US and Eurozone proved more...

Extra ordinary items - What a pro formance.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) You have to hand it to Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha and the man behind Berkshire Hathaway. The company's net asset value has underperformed the S&P500 index in just four years since 1965. Buffett, of course,...

IT strategy - Looking for stuff, not just fluff.
April 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry. My first big interview as a journalist was for a telecoms magazine in September 2000. The interviewee was Barclay Knapp, the bombastic CEO of cable giant NTL. I was swayed by Knapp's...

Using IT to catch the false claimants.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) em>New technological developments are offering to resolve two of the biggest headaches in insurance reducing fraud and improving customer service in one fell swoop. The key lies in providing experts' insights into...

Coming soon: new iniatives.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) A NUMBER of IT-related initiatives are in development that should have major benefits for insurers, reinsurers, brokers and cedants. Some of these initiatives lead to efficiencies, save money and improve service...

Diary.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Li won't belt up PRODUCT and business liability insurers are bracing themselves for the outcome of a Chinese court case as a man sues the shop which sold him a belt that came loose during a business meeting. ...

Lloyd's broker placed into administration.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Charlie Talbot LLOYD'S brokers Collard & Partners Limited has entered administration, writes Charlie Talbot, London. After an intervention order from the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC),...

Hong Kong summit an Asian business approach.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Suzanne Moore LAST week, for probably the first time ever, a group of insurers indulged in behaviour riskier than anything Mick Jagger was prepared to contemplate they visited Hong Kong. Just a few days...

Personal accident rates rise for war journalists in Iraq.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) JOURNALISTS covering the war in Iraq face premium hikes in war personal accident policies as risk becomes more apparent. According to Steve Murphy, director at Miller Insurance Services, rates for war personal accident...

Munich Re shares fall as capital rise speculation grows.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Herbert Fromme SHARES in Munich Re had lost another 14% by late afternoon trading yesterday, following widespread expectation in the market that the company might have to resort to a capital increase in...

Asian reinsurers join Inreon.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Stuart Collins INREON, the internet reinsurance trading platform, has improved its capacity offerings in Asia. Korean Re and China International Re have joined the online marketplace. The two Asian...

News in Brief.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Di Silvio in charge ALLIANZ Marine & Aviation (AMA) has announced that with effect from today, Jacques Mercier will hand over local responsibility of AMA (Aviation) London to Emilio Di Silvio. The change reflects...

Citizens profits up 7.3%.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Peta Miller CITIZENS, a US life insurer, has reported net 2002 income of $4.3m, up 7.3% on the $4m figure it reported the year before, writes Peta Miller. An accounting change, new business generation...

S&P prepared to award Promina an A if flotation in Australia goes well.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) RATINGS agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) said it expects to raise the insurer financial strength and counterparty credit rating on the principal general insurance subsidiaries of Promina to A, subject to the successful...

China Re believes it will have big role to play in open market.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Edward Ion CHINA Re, the mainland's state reinsurer, is predicting it will continue to have a major role to play in the country's reinsurance sector despite moves to cut its compulsory cessions. Under...

Swiss Re sets up Tokyo securities arm.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Symon Ross THE world's number two reinsurer, Swiss Re, announced yesterday that it has established a licensed securities branch in Japan. The branch, to be known as Swiss Re Capital Markets (Japan),...

Standardised exposure data on Accord forms for 2004.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Stuart Collins BROKERS, insurers and cedants placing property catastrophe and excess and surplus lines business will increasingly be required to submit standardised exposure data for the 2004 year account....

Castlewood and Shinsei plan to buy Toa Re UK.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Richard Banks BERMUDA'S Castlewood and the Japanese Shinsei Bank are planning to acquire the UK operations of Toa Re through a joint venture, according to reports. Toa Re's London operations stopped...

German cedants' claims add to Gerling Global Re's woes.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Herbert Fromme GERLING Global Re (GGR) is under further pressure as cedants lodge claims against the reinsurer under a policy clause triggered by the fall in GGR's equity. According to industry...

Imagine almost doubles 2002 net income to $28m.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) BERMUDIAN finite risk operation Imagine Insurance saw its net income nearly double during 2002, writes Richard Banks. The company, which at the beginning of the year revealed an agreement giving it the option to...

Blue Mountain names its first group of users.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Symon Ross LLOYD'S-sponsored on-line insurance hub Project Blue Mountain has named the first group of companies to have signed letters of intent to use its operating platform. The companies are...

New UK web-based system to track down documents set to be rolled out.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Symon Ross LONDON market outsourcing services providers Xchanging Ins-sure Services and Xchanging Claims Services have launched a new web-based system designed to give users clearer understanding as to the...

Spark caused air crash.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Peta Miller AN ELECTRIC spark was to blame for the 1998 blaze and crash of an MD-11 Swissair jet with the loss of all 229 people on board, an investigation has concluded. The US Transportation Safety...

Markel unit faces hefty claims over US nightclub fire.
April 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Peta Miller AN EXCESS and surplus lines unit of Markel is in line for multiple-million dollar lawsuits after it provided liability cover for the Rhode Island nightclub, which was gutted by a fire that...

Wallem gets close to V.Ships.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Ownership links created by $30m deal, writes David Osler CLOSE Brothers Private Equity has bought a 45% stake in V.Ships, the world's largest shipmanagement concern. Intriguingly, Lloyd's List can also...

Crowley rides out downturn in wet trade.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: John McLaughlin in New York CROWLEY Maritime posted earnings of $6.9m in the fourth quarter of last year, taking the total for full-year 2002 to $17.3m. That compares with earnings of $3.1m and $20.1m in the...

Stena Line pins hopes on two new superferries.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Jerry Frank FERRY giant Stena Line's new boss, Gunnar Blomdahl, hopes that two new superferries to serve UK routes costing E 200m ($215m) will help to reverse losses sustained since the European Union...

Tough economy spurs Meyer Werft to axe staff.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Katrin Berkenkopf in Cologne GERMAN cruiseship specialist Meyer Werft, is to lay off 800 of its 2,600 workforce. The Papenburg-based yard called this 'an adjustment of capacities' due to the difficult...

CMA CGM unsuccessful in fire damages claim.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Ruling gives new guidance on interpreting 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability, writes Roger Pearson A TIME charterer has failed in a High Court bid to limit a $26,638,032 fire damage claim by the owner...

Yantian expansion plans give rise to massive container crane order.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) MASSIVE expansion plans at Yantian International Container Terminals in Shenzhen, China, have yielded contracts to fulfil one of the largest ever orders for container cranes in the space of nine months, writes Hugh...

Aviation insurers face sharp nosedive in premium income.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Denzil Stuart DESPITE a very favourable year in 2002, the aviation insurance market could face a sharp drop in premium income this year as major airlines struggle to survive. Passenger loads are well down on...

Lloyd's Blue Mountain becomes Kinnect.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Neville Smith LLOYD'S has announced the first companies to sign up to Project Blue Mountain and has revealed the venture's permanent brand. The project, which will now be known as Kinnect, has signed...

Losses at US subsidiary wipe out K'N profits.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Swiss-based giant writes off extraordinary goodwill totalling $151m, writes Katrin Berkenkopf in Cologne BAD business, in particular at its US subsidiary USCO Logistics, has prompted K'hne ' Nagel to write...

Steep drop for Van Oord ACZ.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Helen Hill in Amsterdam VAN Oord ACZ has experienced a sharp drop in profits which tumbled 42% to E 10.8m ($11.77m) for 2002, compared with E 18.7m in the previous year. Turnover on completed projects...

Europe's rail cabotage brakes while private sector stokes up.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) A POLITICAL compromise by European transport ministers has delayed rail freight cabotage by two years but will cut through the red tape hampering the start of private sector services, writes Roger Hailey. The Council...

Writedown dents SembCorp results.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Marcus Hand in Singapore KUHNE ' Nagel's SFr 206m ($152.4m) writedown will result in Singapore's SembCorp Logistics profit for 2002 being almost halved. SembCorp owns 20% of K'hne ' Nagel and its own...

Human error may be cause of M'lheim grounding.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) HUMAN error was probably to blame for the grounding of the RMS M'lheim near Land's End, the ship's charterer admitted yesterday, writes Katrin Berkenkopf and Janet Porter. The general cargo vessel remains firmly...

PSA makes sweeping management changes.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Restructuring sees newcomer Eddie Teh take the top spot, writes Marcus Hand in Singapore PSA Corp has unveiled its new top management with deputy chairman Eddie Teh appointed group chief executive officer....

London P'I Club hits income targets.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Jerry Frank MARINE insurer London P'I Club yesterday said its had hit its premium income targets despite a tough year for the sector. London said that during the P'I renewal completed last month it had...

Italy's Siat posts 34% rise in profits.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Justin Stares in Rome ITALIAN insurer Societa Italiana Assicurazioni e Riassicurazioni (Siat) has recorded increased profits for 2002 and predicted the continued strength of the group's key transport...

Grain feeds Pacific panamax market.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Marcus Hand in Singapore THE Pacific panamax market picked up last week, boosted by grain shipments from the North Pacific, brokers said. Shipment delays in Brazil resulted in some Asian importers...

Munich Re on slide.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) SHARES in Munich Re had lost a further 14% by late afternoon yesterday, following widespread expectation in the market that the company might have to resort to a capital increase in order to satisfy rating agencies,...

Tanker Fixtures.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Clean Kuwait to east Africa Ghetty Bottiglieri, 35,000t, W435, Apr 11. (Chevtex) Baltic to UK Continent Mekhanik Yuryev, 28,000t, W350, Apr 10. (Mabanaft) South Korea to Hong Kong Ganmur, 40,000t, $425,000...

Steady business pushes VLCC rates up.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Marcus Hand in Singapore REASONABLY steady business for very large crude carriers forced rates upwards especially, on the Arabian Gulf to the Far East trade for larger modern ships. Much of the activity...

Dry Bulk Fixtures.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Coal Richards Bay to Taranto Vessel to be nominated, 105,000t, $12.90 per tonne, fio scale'30,000t sc, Apr 20-29. (Ilva) Port Hedland to Pohang Vessel to be nominated, 170,000t, $6.60 per tonne, fio 95,000t...

Expanded UK register will help safeguard shoreline says Darling.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) UK TRANSPORT Secretary Alistair Darling, in a rare sortie into the world of shipping, has said an expanded UK register could safeguard the British shoreline, writes Jerry Frank. Mr Darling MP broke his silence on...

WTO delegates fail to agree on terms to remove farm barriers.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: John Zarocostas in Geneva WORLD Trade Organisation global trade talks have become entangled in a major political crisis after top officials from 145 countries failed to agree on Friday the terms that would...

BECA - Baltic European Coal Assessment.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) BECA - Baltic European Coal Assessment Q2 2003 32.575 short ton (-0.53%) Disclaimer: While care has been taken in the production of BECA, all assessments are for general use and are not designed to be used...

Support Vessel Focus.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Market swings from slack to very tight LONG- term charters and busy cargo activity has tightened offshore support markets in the North Sea, writes Martyn Wingrove . Dayrates for support vessels on the spot market...

Norway awards 11 new production licences in North Sea.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Energy is edited by Martyn Wingrove. Tel: 020 7553 1375 Email: martyn.wingrove@informa.com NORWAY has awarded exploration and production blocks to nine oil companies, including majors and independents in the...

Bonga gets a heavy lift as modules are powered on.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Amec half-way through 23-unit programme at Tyneside, writes Martyn Wingrove SHELL and Amec are halfway through a 23-module lift programme on the Bonga floating production storage offloading vessel at...

Lubmarine test engine puts research first.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) MARITIME lubricants supplier Lubmarine has installed what it claims is a unique test engine at its TotalFinaElf Research Centre (CRES) at Solaize, near Lyons, France, writes Hugh O'Mahony. The $2m MAN B'W...

Pemex rig tenders to raise US Gulf rates.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) MEXICAN state oil firm Petroleo Mexicanos is set to tender for 23 offshore drilling rigs for its 2003 and 2004 well operations, writes Martyn Wingrove . Pemex has already issued tenders for ten rigs and analysts...

Alstom to fit out Rigdon ships.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) ALSTOM has won a $20m order to supply equipment for 10 new platform supply vessels for Rigdon Offshore. The vessels themselves are being built in the US by Bender Shipbuilding ' Repair, of Mobile Alabama, writes Hugh...

Electronic control fray reaches Japan.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) A NEW front has opened in the battle for supremacy between the maritime industry's two dominant engine suppliers over developing electronic control technology, writes Hugh O'Mahony. Wartsila has demonstrated the...

Energy Briefs.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Canada oil hopes PLANS to drill for oil and gas off Canada's Pacific coast are boosted by the government's decision to study lifting a 1972 moratorium on exploration in the region. The Natural Resources Ministry...

Yards 'lack capacity to replace tankers'.
April 1, 2003... (From Lloyds List) Byline: Brian Reyes SHIPYARDS do not have enough capacity to replace single-hull tankers at the same rate as they are due to be phased out under European Union proposals, according to an independent study...