Europe Intelligence Wire articles from May 2003

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from May 2003

Editor's letter - Strengthen your firm's weakest link.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, the whole point of a supply chain is that it depends on all the links in the chain holding firm, interdependent and, ahem, pulling together. We mention this because...

Insight - Compliance is not enough.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Andrew Sawers. The good news is that nobody is very much worried about FRS17 anymore. The bad news is that investment returns have been so dreadful that FDs and pension fund managers are much more...

Insight bites.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) The Financial Service Authority (FSA) has rapped Marconi for failing to release price sensitive information that led to its shock profits warning in 2001. The telecoms company breached Listing Rules by not...

Insight - Making a killing.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Andrew Sawers. The risk of a successful prosecution for corporate manslaughter is very much back on the agenda following two significant developments. While the issue periodically surfaces after...

Insight - Catch of the day.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Jules Stewart. Exchange traded funds (ETF) made their debut in Britain three years ago, auspiciously coinciding with the start of the stock market's decline into the abyss. Unlike individual shares...

Accounting - The difference is in the detail.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Peter Williams. March's issue of Financial Director contained an analysis of the AOL/Time Warner merger. The write-offs were huge and partly related to the timing of the deal. From the date the...

Corporate governance - Shaking it up or stirring it up?.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Robert Bruce. The problem is all to do with the motivation of organisations. It is all to do with the conflict between objectives and ego. If the world's corporate giants all became environmentally...

Auditors add value.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Ninety percent of UK board directors say the value received from their internal auditors has increased over the last three years, according to a survey by Deloitte & Touche and the Institute of Internal Auditors...

High cost of Higgs.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Britain's quoted companies could face a GBP 200m bill to implement proposals from the Higgs Review to strengthen the role of non-executive directors in the boardroom, according to business advisers RSM Robson...

Banking and finance - Don't bank on a bank's acquisition.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Jules Stewart. What are the ingredients of a successful bank merger? It is almost easier to answer the question by looking at what doesn't make for a successful bank merger. For one thing, a 'merger of...

European IPOs.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Only 14 major European IPOs took place in Q1 2003, a 61% fall from 12 months earlier, according to PwC's quarterly research. The total offering value of IPOs is EUR 74m. However, one deal alone raised EUR 62m....

IT strategy - Tablets are easy to swallow.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry. Our desire for new gadgets and gizmos is insatiable. Mobile phones are multifunctional, PDAs are mobile phones and laptops have become notebooks the size of personal organisers. But there is...

Economics - Brown's UK is on a tight Budget.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Dennis Turner. The second week of April saw the unusual coincidence of fiscal and monetary policy statements coming together within a 24-hour period. First there was the Budget, Gordon Brown's seventh...

Cover story - Waving not drowning.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Sarah Perrin. With foggy economic outlooks for many market sectors, increasing numbers of FDs will find themselves focused on steering clear of insolvency. Could new measures provide a practical...

The Financial Director interview - The strategy switch.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry. The power generation game is a volatile mixture of skill and chance. A mild winter or a cool summer can make all the difference between your customers turning their heating or air...

Commercial property - A capital idea.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Peter Bartram. News that UK retailer Selfridges is thinking of raising up to GBP 360m from its flagship Oxford Street store ought to be a wake-up call for finance directors. Property has been off the...

Business intelligence - Figure it out.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Two approaches that are increasingly being taken by financial directors to improve the quality of finance services and reduce costs are financial shared services centres and outsourcing of finance processes. But...

Extraordinary items - No work, all play.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) If you hurry you'll be just in time for a new series of seminars that will help you to - oh, let's just let the press release do the talking (you won't believe us otherwise). "Tessera Consulting is to stage a...

Extraordinary items - do as I tell you.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) British Land was an easy target for the media when Derek Higgs published his report on the role of non-executive directors. Higgs sits on the board at the company where the chairman and CEO are one and the same...

Extraordinary items - Number crunchers.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) The really great thing about computers has always been that when they go wrong, they do it in style. A few weeks ago, the Press Association reported that a customer of Northern Rock was shocked to read a...

Extraordinary items - Too cool for words.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) How do you make water coolers interesting? Powwow, the business that's part of Hutchinson Whampoa, the company that originally brought you Orange mobile phones, has rapidly become known for the amusing slogans on...

Extraordinary items - Speak up, Brown.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Last month, we reported on William Gladstone's famous Budget speech of 1853, in which he spent almost five hours explaining to the House of Commons how he proposed to abolish income tax. Gordon Brown spent 59...

Decisions - Open source software - Pick up a penguin.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Bryan Glick, news editor of Computing. In 1991, a student at the University of Helsinki, Finland, decided to write a new version of a popular computer operating system as a hobby so that he could run...

Decisions - Data storage - Waste of space.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Gary Flood. Computer data storage is in a mess. There has been a proliferation of ways to store data as the demand to keep more and more of it on file has grown. The University of California believes...

Decisions - IT update - Up up and away.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Mike Gubbins, editor of Computing. The dotcom crash has had a greater impact on IT than is often understood. Confidence in technology has been severely dented, and fundamental questions have been...

Decisions - Wireless Lans - Socket to me.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Gary Flood. It's fairly common in the technology industry to find something of a gap between what suppliers try to market and what users are prepared to spend money on. The best example of this is...

Decisions - IT leasing - Lease likely.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. If ever there were a buyer's market in IT, this has to be it. With vendors chasing vanishingly slight slivers of business, and big corporates deferring IT spending month after month...

Decisions - Thin clients - Laying it on thin.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Elspeth Wales. Faced with having to tighten their belts in this current fragile economy, while also having to invest in technology to remain competitive, businesses are now considering a thin-client...

Decisions - Grid computing - Grid and bear it.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Dominic Tonner. When it came to funding IT projects, finance directors rarely kept their chequebooks in their pockets in the latter half of the last decade. Spending on emerging technologies...

Decisions - Workforce optimisation - Soup up your staff.
May 1, 2003... (From Financial Director) Byline: Elspeth Wales. One of the ways in which organisations can focus IT investments on their customers is by installing multimillion-pound customer relationship management (CRM) software. However, many CRM...

European firms feel the pinch.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) WHILE for some insurers the current business environment may be appealing, much of the industry is still suffering. In a marked turnaround from recent years, it is the life insurance sector that is feeling the most...

Munich Re warns write-downs on shares could approach E1bn.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Herbert Fromme MUNICH Re, the world's largest reinsurer, expects further large impairments on shares for the first quarter "in the high three-digit million area", chief financial officer Jorg Schneider...

Swiss Re intends to sell 15.9% stake in PartnerRe.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Richard Banks GLOBAL insurance giant Swiss Re yesterday indicated it intends to sell its stake in Bermuda's PartnerRe. Swiss Re, which was one of the original capital providers when PartnerRe was...

Rebranded Euler Hermes increases Q1 turnover.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Charlie Talbot THE newly-rebranded Euler Hermes increased its turnover by 57% in the first quarter of this year. The credit risk insurer's consolidated turnover totalled E468.8m for the first three months...

Big Four still have stranglehold on Indian gross premium figures.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Shirish Nadkarni THE gross premium collected by the 12 Indian domestic general players has risen by 16%, from a level of Rs116bn ($2.44bn) in the financial year 2001-2002 to Rs135bn for the financial year...

European Commission outlines access proposals.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Keith Nuthall THE European Commission has made its formal offer at the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Development Round to boost access to the EU insurance market to non-EU players, writes Keith...

Mapfre profits up 20% in Q1.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Stuart Collins CORPORACION Mapfre (Mapfre) reported a 19.6% increase in first quarter post-tax profits at E34.1m. Total insurance and reinsurance revenues for the group were up 7.5% to E1,650m, mainly...

Munich Re considers help in a Mannheimer rescue package.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Herbert Fromme MUNICH Re, which owns 10% of troubled Mannheimer group, said that it would participate in a rescue effort "with our quota". Chief executive Hans-J'rgen Schinzler added that this would only...

Minnesota fire terror exclusion.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Philip Fine INSURERS in Minnesota will not have to cover fire-related losses that result from terrorism. Minnesota is the third US state to allow insurers to exclude fire damage for policyholders who have...

White Mountains results recovery.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Symon Ross BERMUDA-domiciled White Mountains Insurance Group has reported strong net results for the first quarter of 2003 after poor results for the equivalent period last year. The company recorded net...

Aigrain gets Swiss Re investment role.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Symon Ross SWISS Re has announced that it has replaced Giuseppe Benelli as chief investment officer with the head of its financial services group, Jacques Aigrain. The company said that the appointment...

$1.25trn cost of accidents.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Keith Nuthall AN INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) report published to mark this week's World Day for Safety and Health at Work has claimed that every year around two million lives and $1.25trn of...

News in Brief.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Health launch ROYAL & SunAlliance's (RSA) former healthcare and assistance business and its subsidiary, FirstAssist Group, which were bought out by management earlier this month, have been launched under the...

Strong Ace growth hit by weak markets.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Richard Banks BERMUDA'S Ace Limited reported strong growth for the first quarter of 2003, but chairman and chief executive Brian Duperreault lamented that the figures had been impacted by the weak...

Sars medical cover claims in HK will amount to 'peanuts'.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Suzanne Moore MEDICAL insurance claims from Sars sufferers in Hong Kong will amount to "peanuts", according to the territory's insurance commissioner, Benjamin Tang. Speaking to Insurance Day, Mr Tang...

Hartford Financial Services.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) HARTFORD Financial Services, based in the US, has named MICHAEL KALEN senior vice-president and director of individual life distribution at its Hartford Life Insurance subsidiary. Mr Kalen joins with more than 20 years...

Markel's pre-tax profits double in Q1 to $54.4m.
May 1, 2003... (From Insurance Day) Byline: Stuart Collins MARKEL Corp, the US speciality lines insurer, has reported a doubling of pre-tax profit for the first quarter to $54.4m, writes Stuart Collins. The improved profitability of Markel was...

UPDATE 11- US shares rebound in late trade.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) US shares closed with mixed results on Thursday, with most sectors shaking off steep morning losses as investors reacted to the latest dour reports on the job market and manufacturing. The Institute for...

Euro hits four-year high above 1.12 dollars.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The dollar slumped, allowing the euro to rally past 1.12 dollars to a new four-year high, in the wake of worse-than-expected US manufacturing data. The single European currency rose to 1.1235 dollars, levels...

WHO says global collaboration, vigilance needed to beat SARS.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) World Health Organization officials here said global collaboration and vigilance is what will help crack Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed more than 390 people worldwide. More than 100...

Hundreds storm bombing range in Vieques after US Navy withdraws.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Police were to seek permission to arrest anyone at the US Navy's former bombing range on the island of Vieques, after hundreds of hooded protesters burned military vehicles and destroyed government property...

Huge Israeli raid on Hamas chief in Gaza kills 12 in blow to peace "roadmap".
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The Israeli army killed 12 Palestinians, including a two-year-old child and its target, a wanted Hamas militant chief, in a major raid on Gaza City, the day after the release of a new peace plan. Hamas...

Britain votes in local, regional polls.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The English, Scots and Welsh cast ballots in local and regional elections seen as a mid-term test of the popularity of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his ruling Labour party following the Iraq war. ...

Canadian court rules federal law against gay marriage discriminatory.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) The top court in Canada's western-most province ruled that federal laws preventing same-sex marriages are discriminatory and violate the Canadian constitution. Three justices of the British Columbia Court of...

Indian IT groups face changed prospects.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) Indian technology services companies are reeling from a wake-up call after a spate of full-year earnings results that signal the end of a decade of heady growth. In spite of performances that beat anything...

Publishing houses vie to win the peace.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) With rebuilding efforts under way in Iraq, US and UK book publishers are quickly ramping up their own post-war operations. In the past few weeks, Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster have all...

London poised for European bond victory.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) London looks set to score an important victory in its fight with rival financial centres over the $2,700bn European bond market by clinching the European Parliament's backing for changes to new rules. ...

Paris to target credit rating agencies at G7.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) France plans to raise the issue of regulating the international credit ratings agencies with its partners in the Group of Seven industrial countries. The aim is to agree a set of principles with the ratings...

Airbus looks for [euro]1bn in group savings.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) DYAirbus, the European aircraft maker, is seeking to make cashflow savings of around [euro]1bn ($1.1bn) across much of its operations during 2003 in response to the deepening recession in the civil aerospace...

Chip dealers face paying for rivals' fraud.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) Legitimate dealers in mobile phones and computer chips risk having to pay the unpaid value added tax bills of their fraudulent rivals. In a test case, the VAT Tribunal has ruled that one of the UK's largest...

New Issues: Investors await pickup in activity.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) With most of Europe taking its May Day break and UK markets looking forward to a bank holiday on Monday, new issues were thin on the ground on Thursday, with trading in the secondary market equally quiet. ...

Brothel is Australia's steamiest stock.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) `The oldest profession in the world became the newest - and hottest - stock in Australia on Thursday, when shares in The Daily Planet, a Melbourne brothel, more than doubled in their first day of trading. ...

Disney earnings hit by war & terrorism concerns.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) War and fear of terrorism took its expected toll on Walt Disney in the second quarter, shrinking net income by 12 per cent, and cutting operating earnings at its vulnerable theme parks division by 45 per cent....

US Preview: Monthly payroll report looms.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) US investors await Friday's release of the monthly payrolls report as well as the latest quarterly earnings releases. Recent weekly jobless claim reports have suggested the labour market continues to be...

Heineken chosen as suitor for BBAG.
May 1, 2003... (From FT Investor (Stories)) Heineken, the Dutch beer maker, has successfully wooed BBAG, the Austrian owner of the second-largest brewer in central Europe. It is thought that a statement detailing a partnership or some form of sale or...

Triumphant Bush to mark end of major combat, as US troops wounded in attack.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) As a triumphant US President George W. Bush prepared for a speech here announcing the end of major combat in Iraq, seven US soldiers were injured in a grenade attack in a city west of Baghdad. Bush's...

Bill would allow Holocaust survivors to collect on WW II-era insurance.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Lawmakers in Congress introduced legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors and their families to collect on on World War II-era insurance policies. "I am fed up watching insurance companies thumb...

Pace of new vehicle sales slip again in April.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) American consumers bought 1.4 million new vehicles last month, off 6.2 percent from April 2003, as generous incentives failed to offset softening consumer confidence. Detroit's Big Three took the brunt of...

Surgical masks provide best protection against SARS: study.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) Surgical-quality face masks, but not paper ones, offer the best protection against the SARS virus, according to a study published on Saturday in The Lancet, the British medical weekly. Doctors at Queen Mary...

US leaders tout successes against terrorism but insist war goes on.
May 1, 2003... (From Agence France Presse) In speeches half a world apart, President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Thursday hailed the United States' successes in its war on terrorism, pledging the fight would go on. The...

Communist Mayday cerebrations hampered by youths throwing eggs.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - The Communist Party' (KSCM) celebrations marking Labour Day, which took place at Prague's Letna plain, were hampered by several youths who threw eggs at the participants but who were caught...

Slovak Communists mark Labour Day with criticism of government.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) BRATISLAVA, May 1 (CTK) - May Day celebrations in the centre of Bratislava, which were attended by several hundred, mainly elderly, people, was marked by sharp criticism of the war in Iraq. Representatives of...

Historic U.S. vehicles start commemorative drive in Rokycany.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) ROKYCANY, West Bohemia, May 1 (CTK) - A convoy of 60 historic jeeps and lorries started from Rokycany today on a four-day commemorative drive around the west and south Bohemian towns which were liberated by the...

National Party demonstrates in Prague against EU entry.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - Representatives of the far-right National Party demonstrated against the Czech Republic's entry to the European Union in Prague's Wenceslas Square today. However, passersby paid no...

Nedved misses match with Turks due to car accident.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) TURIN, May 1 (CTK) - Czech national soccer team captain Pavel Nedved had a car accident on Wednesday afternoon. Its consequences are not serious as Nedved, now a star in Italy's Juventus Turin, only suffered...

Clashes between anarchists, skinheads on May Day in Prague.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - About 200 anarchists, who staged a demonstration on the Vitezne namesti square in Prague 6 to mark Labour Day, were attacked by skinheads and police monitoring the event was unable to prevent...

Ten people injured in train-bus clash.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) OSTRAVA, North Moravia, May 1 (CTK) - Several people were injured this afternoon when a local bus clashed with a passenger train on the railway crossing in Frydek-Mistek, a Frydek-Mistek police officer told CTK...

Rejection of president pension bill costs state one million.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - Deputies have deprived the state of almost one million crowns by their rejection of the government- proposed bill on pension for former presidents in late February. The legislation was to...

USA trying to derail Kavan's initiative.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) NEW YORK, May 1 (CTK) - As part of its efforts to stifle UN criticism of U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan the U.S. government is trying to derail U.N. General Assembly President Jan Kavan's initiative to...

European Commission would respect any referendum decision-Cibrian.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - "We will respect any decision but we will be extremely glad if it is positive," European Commission Delegation head Ramiro Cibrian said today at a Social Democrat (CSSD) meeting marking Labour...

Some 50 people protest in Prague against Iraq war.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - About 50 people today demonstrated at Prague's Palachovo namesti square against the war in Iraq and events which followed after its end. The peaceful event was organised by the Initiative...

Ceska sporitelna most profitable Czech bank in Q1.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - Czech banks Ceska sporitelna and Komercni banka continued to improve their results in the first quarter of 2003, and Ceska with profits topping Kc2 billion became the most profitable Czech...

Union banka joins 16 Czech banks that have lost licences.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - Union banka on Wednesday joined the 16 Czech banks which have seen their licences revoked in the last 13 years. Following is a survey of banks that have lost their licences, listed in...

Ministry, CzechTrade pick 200 firms for Iraq reconstruction.
May 1, 2003... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, May 1 (CTK) - Czech companies are still extremely interested in participation in the reconstruction of Iraq, and the Industry and Trade Ministry and government agency CzechTrade have picked 200 companies...