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Wednesday, 16 January 2013

European car sales plunge ends woeful year for automotive industry

EU car sales fell 16.3% in December – with non-eurozone members Britain and Sweden the exceptions

Europe's market for brand new cars shrank in 12 with the most effective monthly rate given that October The year of 2010, shutting per year troubled through heavy diminishes in most key eurozone establishments.
2 less business days normally made it easier for send out brand-new vehicle sign ups in the European in freefall 07.3% last month for you to Seven hundred ninety-nine,407 autos, as outlined by data posted about Wed from the Western european auto market relationship Acea.

VW sales fell 22% in December, with GM and Ford both down around 27%

Your figures emphasize the actual problems regarding carmakers in The european countries, wherever over-indebted financial institutions won't lend cash-strapped consumers the particular cash to get brand new automobiles while austerity forces being out of work into a report a lot of practically 12%.
Exclusions a few weeks ago had been non-eurozone European users including The united kingdom and Sweden, in which demand increased. But declares even if it's just within the Western european, for example Exercise as well as Norway, experienced contractions.
Twelve-monthly car sales volumes in the EU droped 8.2% in order to 14.05m autos next year, Acea explained. Within the eurozone, they will slipped Eleven.3% to merely underneath 9m, based on Reuters' data.
With regard to 2013, marketplace forecaster LMC Auto not too long ago projected any Several.1% drop in eu income in order to 12.4m automobiles, in comparison with levels of about 14.8m as well as 13m in 2011 along with This year, respectively.
One of the most detrimental reach recently have been People carmakers General Motors and Kia, in which class revenue every single chop down around 27%, using the Chevrolet brand major them all lower and also publishing a good sluggish calendar month as compared to their sickly cousin Opel.
Actually Volkswagen's sales of its core VW brand name droped 22%. The actual 12 jump at their high end model Audi virtually harmonized in which.
Malay manufacturers Hyundai along with Kia remained a rare vivid location, increasing 12.5% and also Six.8% respectively. The couple make an identity on their own together with well created, inexpensive autos that get pleasure from prolonged warranties.
The most severe regular monthly fall in recent years was your 27% stop by The month of january '09, whilst the worst type of annual contraction had been 1993's slide involving Sixteen.9%.

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140 UK retailers in 'critical condition'

Business recovery firm reports 35% rise in number of high street stores experiencing significant distress before Christmas

140 high street retailers are on a 'critical watchlist'. The health of the sector is key to employment data and consumer confidence

More than 100retailers are in a vital condition and will probably stick to HMV and Jessops into government, among the United kingdom's leading organization recuperation companies offers informed.
Jules Palmer, a partner in Begbies Traynor, mentioned 160 retailers ended up on the business's "critical watchlist" -- looked as companies that had obtained whether finding yourself application or even a local court wisdom versus these people over £5,000.
Your woman included that the business's newest analysis additionally featured there were a 35% surge in the quantity of merchants experiencing important stress ahead of Christmas time, which means Thirteen,Seven-hundred store owners either experienced any maintained amount of failing finances as well as have been within receipt of your region court wisdom regarding less than £5,Thousand.

Palmer dropped to recognize the A hundred and forty beneath fast danger, yet said we were holding a variety of well-known names and also smaller sized stores. "Experiences educates people that a substantial percentage [on the actual critical list] can fall into some kind of financial distress process,Inches the girl mentioned.
The healthiness of the high street is vital for you to job data as well as buyer self-confidence. With many Three million people working in britain list market, it does not take biggest personal field workplace.

Palmer explained: "Overall, your sectors which are many vulnerable incorporate individuals impacted by customers transferring in order to on the internet as well as electronic types, including professionals within music, game titles, textbooks, news and stationary combined with professionals which might be nearly all suffering from the particular as well as price-driven offering with the supermarkets, such as apothecaries, health and beauty, and also alcoholic beverages suppliers."
The particular dismal perspective to the industry came up as the tunes chain HMV implemented camera-supplier Jessops straight into management following lengthy struggles by simply equally firms to be able to come across enterprise versions that could contend with online retailers.
The down sides are already reflected anywhere else on the high street, in which stores for example JJB Sports activities and Comet get folded away in the latest thirty day period.
Stats manufactured by RSM Tenon book-keeping group reveal that next year regarding 1,300 suppliers started to be bankrupt, that means they couldn't pay out their debts - an upturn regarding 7% in This year. Joe Ratten, your business go involving restructuring, explained: "We count on in 2010 to be a whole lot worse, while those who have been able to teeter about the border for the past few years may notice the complete results of the decrease in optional shelling out, intense levels of competition and lowering cash supplies.

"We believe 12,679 merchants have a great probability of insolvency away from greater than One hundred,Thousand retailers country wide." The telephone number from dangerous, he said, was 40% high on 12 This year.
Michael Ingram, a niche analyst using City broker BGC, said: "UK retail store issues never finish there. Throw away cash flow in england continues to be compressed mercilessly: wage growth is actually working at less than half the rate associated with the cost of living (1.3% versus Two.7% for the client value catalog and three.0% for the list price index), while the cost of living throughout non-discretionary products, like energy and also normal water contract deals, can be running in excess of 6%.

"To leading everything, consumer credit features, from finest, flatlined over the past few months. One method or another, consumers in britain have less money to invest and they are significantly circumspect of the way they will invest precisely what stays. [For a few retailers] the net has had unwelcome visibility to be able to top quality prices.Inch
Your decline has still left a lot of higher pavement despondent, while using British Retail store Range (BRC) estimating that particular in seven city center stores will be empty, the very best degree since the buy and sell system started out producing info, inside July This year.
Nevertheless, the particular BRC additionally just lately produced much more upbeat info. Its employment check, addressing June for you to October This year, confirmed the amount of list jobs increased simply by 2.9% weighed against a year earlier, although benefits ended up inside the food sector; jobs made in non-food retailers fell.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Goldman Sachs backs down from delayed bonus tax plan

Bank scraps scheme which would have allowed top staff to avoid 50% rate after pressure from Mervyn King and government

Goldman Sachs has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown from plans to allow its highly paid bankers to avoid the 50% top rate of tax, following public intervention by Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King and pressure from the government.

But the Wall Street firm is expected to spark a fresh row over City bonuses on Wednesday by revealing that its bankers have enjoyed a 10% pay rise when it announces profits for 2012.

Goldman was already facing condemnation about proposals to defer bonuses until after 6 April, when the top rate of income tax falls to 45% from 50%, when King waded in. The Bank of England governor told MPs he regarded such attempts as "depressing".

Further pressure was being exerted behind the scenes by the Treasury minister, Sajid Javid, who spoke to Goldman bankers to seek assurances that the bonuses from 2009, 2010 and 2011 would not be delayed.

King told the Treasury select committee: "I find it a bit depressing that people who earn so much seem to think that it's even more exciting to adjust the timing of it to get the benefit of the lower tax rate …which they will benefit from in the long run to a very great extent knowing this must have an impact on the rest of society, when even now it is the rest of society which is suffering most from the consequences of the financial crisis."

Goldman Sachs is expected to reveal its bankers have enjoyed a 10% pay rise

The phone call between Javid and Goldman bankers had been scheduled late on Monday night and took place on Tuesday afternoon just after the bank's remuneration committee met to discuss bonuses for 2012 and pulled any plan to delay bonuses.

The bank's pay committee was meeting ahead of the bank's full-year results, after which staff will be informed of their bonuses, amid forecasts that the firm will defy the downward trend in the City and raise average payments. Sanford Bernstein analyst Brad Hintz predicted average pay per employee at Goldman would rise from around £238,000 to £260,000 after a wave of redundancies.

The shadow Treasury minister, Chris Leslie, predicted that the bonus season being launched by Goldman this week will be "very lucrative for thousands of bankers" as a result of the cut to the top tax rate.

JP Morgan, hit by the London Whale trading affair, also reports on Wednesday amid expectations its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, will be docked part of his bonuses for the $6bn (£3.7bn) of losses which this week sparked regulatory intervention on both sides of the Atlantic. European banks, including the bailed out Royal Bank of Scotland, do not publish their results for another month.

RBS is facing additional pressure to restrain bonuses as it braces for a fine – possibly £500m – for rigging the Libor interest rate.

The government's private approach to Goldman contrasted with Prime Minister David Cameron's description of the tax affairs of comedian Jimmy Carr as "morally wrong" last summer.

David Hillman, a spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, which lobbies for a financial transaction tax, urged the government to "get a grip" on the financial sector at the start of the bonus season.

Lord Oakeshott, former Treasury spokesman for the Liberal Democrats in the Lords, said that if Goldman wanted to keep working for the government on major products the bank could not "spit in taxpayers' faces". "It's high time they behaved like good citizens, not barrow boys," Oakeshott said.

Michael Cohrs, who sits on the Bank of England's new financial policy committee, the body charged with stopping systemic risks from overwhelming the financial system, told the Treasury select committee that the government had "probably" overpaid for its stakes in RBS and Lloyds during the 2008 banking crisis. He added that the taxpayer was unlikely to make a profit, even though US taxpayers have made a profit on bailouts across the Atlantic.

Banks are already being told to establish how much more capital they need. When asked for a "ballpark" figure for RBS and Lloyds, Cohrs said it was a "big number" that should not be made public as "it will spin out of control in the journalist community".

Article source :http://www.guardian.co.uk

HMV calls in administrators with 4,500 high street jobs at risk

Ninety-one-year-old music chain falls victim to online shopping trend after failing to agree on new debt terms with banks

HMV has confirmed it will call in administrators from Deloitte on Tuesday, as the 250-strong chain became the latest casualty of the shift to online shopping, putting 4,500 jobs at risk.

Stores were expected to open on Tuesday but the firm said it would not be accepting gift vouchers or issuing any more.

HMV stores were expected to open on Tuesday and analysts expect a buyer for at least part of the group

HMV held discussions with its banks over the weekend but failed to agree on new terms for its debt.

It said in a statement issued on Monday night: "The board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection and in the circumstances therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect."

Nick Edwards, Neville Kahn and Rob Harding of Deloitte will be appointed as administrators. The company said: "The directors understand that it is the intention of the administrators, once appointed, to continue to trade whilst they seek a purchaser for the business."

Analysts expect a buyer for at least part of the group. As the reaction to HMV's demise has shown, the brand, famous for its Nipper the dog trademark, still holds a cachet for many people. HMV had around 35% of the, albeit dwindling, CD market in 2012 and it is thought that around half of its 240 stores could be profitable once the company gets rid of its debt.

Rumours circled on Monday night that the restructuring company Hilco could be interested in buying the group out of administration. Hilco bought HMV Canada from the UK parent in 2011 and has overseen a better-than-expected Christmas at the north American arm, which rang up sales of $65.4m (£40.5m) over the festive period, beating targets.

It was thought that the US vulture fund Apollo Global Management had been considering a bid but is no longer interested in buying the chain. Apollo bought 6% of the company's bank debt two weeks ago.

Neil Saunders, the managing director of the research house Conlumino, said: "The brand certainly has some value, however, while someone could arguably turn a profit in running some of the stores for a period of time they would still be betting against the future. By our own figures, we forecast that by the end of 2015 some 90.4% of music and film sales will be online. The bottom line is that there is no real future for physical retail in the music sector."

The news prompted many to mourn the demise of the 91-year-old chain. Chuka Umunna MP, Labour's shadow business secretary, said: "HMV is a national institution that has been a feature of our high streets for over 90 years so this news is deeply worrying. For the sake of HMV's employees, we hope a way can be found to keep the business going. The demise of HMV – a national institution – would be a sad loss for British retail."

Twitter also saw an outpouring of emotion from fans of the store, with comments such as: "HMV closing is the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

But analysts were philosophical about the chain's collapse. Saunders said: "This outcome was always inevitable. While many failures of recent times have been, at least in part, driven by the economy, HMV's reported demise is a structural failure. In the digital era where 73.4% of music and film are downloaded or bought online, HMV's business model has simply become increasingly irrelevant and unsustainable.

"HMV did not react early enough to the digital trend; it did not give shoppers a reason to keep buying from it. Admittedly, the company has tried to innovate through selling more electricals and gadgets but, unfortunately, these initiatives were never going to be enough to counteract the terminal decline in its core business."

Article source :http://www.guardian.co.uk

Sunday, 13 January 2013

EU membership is crucial to Britain's growing car industry

The UK's car industry is a bright spot in the economic gloom – let's not jeopardise it by pulling out of Europe

We may have just overtaken Brazil to become the world's sixth largest economy, but the overall economic outlook for the UK remains relatively bleak. Some economists foresee a full-blown triple-dip recession, and with consumer spending and domestic investment remaining sluggishand more public spending cuts just round the corner, even minimal economic growth will be highly dependent on an increase in British exports.

Production of the electric Nissan Leaf will start in the UK next year

Despite the doom and gloom, one sector continues to provide a small glimmer of hope: the British car industry. Rapid growth in output and productivity is bucking the wider trend of relative economic decline and restoring the UK's position as a global manufacturing hub. This resurgence has been driven by a range of factors, but especially important has been an increase in foreign investment, international trade and innovation. In each of these areas, Britain's membership of the EU remains crucial.

Over the past two years, the British automotive industry received nearly £6bn of foreign investment. Just as with the Japanese companies hailed with rescuing the British car industry in the 1980s, this investment has been primarily motivated by the UK's position as a launchpad into the highly regulated EU market. And while domestic demand has grown in the past year, 80% of all vehicles produced in the UK are still sold overseas, over half of them in the EU.

If the UK were to leave the single market British-produced vehicles would face import tariffs from 10% to 22%, as well as numerous regulatory barriers. Major foreign investors such as Nissan, Ford and BMW would rapidly look elsewhere, probably to more secure EU members such as Poland or the Czech Republic. Even if the British government was able to renegotiate a unilateral free trade deal with the EU, it would be unlikely to enjoy unrestricted access to the single market and the accompanying uncertainty would make any would-be investors think twice.

Admittedly, the EU market has seen a dramatic decline since the eurozone crisis. This makes it essential to expand exports into emerging markets through free trade deals. The EU-South Korea trade agreement, signed last year, has helped bring about an 8% increase in vehicle exports from the UK. The recent trade agreement with Singapore should also give a major boost to British car exports.

Yet this will be small change compared to the breathtaking potential of EU free trade negotiations with Japan and the US, due to be launched in the coming months. While it could negatively impact the EU car industry as a whole, a deal with Japan could help boost investment in the UK and decrease the input costs of British-manufactured Japanese cars. The US on the other hand is the UK's largest export market, and currently far more British vehicles are exported to the US than vice versa. However, without the economic weight of the EU, it is unlikely the UK would be able to gain any favourable concessions in the politically sensitive American automotive sector.

Finally, EU carbon emission targets and specific incentives to produce low-emission cars have helped spur innovation in the UK automotive sector. The European Commission has also invested billions of euros in research and development funding, encouraging cross-border research projects and ensuring that Europe remains a world leader in developingsmarter and greener technologies.

The importance of this can be seen in the UK, where soaring petrol prices have encouraged consumers to switch to more fuel-efficient cars. Meanwhile sales of electric cars have more than doubled and are expected to increase further as new models become available – notably the Nissan Euro Leaf, which will start production in Sunderland next year. Outside of the EU, the UK would soon lose its competitive edge in the global transition towards more innovative, low-carbon vehicles.

Britain's car industry is a vital part of its economy, supporting 730,000 jobs and accounting for 11% of manufactured exports. It also plays a crucial role in offsetting the UK's huge trade deficit; this year Britain sold more cars abroad than it imported, for the first time since 1976. And thanks to the presence of factories and supply chains throughout all UK regions, it's an industry that helps to balance the growing north-south divide.

As a group of senior business leaders recently warned Cameron in the build-up to his much anticipated Europe speech, casting doubts over Britain's EU membership at this time risks creating a climate of "damaging uncertainty". Such uncertainty would be especially harmful for Britain's thriving car industry, and thus for the British economy as a whole.

Article source :http://www.guardian.co.uk

Japanese government unveils £138bn stimulus package

Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, details how £138bn will be pumped into economy in bid to create 600,000 jobs

The Japanese cabinet has approved a fresh stimulus package of more than 20 trillion yen (£138bn/$224bn), aiming to lift the economy out of recession and create 600,000 new jobs.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, announced the decision at a news conference where he said the new measures were intended to add 2% toJapan's real economic growth.

Cars wait for export from Japan. Shinzo Abe is aiming to create 600,000 new jobs with a 20tn yen injection into the economy

Abe urged the central bank to move more aggressively to encourage lending and meet a clear inflation target to break out of the economic doldrums that have plagued Japan for two decades.

Abe took office late last month after a parliamentary election victory by the Liberal Democratic party, which is touting public works spending and subsidies to strategically important sectors as part of its plan to revive the economy.

"Unfortunately the previous administration failed to work out how to boost growth and expand the economic pie," Abe said. "It is vital that we have an economic strategy that can create jobs and raise incomes to sustain growth."

Abe, who also served as prime minister in 2006-07, has vowed to make reviving the economy his top priority, promising support both to small businesses and big industries such as the auto sector.

The spending package includes 10.3tn yen in extra outlays by the central government. Abe's administration is pledging to spend 19tn yen in 2015 in support for reconstruction of the coastal areas devastated by the March 2011 disasters.

The stimulus deal, which will be the basis for a supplementary budget for the remainder of the fiscal year until 31 March, required wrangling over tax reform and other issues with the Liberal Democrats' coalition partner, the New Komeito.

It also includes a request to raise military spending by 100bn yen from the 4.6tn yen budget last year, the first such increase in a decade. The increase is partly aimed at beefing up monitoring and defences around islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China. A territorial dispute over the uninhabited islands flared into anti-Japanese riots across China last autumn after Japan's central government purchased them from a private owner.

On the economic front, Abe has urged Japan's central bank to do whatever it takes to meet an inflation target of 2% to counter a persisting cycle of sinking prices and weak demand.

The change of administration has raised hopes that Abe's more aggressive approach might help Japan escape recession.

Article source : http://www.guardian.co.uk

Double dose of gloom as Honda axes jobs and UK manufacturing shrinks

UK on triple-dip recession alert as Honda cuts 800 jobs at Swindon and data shows manufacturing output fell in November

Two pieces of gloomy news on Friday summed up the parlous state of British manufacturing.

The first was the news that Honda is to cut 800 jobs at its Swindon plantdue to weak demand from Europe. Given that the auto sector has been one of the few bright spots for industry, this was particularly depressing.

The second snippet came from the Office for National Statistics, which said manufacturing output contracted by 0.3% in November and was 2% lower than a year earlier. With the fourth-quarter growth figures due out in two week's time, the City was on full triple-dip recession alert.

A word of caution is needed here. Manufacturing now accounts for around 10% of gross domestic product, with the broader measure of industrial production – which includes North Sea oil and gas and domestic energy production – making up around 18% of national output.

News that Honda is cutting 800 jobs is particularly depressing given the car industry had been a bright spot for UK industry.

Construction – where there were also downbeat figures for November – makes up a further 7%. That leaves the service sector, where there is so far only data for October, making up the other three quarters of the economy.

Even so, from the data available, the signs are not that promising.

Industrial production in October and November was 2.3% lower than the average for the third quarter so unless there is a marked – and, it has to be said – unlikely spurt in December, there will be a chunky quarter-on-quarter drop in the final three months of 2012. Industrial production, which in the latest quarter was at its weakest level since 1991, could shave half a percentage point off growth.

The picture from construction is better. Although there was a drop in output in November, that followed a sharp rise in October. Output was 1.8% higher in the three months to November than in the three months to August, so it would take a drop of around 10% in December construction output to prevent the sector from providing a positive contribution to growth.

Evidence from the service sector is mixed as well as scanty. Consumer spending in October and November was nothing to write home about, although there seems to have been a last minute flurry both in the high street and online in the days just before Christmas.

Data for December will, however, be unavailable to the ONS when it makes its first stab at calculating the fourth-quarter growth figures on January 25. As things stand, the figure looks like being close to zero, with the odds slightly on a negative number.

This would not, strictly speaking, constitute a triple-dip recession – two successive quarters of falling output would be required for that – but it would certainly have David Cameron and George Osborne on tenterhooks about the GDP data for the first three months of 2013, a quarter which in the past has been at the mercy of the weather.

Article Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk