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Friday, 19 April 2024
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European Business News (96-06-25)European Business News (EBN) Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The European Business News Server at <http://www.ebn.co.uk/>Page last updated June 25 17:00 CETCONTENTS
[01] EU forces Deutsche Telekom to revise pricing planThe European Union (E.U.) Commission reached agreement with the German government on a corporate pricing policy for state telecommunications operator Deutsche Telekom AG.Having previously opposed the pricing policy, the commission said the fact that Deutsche Telekom agreed to substantially modify the arrangement led it to reverse its position. Under Deutsche Telekom's original plan, the discount pricing policy for big corporate clients was to apply retroactively to Jan. 1. The rate-cutting scheme received German regulatory approval in February. But the move sparked protests in Brussels from all the major competitors of Deutsche Telekom, including Germany's diversified utilities group Viag AG and diversified engineering and telecoms group Mannesmann AG. [02] Prudential spins-off reinsurance armPrudential Corp. PLC said it intends to list reinsurance subsidiary Mercantile & General on the stock market.Prudential said Mercantile & General made a pretax profit of 196 million pounds in 1995, up 13% on the year, with capital and reserves of 1.12 billion pounds. Working with investment bank Goldmans Sachs International, Prudential plans to list the group later in the year, subject to market conditions. Mercantile & General is one of the world's ten largest reinsurers, predominantly focused on life and health reinsurance where it occupies leadership positions in a number of markets, Prudential said, adding that it has clients in more than 100 countries and a worldwide network of 27 offices. [03] French insurer UAP confident of returning to profitFrench insurance group Cie. UAP SA will return to profit in 1996 after losing 2.1 billion francs in 1995, Chairman Jacques Friedman confirmed today.At a shareholders meeting, Friedman said a reduction in the company's debt level and measures to deal with losses from real-estate loans make him confident about 1996 profits. ''I hope these predictions will give shareholders confidence again,'' Friedman added. Friedman said UAP will cut its debt in half, to 6 billion francs, by the end of 1996 and that he hopes for a return on equity of 10% ''as soon as possible.'' [04] Nycomed cuts 1996 profit forecastNycomed ASA (NYD) cut its 1996 profit forecast, citing ''price competition in the X-ray contrast agent market in the USA.''The company, whose previous forecast was not available, said year results are expected to be ''closer to the 1994 level than the 1995 level.'' Nycomed had 1995 pretax profit of 1.69 billion kroner compared with 1.09 billion kroner in 1994. The figures refer to Nycomed alone and reflect the spinoff of Hafslund Energi ASA. As reported May 13, Hafslund Nycomed ASA split into two companies, Nycomed ASA and Hafslund Energi. [05] UK's Psion considers buying AmstradBritish hand-held computer maker Psion PLC is considering buying consumer electronics company Amstrad for 234 million pounds ($360 million) worth of stock, the companies said today.Both companies boards said any agreement would value Amstrad shares at 2 pounds at least, prompting the company's stock to rise 25 percent to 1.84 pounds. Psion shares, meanwhile, fell nearly 7%. Psion specializes in electronic organizers and in the past year has tried to expand its presence in the U.S. market. [06] Document may tie Sumitomo scandal to Chile's CodelcoRegulators studying how a Sumitomo Corp. trader, Yasuo Hamanaka, allegedly racked up $1.8 billion in copper-trading losses want to see a purported document that might link Sumitomo's losses to those suffered by other copper dealers in the past, among them Chile's giant copper producer, Codelco, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reports.The document, described by a metals trader and thought to be in the possession of ING Barings, the banking unit of ING Group NV, was a sales pitch to the bank made three years ago by Winchester Commodities Group. In the document, Winchester is said to have claimed Sumitomo and Codelco as clients that could be introduced to ING's metals-dealing division in London. Also named as clients of Winchester's were two Chinese companies, China International Trust & Investment Corp. (Citic), and China National Import & Export Corp. [07] French consumer spending shows modest climbHousehold consumption in France fell 0.1% in May after having slipped a downwardly revised 1.5% in April, The national statistics institute INSEE reported Tuesday. Economists had been expecting a drop of 0.4% on the month.The April figure was initially reported as being down 1.4%. INSEE noted that after three straight months of drops, household consumption was nearly flat in May reflecting unfavorable weather for textile and leather purchases, a decline electric appliance, watch and jewelry purchases, while there was a rise in consumption of other manufactured products. May household consumption was up 0.8% from the year-earlier month. [08] IBM announces European expansionInternational Business Machines Corp., pushing to regain lost market share in personal computers, plans to expand its customer-services operations in Europe with extra facilities in Ireland and Scotland, IBM officials said.The Armonk, New York-based computer company plans to announce today that it will open on Oct. 1 a 750-employee customer-service center for PCs in Ballycoolin, a suburb of Dublin. At the same time, IBM plans to double to 500 from 250 the number of employees at a Greenock, Scotland, PC customer- service center, according to David Williams, vice president for customer support at IBM's PC unit. From the European Business News (EBN) Server at http://www.ebn.co.uk/European Business News (EBN) Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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