Global Business |Update|
(A weekly
update on Global Business )
Skyline Business School
Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110 016
Tel: 2686 4848, 2686 6968
Issue 90
(12th Nov.’08--18th Nov.’08)
Contents
Global Corporate
1 Mitsubishi UFJ profit drops 64%
2 Citigroup job cull to hit 75,000
3 Hard-up GM to sell Suzuki stake
4 Ford set to sell 20% Mazda stake
5 Wolseley to shed 2,300 more jobs
6 Suzlon to tap debt, accruals for RePower stake
7 L&T wins orders worth Rs 16.4 bn
Global Outsourcing
8 Alcatel-Lucent Names Harvey Nash Strategic Outsourcing Partner
9 RP still a major outsourcing destination for US firms
10 Outsourcing vendors in fix as $1.5 bn deals hit funds barrier
11 Big raises in SPEEA pact with Boeing
12 India's Infosys brushes off Obama outsourcing worries
13 Mitsubishi Motors Has Extended Its
Strategic Outsourcing Contract With IBM
Global Economy
14 US industrial output bounces back
15 Eurozone swings to trade deficit
16 Oil prices rise on US output data
17 Clash over $700bn bank bail-out
18 Lloyds TSB vote on HBOS takeover
19 China moves to stem mass layoffs
Global Markets
20 Oil prices lose
ground as OPEC confirms meet
21 Europe shares extend losses
22 Kuwaiti court asked to suspend stock market ruling
23 Dollar and yen edge up on doubts about stocks rally
24 Asian shares gain, but wariness ahead
of G20
Global Corporate
1 Mitsubishi UFJ profit drops 64%
Japanese banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial has posted a 64%
drop in its first-half profit but reiterated its lowered full-year forecast.
Net profit fell to 92bn yen ($953m, £637m) in the six months to the end of
September from 256.7bn yen a year ago. Recession in Japan, losses related to
stock holdings and rising bad-loan costs contributed to the profit fall. But
the company expects to post a 220bn yen net full-year profit, its smallest in
six years. The full-year profit outlook was lowered in October. Like other
finance firms, the bank - which bought a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley for $9bn
- has seen its market value shrink in the falling stock market.
18th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
2 Citigroup job cull to hit 75,000
US bank Citigroup has announced plans for about 52,000 new job
cuts, on top of 23,000 cuts already made this year. Citigroup said the 75,000
job cuts represented a reduction of about 20% of its staff, leaving it with
300,000 jobs worldwide in the near term. The cuts will come from redundancies,
the sale of units and natural wastage, the bank said. Citigroup has lost more
than $20bn (£13.6bn) in the past year because of the global financial crisis.
It has reported four straight quarterly losses and some analysts believe the
bank will not make a profit again until 2010. Of the 52,000 job losses, about
half are understood to be accounted for already, with the previously announced
sale of Citigroup's German retail banking business and an Indian outsourcing
operation.
17th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
3 Hard-up GM to sell Suzuki stake
General Motors is selling its 3% stake in the Japanese carmaker
Suzuki for $230m (£156m) to raise cash. Suzuki said it would buy back the
stake, adding that it understood GM faced a need to secure funding. GM has
reported a net loss of $2.5bn in the third quarter and has been trying to
secure an emergency government loan along with its Detroit competitors. The
"Big Three" US car firms Chrysler, Ford and GM are seeking a total $25bn in
federal aid. Suzuki, which specialises in small cars, said the two companies
would continue to cooperate in a number of joint projects, including
developing new technologies. Their partnership started in 1981. We understand
full well that GM faces a need to sell its shareholdings to secure funding,
Suzuki said. The US carmaker had already sold a 17% stake in Suzuki, in 2006.
16th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
4 Ford set to sell 20% Mazda stake
Troubled US carmaker Ford Motor is selling a 20% stake in
Japan's carmaker Mazda Motor, the Japanese company has said. Ford owns a 33.4%
stake in Mazda. The move will reduce it to just over 13%. Ford has been hit
hard by falling sales around the world and is seeking to raise cash along with
its Detroit competitors. Shares in Mazda jumped 6.4% on Tuesday on reports
about the possibility of the stake sale. General Motors has sold its 3% stake
in Japanese carmaker Suzuki for $230m (£156m). The possible sale of a 20%
stake in Mazda was first reported more than a month ago.
15th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
5 Wolseley to shed 2,300 more jobs
Plumbing and building materials firm Wolseley says it is to cut
2,300 more jobs, the majority in the UK, and close more than 200 branches.
Wolseley, which owns the Plumb Center and Build Center chains and operates in
Europe and North America, said it had already cut 5,000 posts since August. It
added that trading conditions were expected to worsen in the short-run. We
continue to react swiftly to market conditions with aggressive but measured
cost reduction, the company said. Profits for the three-month period to 31
October were down by about 45%. While these results reflect a further
deterioration in the business environment in the first quarter, it was not
unexpected, said chief executive Chip Hornsby. In these unprecedented
circumstances, the key priorities remain driving cost reduction and enhancing
cash flow to ensure the group remains compliant with its banking covenants.
Wolseley, which is based near Reading, has been hard-hit by the housing
downturn in both the US and the UK.
14th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
6 Suzlon to tap debt, accruals for RePower stake
Wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy will tap cash on hand and debt to buy
Martifier's stake in its German unit RePower by May, its chairman said on
Monday. It was originally scheuled for May. We had accelerated it to December,
but we are going with the original schedule, Chairman Tulsi Tanti said. Last
month Suzlon suspended a $360 million rights issue, the proceeds of which it
had planned to use to partly fund the stake buy.
15th November 2008,
www.financialexpress.com
7 L&T wins orders worth Rs 16.4 bn
Indian engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro said on
Monday it has won orders worth 16.4 billion rupees. In a statement, L&T said
it had three orders worth a total of 9.4 billion rupees for engineering,
procurement and construction projects in Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. In a
separate statement, the company said it had won a 7 billion rupee refinery
order from HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, a joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum Corp
and Mittal Energy Investments.
13th November 2008,
www.financialexpress.com
Global Outsourcing
8 Alcatel-Lucent Names Harvey Nash Strategic Outsourcing Partner
The Harvey Nash Group Plc (Harvey Nash) headquartered in London and the parent
company of Parsippany-based Harvey Nash USA, announced this week that
Alcatel-Lucent AG (Alcatel-Lucent) selected the global company to be a key
strategic utsourcing partner. A new subsidiary company, Nash Technologies GmbH
(Nash Technologies), has been incorporated for this purpose and will be a
center of excellence providing wireless technology maintenance, research and
development services. Revenue generated under the contract is expected to be
approximately $65 million over an initial fixed term from October 1, 2008 to
December 31, 2010. Under the contract, Nash Technologies will focus on
sourcing and managing an effective, efficient research and development team.
13th November 2008,
www.tutorial-reports.com
9 RP still a major outsourcing destination for US firms
The Philippines remains to be a strong contender for outsourcing contracts
with North American companies wanting to lower costs amid the ongoing economic
downturn, according to a Canada-based research group. While India maintains
top position in the global outsourcing industry, having attracted $4.7 billion
in revenues this year, the Philippines is not far behind with $4 billion,
Info-Tech Research Group said in a study titled, Contact Center Offshoring:
Philippines, the Next Big Destination. Howard Kiewe, a senior research analyst
at Info-Tech, attributed the continuing upsurge of call centers in the country
to the high quality service delivered by educated English-speaking agents with
accents similar to their North American callers. This lesser known call center
hub is a key contender for many international corporations attempting to lower
their costs through outsourcing their call centers," he noted.
14th November 2008,
www.tutorial-reports.com
10 Outsourcing vendors in fix as $1.5 bn deals hit funds barrier
Vendors vying for large IT outsourcing deals from Datacom Solutions and
Unitech Wireless say negotiations have hit a roadblock, with the telecom
entrants facing an uphill climb to raise funds and delaying the launch of
their phone services. The deals for the outsourcing of back-office and other
IT functions could be worth a total of $1.5 billion (Rs 7,300 crore) and both
companies have been in discussions with several vendors, including IBM, EDS,
Wipro and TCS. Senior officials part of the negotiations said on condition of
anonymity that the outsourcing contracts are worth around $750 million each,
to be implemented over five or more years. In 2004, IBM signed an outsourcing
contract, then worth $750 million, with Bharti Airtel. It won a similar deal,
valued up to $800 million, from Idea Cellular in March 2007.
15th November 2008,
www.tutorial-reports.com
11 Big raises in SPEEA pact with Boeing
After more than two weeks of intensive negotiations, Boeing and
its white-collar engineering union came to terms Friday on a handsome monetary
proposal. The salaries would rise an average 5 percent each year of the
four-year contract. If ratified as expected by the union's 21,000 members, the
deal would mean Boeing avoids another walkout on the heels of the lengthy and
costly Machinist strike. It would guarantee Boeing four years of labor peace
to sort out its accumulating production problems. Though the possibility of a
strike was tossed around by some officials and members of the Society of
Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) at tough-talking
workplace union meetings in recent months, that threat grew ever more unlikely
as the economic downturn worsened. Union officials will recommend their
members ratify the agreement, in separate votes for the engineers and for the
technical staff.
16th November 2008,
www.tutorial-reports.com
12 India's Infosys brushes off Obama outsourcing worries
Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest software firm, brushed off
concerns Monday that the election of Barack Obama as US president could mean a
drop in outsourcing work. During his campaign, Obama said he would offer
incentives to companies that created jobs at home and halt tax breaks to those
that ship work abroad. However, Kris Gopalkrishnan chief executive officer of
Infosys, considered an industry bellwether, said similar promises were heard
during previous presidential campaigns and nothing had come of them. In the
past, when we've seen the mention (of curbing outsourcing) during the
campaigns, it did not translate into a change, Gopalkrishnan told reporters on
the sidelines of an economic summit.
17th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
13 Mitsubishi Motors Has Extended Its Strategic Outsourcing Contract With IBM
IBM today announced that Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has
extended its strategic outsourcing contract with IBM Japan for an additional
five years. The entire operation and maintenance of the company's information
system will be entrusted to IBM Japan. The agreement was signed in September
2008 and will be in effect until September 2013. In addition to the management
of existing IT infrastructure, application operation and maintenance, and
end-user support services, the new contract will include assistance of
application planning. IBM's global delivery model will provide consistent and
high-quality business management services by consolidating system operations
for necessary functions such as accident management or help desk. IBM global
delivery centers in India will provide efficient operation and maintenance
services for business applications.
18th November 2008,
www.tutorial-reports.com
Global Economy
14 US industrial output bounces back
US industrial output rebounded in October after a sharp fall in
September, the Federal Reserve says. Output rose by 1.3% during the month,
compared with a fall of 3.7% in September - the sharpest fall in production
for over 60 years. The upturn can in part be explained by the return to normal
operating conditions following the hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The rebound was
much larger than many analysts had expected. Output at US mines, which
includes oil drilling, rose 6.1%, reflecting the resumption of production on
Gulf Coast rigs. Production at utility companies was up 0.4%. The
better-than-expected output figures had little effect on the Dow Jones stock
index, which was down 140.5 points, at 8358.56, in early trading.
17th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
15 Eurozone swings to trade deficit
The eurozone swung to a trade deficit in September from a
surplus a year earlier, according to initial estimates from the EU's
statistics office. The trade deficit with the rest of the world was 5.6bn
euros (£4.75bn;$7.1bn) for the month, compared with a surplus of 2.9bn euros
in September last year. The trade gap narrowed from August, when the deficit
stood at 9.4bn euros. The year-on-year deterioration in the euro zone's trade
balance was caused by a sharp rise in imports. The deficit for the nine months
to the end of September was 29.6bn euros. At the same time last year, the
eurozone trade balance showed a surplus of 13.2bn euros. With exports unable
to keep pace with imports, the trade gap could widen further. We are afraid
that we will see, going forward, some deterioration in the trade balance with
flagging exports, said Holger Schmieding at the Bank of America.
16th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
16 Oil prices rise on US output data
Oil prices have risen after surprisingly good US industrial
output figures and warnings of cold weather heading for the US northeast. US
light, sweet crude rose to $58.16 a barrel, having fallen to $55.29 earlier on
Monday. Brent crude rose to $54.13, having fallen to $52.84 earlier in the
day. The early falls were due to yet more bad economic news and Opec hinting
that it would not be announcing any cuts in oil production soon. US industrial
output rebounded in October after a sharp fall in September, the Federal
Reserve said. Output rose by 1.3% during the month, compared with a fall of
3.7% in September - the sharpest fall in production for over 60 years. That
helped ease some fears that demand for oil would be hurt as more countries
slide into recession.
15th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
17 Clash over $700bn bank bail-out
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has clashed with members of
Congress over the $700bn US financial bail-out plan. Mr Paulson told a
Congressional committee that injecting cash into banks was the most effective
way to stabilise the financial system. However critics on the committee said
that more of the money should be used to help struggling homeowners avoid
losing their homes. Mr Paulson said the bail-out would not be "a panacea" to
cure economic woes. Mr Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Mr Bernanke were
giving evidence to the House financial services committee about the Troubled
Asset Relief Programme (TARP) scheme. The scheme was approved by Congress last
month to shore up the US banking system and prevent financial collapse.
14th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
18 Lloyds TSB vote on HBOS takeover
Shareholders in banks set to shore up their finances with
taxpayers' money have been warned that rejecting the current deals could prove
costly. The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, issued a warning as Lloyds TSB
shareholders prepared to vote on the bank's takeover of HBOS on Wednesday. The
proposal has met opposition from two senior Scottish bankers, who said HBOS
could remain independent. The takeover is expected to be voted through by
Lloyds TSB shareholders. HBOS investors will vote on the deal next month. The
Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders will also vote on Thursday over plans to
raise £20bn of capital. Ahead of the votes, Mr Darling said that any attempts
by any of the banks to renegotiate the government's £37bn bail-out of the UK
banking sector could prove more costly for shareholders.
18th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
19 China moves to stem mass layoffs
Companies in two Chinese provinces, Shandong and Hubei, have
been told they must seek official consent if they want to lay off more than 40
people. The order highlights the Chinese authorities' concern over mounting
job losses. As China's main external markets plunge into recession and export
orders shrink, layoffs have multiplied in the country's big manufacturing
regions. In Shandong alone, nearly 700,000 people have lost their jobs this
year. In southern Guangdong, tens of thousands of firms have closed, sparking
off reverse migration to the countryside by redundant workers. China's
economic growth has slowed sharply this year to around 8 percent - high by
world standards, but much less than the double-digit figures seen for years.
If the one-off boost from the Olympics is factored in, even that number may be
further reduced.
13th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
Global Markets
20 Oil prices lose ground as OPEC confirms meet
Oil prices fell, a day after slumping close to USD 50, despite
growing expectations the OPEC crude exporters' cartel could cut output again
later this month, traders said. Brent North Sea crude for January fell 54
cents to USD 55.70 on London's InterContinental Exchange (ICE). The Brent
December contract expired yesterday at USD 51.99 after hitting USD 50.60 --
the lowest level since May 2005. On the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX),
light sweet crude for December delivery fell 36 cents to USD 57.88 a barrel,
after hitting USD 54.67 yesterday, a level last seen in January 2007. Crude
oil prices have collapsed by about two-thirds since striking record peaks
above USD 147 in July on concern that a prolonged global recession could slam
the brakes on energy demand.
14th November 2008,
www.financialexpress.com
21 Europe shares extend losses
European shares extended losses in early trade on Tuesday, with
banks and miners the biggest fallers as fears over the extent of a recession
in major economies weighed. By 0847 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of
top European shares was down 1.4 per cent at 825.42 points after earlier being
up as much as 843.21 points. Banks took most points off the index. HSBC, Banco
Santander, BNP Paribas and Dexia were down 3.2-9.5 per cent. Miners were in
the doldrums as the copper price retreated 1.6 per cent. Lonmin was down 7 per
cent after the group's CEO said it expected a challenging market outlook and
saw no material recovery in metals prices until 2010 at earliest.
16th November 2008,
www.financialexpress.com
22 Kuwaiti court asked to suspend stock market ruling
The Kuwait Stock Exchange says the government has asked a court
to suspend its ruling that temporarily closed the plummeting exchange. Adel
al-Abdul Hadi, the lawyer for the two brokers who filed the lawsuit to close
the exchange, says the court is expected to decide Sunday whether to suspend
the ruling. The halt in trading by court order Thursday was welcomed by
disgruntled investors who said the government was not doing enough to shore up
the markets in the face of the global financial crisis. However, analysts
criticized it as unhelpful and Cabinet ministers warned it would have dire
consequences. The court was originally scheduled to resume hearings on the
case on Monday.
17th November 2008,
www.economictimes.com
23 Dollar and yen edge up on doubts about stocks rally
The yen edged up against the dollar and the euro on Friday after
a sharp fall the previous day, as investors tip-toed back to the perceived
safety of the Japanese currency amid nagging concerns about the global credit
crisis. Asian stock markets rose, tracking sharp gains on Wall Street, which
had initially encouraged investors to return to riskier trades, triggering a
steep drop in the yen and the dollar. But caution set in as the market turned
its attention to this weekend's summit of the Group of 20 industrialised and
emerging economies, traders said. The G20 will meet in Washington to discuss
steps to address the financial crisis, but traders do not expect the outcome
of the meeting to provide much guidance to a market steered by deeper economic
concerns.
18th November 2008,
www.bbc.co.uk
24 Asian shares gain, but wariness ahead of G20
Asian shares rose on Friday as this week's sharp losses were
seen as excessive, but a rally in oil fizzled and the yen edged up as signals
flashed 'danger' for the global economy before the G20 meeting this weekend.
But in a sign of how caution still remained, Asian shares pared earlier
stronger gains, while U.S. Treasuries edged up amid doubts about the
sustainability of the latest jump in equities. It's very underwhelming today,
said Peter Wright, dealer at Burrell & Co in Australia. Ordinarily you might
have expected the market to potentially be up the similar magnitude it was
down yesterday, but this shows just how rattled investors are, which is very
rattled. The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan was up about 1.5
per cent, marking its first gain in four sessions, but more than halved gains
from earlier in the day. The index was down more than 7 per cent for the week,
its first weekly loss in three.
17th November 2008,
www.economictimes.com
Compiled by:
Himanshu Gupta
BBA (MAHE) L3,S2 - 3rd Year
Skyline Business School
Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110 016
Tel: 2686 4848, 2686 6968
www.SkylineCollege.com