Europe Intelligence Wire articles from June 2003

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from June 2003

Editor's letter - A history lesson from Greenbury.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) If you want an executive summary of the Higgs report on the role of non-executive directors, you could do a lot worse than look at the Cadbury report, published in 1992. The overlap between the two is really...

Insight - Licence to bill.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. With a truly astonishing lack of consultation, the Inland Revenue revealed on 16 April in its Finance Bill that it wants to move immediately to a US-style treatment of employee...

Insightbites.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Higgs held up The Financial Reporting Council announced on 14 May that elements of the Higgs and Smith reports would not automatically be adopted into the combined code. The FRC hopes to have a draft of the...

Insight - Vie to comply.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Cath Everett. Fortune-1000 companies are expecting to spend some $2.5bn on investigation and initial compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the total impact of the new law could be bigger than...

Insight - Ticket to ride.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Patrick Hook. By Christmas, the Oyster Project should be up and running, at which point London will have become the latest and largest city in the world to embrace smart card technology in its public...

Who will listen?
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Andrew Sawers. Institutional investors spend a great deal of time analysing the shares of companies they want to buy or sell. Now FDs can use sophisticated analysis to identify the shareholders whose...

Insight interview - Save as you yearn.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. At the government's insistence, companies have spent the past year or so extending pension arrangements to all their employees through stakeholder schemes. This was supposed to...

Accounting - The substance behind the sale.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Peter Williams, chartered accountant and freelance journalist. The general principle of revenue recognition under UK GAAP is that the buyer assumes from the seller the significant risk and rewards of...

Corporate governance - The long and the short-term of it.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Robert Bruce, leading commentator on accountancy issues. Fashion makes fools of us all, ultimately. It is quite amazing how, just when one person thinks something has becoming terribly passe, lo and...

Banking & finance - Lending is a risky business.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Jules Stewart, freelance journalist. The third consultative paper on capital adequacy will replace the 1988 Basel Accord, the first global attempt to set minimum levels of capital that banks need to...

Market misconduct.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) The UK share trading arm of Dutch bank ABN Amro was fined GBP900,000 in April by the FSA for "market misconduct and serious compliance failures". The regulator said its traders had "accepted improper...

Management - The changing face of capitalism.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Roger Trapp, freelance journalist. It is not just the scale of the fall of Enron and other spectacular corporate collapses of last year that sets them apart from previous corporate failures. What truly...

IT strategy - It's all or nothing with ERP.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry, deputy editor of Financial Director. Accurate, timely data is critical for finance directors to make forward-thinking, strategic business decisions. Information is the oil in the finance...

Economics - Public sector spending spree.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Dennis Turner, chief economist at HSBC. After years of neglect, the public sector is back in the spotlight. Mrs Thatcher's first electoral victory in 1979 marked the start of a reduction in the...

The Financial Director interview - Return to spender.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry. Variety is the spice of life, but you don't need to change company every two years to add depth to your CV. So says Alison Reed, who has been at Marks & Spencer for nearly 20 years, having...

Cover story - Optional Extras.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) In July 2001 Marconi watched its share price collapse, putting executive share options under water. So the board decided to put forward a proposal to reprice the options, which looked like moving the goalposts to...

IT budgets - How to slice the pig.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Malcolm Wheatley. Paul Brock, MD of IT at New York-based investment bank Bear Stearns, implemented a new system in the bank last year. Nothing novel about that, you might say. But the system, acquired...

FD Forum 2003.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) The sixth annual Richmond Events Finance Directors' Forum will take place from 11-14 June 2003 on board the P&O ship Aurora. For three nights, a top-notch list of UK finance director delegates will rub shoulders...

Listing rules - Why Marconi was benighted by a day.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) On 11 April, the Financial Services Authority announced its decision that Marconi's handling of its profits warning statement of 4 July 2001 had contravened Listing Rule 9.2(c). It should have spoken up one day...

Auditors - The importance of being earnest.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) New US legislation and a series of proposals to amend the UK Combined Code are throwing the spotlight on the relationship between internal and external auditors and the audit committee. The ICAEW has provided some...

Domain names - The verdict is not the same in the domain name game.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry. If a company feels that a website domain name registered by a third party infringes on its trademark or identity, it can register a complaint with an arbitration centre through one of the...

Corruption - A bribe is a bribe by any other name.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) New legislative proposals will have a far-reaching effect on British nationals and companies operating in countries where bribery and corruption are a regular part of doing business. Seven-year jail terms and...

Financial Directions - CFOs talk of their fear and loathing.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Protecting Value 2003, a US study by Financial Executives Research Foundation, FM Global and the National Association of Corporate Treasurers, asked global CFOs and risk managers to identify the top hazards to...

Financial Directions - Pay, benefits and job loss top staff agendas.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Pay and display An Accountancy Age and Robert Half survey on salaries finds that accountants are securing more senior roles at a younger age. One in five survey respondents were aged between 36 and 45, and 44%...

Financial Directions - Financialbites.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) "One hundred percent of my stock will go to my wife, if I die first. But on the death of the last of the two of us - and maybe sooner - it will all go to a foundation... There's no reason why future generations...

Financial Directions - Markets hopeful in aftermath of Iraq conflict.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) It is no surprise that the conclusion to the hostilities in Iraq didn't provide an instant boost to the global economy. It has perhaps removed a potential drag on growth, although conditions were difficult even...

Extraordinary Items - Split decision.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Lucky for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown that Her Majesty's Government isn't a publicly traded company, otherwise, they could be prosecuted by the FSA for not revealing price-sensitive information and allowing a...

Extraordinary Items - Gotta be in it to win it.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) It's that time again - time to review your achievements over the past year and those of your colleagues. Yes, it's the Accountancy Age Awards 2003 and, once again, we're proud to be associated with the Financial...

Extraordinary Items - Stamping out leases.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) The tax folk only appear on this page when they do something ridiculous, like demand back-taxes from a dead cat. But the Budget proposals to reform stamp duty on leasehold properties take our breath away. At...

Extraordinary Items - Blink and you'll miss it.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Faced with a daunting task and not enough time to complete it? Consider this tale from Steve Redgrave, five-times Olympic Gold Medalist oarsman, who spoke at the recent Institute of Directors' conference. Redgrave...

Extraordinary Items - Privates on parade.
June 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) There has been a lot of talk about taking advantage of falling markets by taking companies private. Last January, for instance, Jamie Borwick resigned from the board of taxi manufacturer Manganese Bronze Holdings...

Crew of 27 saved as Chinese vessel sinking in Baltic Sea.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The 27-member crew of a Chinese vessel was rescued from their sinking ship after it collided with a freighter between Denmark's Bornholm island and the Swedish coast, the Danish navy said. A series of...

Five US Marines arrested over incidents in Okinawa.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Police arrested five US Marines in separate incidents related to public intoxication, Japan's Kyodo news service reported. The marines, aged 18 to 22, are among the 20,000 troops stationed around the...

Hong Kong reports three new SARS cases, four deaths.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Hong Kong health officials said it had adequate measures in place to handle the resumption of tours from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, as three new SARS cases and four more deaths were reported. ...

Israel eases controls as Palestinians wait on militants.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The Israeli army night eased its control over Palestinian territories as Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas's cabinet said it expected an answer within days from militant groups to a proposed truce in...

Hindu pilgrims flock to take holy dip on solar eclipse.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims took a holy dip in ponds and rivers across northern India during a solar eclipse. Authorities had a difficult time in many places keeping control as crowds flocked to take...

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi put under arrest after violent clash.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been put under temporary arrest in the country's north after a violent clash between her supporters and a pro-junta group which left four dead, the junta said....

Tobacco is "weapon of mass destruction" - cancer specialist.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) A top US cancer specialist called tobacco a "weapon of mass destruction," and colleagues urged slapping an extra two-dollar-a-pack tax on cigarettes and banning smoking in more public places. The American...

G8 seeks to bridge Iraq tensions as Bush calls for unity against terror.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Leaders from the world's most powerful nations meet in the heavily-fortified French resort of Evian seeking to heal lingering transatlantic rancour over the Iraq waq and find common ground on tackling global...

Blair duped Britain over Iraq says Short.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Prime Minister Tony Blair duped the public over the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in order to ensure Britain invaded Iraq, Clare Short, who resigned from his cabinet, told a British Sunday newspaper. "There...

Rallying greenback sends Asian currencies sliding.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) An easing in the euro's advance on the greenback forced many Asian currencies into a slide, led by the Japanese yen. JAPANESE YEN: The yen continued sliding during the past week as dollar-buying sentiment...

Blair insists Iraqi weapons exist and will be found.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) British Prime Minister Tony Blair staked his political credibility on finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, admitting it would damage the case for war if none were uncovered but insisting this was...

JAL expands unpaid leave program to all workers due to SARS.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Japan Airlines Co. has decided to ask all its employees to take unpaid leave to offset a sharp drop in demand following the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Asia's biggest carrier will...

Kidney transplant next step for stricken NZ rugby star Lomu.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Rugby phenomenon Jonah Lomu will need a kidney transplant if he is to come off the renal dialysis treatment he has just begun for his rare chronic kidney condition, his doctors say. The 28-year-old All Black...

Africa's longest-serving ruler expected to win Togo vote.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Africa's longest-serving leader looked set to win yet again in elections in the west African state of Togo. President Gnassingbe Eyadema, in power for 36 years, is seeking another five-year mandate. The...

Japan to boost inspections of NKorean ships.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Japan is considering beefing up inspections of all North Korean ships that visit its docks in order to check Pyongyang's suspected drug smuggling and missile parts trade. Ministries and agencies will hold a...

Talks on NKorea may be held in Malaysia in late June.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Malaysia may host a meeting of five nations -- China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and the United States -- to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear programme, a Japanese newspaper said. China has showed intention...

Incoming competition chief targets Australia's retail duopoly.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The incoming head of Australia's consumer regulator, Graeme Samuel, indicated that he would back a controversial review of "creeping acquisitions" by retail giants Coles Myer and Woolworths. The proposed...

Myanmar junta closes NLD offices, detains leaders after Suu Kyi arrest.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Myanmar's military rulers have shut down two major offices of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and put senior members under house arrest after the party's leader was arrested, sources said....

Less of the spit and more of the polish as HK targets major cleanup.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Elderly Cheng Yim-ting crouches to towel off her lively terrier Sum after their morning walk, before strolling toward her public housing flat, seemingly oblivious to the fact she is committing an offence that...

Anger rises in Indonesia over Sweden's inaction against exiled Aceh rebel.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Anger was rising in Indonesia against Sweden over the Scandanavian country's refusal to act on Jakarta's demand that it stop one of its citizens from leading an Aceh separatist group. The Indonesian...

Seventh Hong Kong medic dies of SARS.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Another Hong Kong medical worker has died of SARS, raising the death toll in the city from the deadly respiratory disease to 279 from 1,740 cases, the Hospital Authority said. Wong Kang-tai, a 58-year-old...

Malaysia's Genting and Tenaga enter 1.1 billion dollar power venture.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Malaysia's Genting Bhd and power giant Tenaga Nasional Bhd are planning to build a 1,400 MW coal-fired power plant at a cost of around four billion ringgit (1.1 billion dollars). The Edge business newspaper...

Australia in "very intensive" hunt for al-Qaeda linked radicals.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Australian authorities are in a "very intensive" hunt for members of an Indonesian group linked to al-Qaeda terrorists, a senior official said amid reports police had found the movement's local headquarters in a...

British ministers prepare for crucial week ahead of euro announcement.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Senior government ministers have this weekend been poring over a document of almost 300 pages containing Chancellor Gordon Brown's conclusions on the hottest debate in British politics -- whether the country...

Malaysia's Proton changes rules of the game to gear for AFTA battle.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) National carmaker Proton is gearing up for greater foreign competition as motoring-crazy Malaysia prepares to slash tariffs on car imports by 2005 under a regional free trade area. Protected since 1985 by...

Myanmar junta cracks down on NLD after Aung San Suu Kyi arrest.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Myanmar's military rulers cracked down on the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), closing party branches and putting top members under house arrest after the detention of its leader Aung San Suu Kyi....

South Korean navy fires warning shots at North Korean fishing boats.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) A South Korean navy boat fired warning shots as North Korean fishing vessels intruded into the tense inter-Korean sea border in the Yellow Sea, military officials said. "Our navy boat fired warning shots...

Water levels rise in Three Gorges reservoir, as cracks reappear on dam.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) China's Three Gorges project officially began storing water in its huge reservoir, amid ongoing concerns over cracks in the controversial 25 billion dollar dam. Nineteen of the dams 22 sluice gates were shut...

China signals further market reform as investors await new freedoms.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) A SARS-battered China this week sent a clear signal to investors that it plans to push ahead with financial liberalisation after granting approval to two foreign brokerages to trade securities in its domestic...

Russians still prefer cash despite growing bank card market.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Bank card use in Russia has skyrocketed in the past year, but analysts here say that is not necessarily a sign that Russians have been able to wean themselves from the security offered by hard cash. ...

Labourers bear brunt of searing Indian heatwave.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Authorities battling a heatwave that has claimed nearly 800 lives in southern India face their biggest challenge convincing the poor that it is best to skip a day's work under the scorching sun. Faced with...

Music industry blues fuel merger speculation.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) As the world's music giants face up to the prospect of another year of sliding sales, rumours have been swirling through the industry once again of a possible merger between two of the big five in the business....

Hopes are raised for India, Pakistan summit: Fernandes.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The recent warming of ties between India and Pakistan has raised hopes for another summit between their leaders, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said here. "We are looking forward to maybe a slow...

New charges in Ayodhya dispute filed against Advani, seven others.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Charges were filed in an Indian court against Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and seven others for their role in the demolition of an ancient mosque in north India by thousands of Hindu zealots in 1992....

16 killed, 21 injured in Kashmir shoot-outs, blast.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Eight civilians, seven Muslim militants and an Indian soldier were killed while 21 others were injured in a surge of violence in Indian Kashmir, police said. A police spokesman said Saturday two militants...

Nepal awaits tourism boost after Everest bash.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) With the lanterns fading on the 50th anniversary celebrations of first conquest of Everest, the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal now awaits the tourism dividends of basking in the international spotlight. But the...

Taiwan launches national temperature check campaign as SARS on the wane.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Taiwan launched an unprecedented 10-day nationwide temperature-check campaign to chase down the SARS epidemic despite growing optimism on the back of the decline in the number of infections. An official...

Afghanistan seeks Pakistan's help in developing banking sector.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Afghanistan central bank governor Anwar-ul-Haq Ahdi said his country was keen to benefit from Pakistan's expertise in rebuilding its banking and financial system. "We would like to benefit from the...

Bush touts proliferation initiative ahead of G8.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) US President George W. Bush heads to a Group of Eight summit Sunday touting a new drive against weapons of mass destruction targeting a legal loophole aiding North Korea's missile exports. The plan was...

Water levels rise in Three Gorges reservoir, as cracks reappear in dam.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) China's Three Gorges project officially began storing water in its huge reservoir amid ongoing concerns over cracks in the controversial 25 billion dollar dam. The dam's 22 sluice gates and 19 of 23 water...

Vietnam stages charity run for Agent Orange victims.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) More than 5,000 people took part in a charity run in the Vietnamese capital to raise funds for the child victims of Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed by US forces during the Vietnam War. The majority of...

Australian study finds treatment could stop spread of AIDS in jail.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Australian researchers produced evidence that quickly treating inmates exposed to HIV in prison with anti-viral drugs can prevent them becoming infected. The researchers conducted a 14-month study of 34...

Indian military flirts with hearts and minds on China border.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Angiyo Yobin ran out as the AN-32 screamed to a halt on an airstrip little larger than a carpark, but the transport plane had brought nothing this time at India's last civilian post on Myanmar's borders. ...

Spin doctors rush in to cure Indian cricket.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) A school for spinners in India? Sounds farcical as the country has always been envied for churning out quality spinners. What was considered a joke three decades ago has now become a serious issue as India...

Activists concerned over "major crackdown" on democracy in Myanmar.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Activists in the United States expressed concern over what they termed a "major crackdown" on the democracy movement in Myanmar and a possible attempt to assassinate opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. ...

Rioters rampage in Geneva as activists gear up for anti-G8 action.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Anti-globalisation rioters rampaged through Geneva overnight, smashing shop windows and hurling firebombs at government buildings as demonstrators geared up for major protests to mark the opening of a G8 summit....

Spanish armada on song at French Open.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Spain led the way into the last 16 of the men's singles with five players making it into the fourth round. Title-holder Albert Costa, tournament favourites Juan Carlos Fererro and Carlos Moya, Lleyton...

Doctors hope for kidney transplant for Lomu within three months.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Doctors hope to find a kidney donor for rugby phenomenon Jonah Lomu within three months, enabling him to come off the renal dialysis treatment he has just begun for his rare chronic kidney condition. All...

Myanmar junta mounts major crackdown on NLD after Aung San Suu Kyi arrest.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Myanmar's ruling junta launched a crackdown on the democratic opposition, closing all major branch offices and putting its leadership under house arrest after detaining party figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi. The...

Russia and US to remain strategic partners: Putin.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Moscow and Washington intend to continue their strategic partnership despite disagreements over Iraq, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks here with US counterpart George W. Bush. "Of course we...

South Korean navy fires warning shots at North Korean fishing boats.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) South Korea's navy fired warning shots as North Korean fishing vessels intruded into a tense inter-Korean sea border in the Yellow Sea, defying repeated warnings to retreat, military officials said. South...

Presidential elections open in Togo.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Presidential elections opened in Togo where Africa's longest-serving leader looked set to win yet again. Polling stations will close at 1700 GMT but early results are not expected before Monday. ...

Bollywood sheds stereotypes, inhibitions for new sexy films.
June 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) India's film industry is starting to break decades-old stereotypes by dealing openly with sex. In a marked departure from formulaic storylines and hackneyed treatment of love scenes, several movies are also...