Lenovo has recently diversified into smartphones and tablet PCs although it lags behind the market leaders

Lenovo, the world’s second-largest maker of PCs, has reported a 54% rise in profits on overseas acquisitions and a jump in sales.

Net profit rose to $153m (£96.8m) in the three months ending 31 December.

Lenovo said it saw strong sales in the US and emerging markets, which allowed it to buck the trend in a declining global PC market.

Last year, it overtook Dell to rank second behind Hewlett Packard in global PC sales.

Market share

Beijing-based Lenovo has seen strong growth in recent years due to expanding sales in China, as well as acquisitions in markets such as Germany and Japan.

In the last three months of 2011 it increased its worldwide market share to 14%, up from 10.3%. That put it ahead of Dell, which rose to 12.9% from 12%, according to data collected by the Bloomberg news agency.

Lenovo and Dell were the only companies out of the four top PC sellers to see an increase in shipments in the quarter.

As a whole, the global PC market saw shipments fall 0.2%, compared with the same period the previous year.

Lenovo recently diversified into smartphones and tablet PCs, although it lags behind the market leaders such as Samsung and Apple.

Despite hurdles ahead, the company said it remained confident of future growth.

“Although challenges to worldwide PC demand remain, such as the pace of global economic recovery and the on-going debt crisis in Western Europe, and even a hard disk drive supply shortage and cost increase, Lenovo remains optimistic that its growth momentum will continue,” it said in a statement.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16958581

All of the 20 clubs in the list are from the “big five” European leagues

Real Madrid’s revenues of 480m euros (£401m) topped the Deloitte league table of the world’s richest football clubs for the seventh straight year.

Deloitte’s Football Money League, based on data for season 2010/11, says Real will match Manchester United’s eight-year record if they stay top next year.

Real’s arch-rivals Barcelona remained in second place, ahead of Manchester United, who stayed third.

Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Chelsea are fourth, fiifth and sixth respectively.

Unchanged at top

The top seven clubs stayed in exactly the same positions as in the previous year.

Aston Villa fell out of the league entirely, failing to hold on to their 20th position and leaving English clubs holding six places out of the top 20.

Liverpool fell one spot to ninth place in this year’s list.

All of the 20 clubs in the list are from the “big five” European leagues, with Italy contributing five clubs, Germany four, Spain three and France down to two, from three in the previous year.

Together, the top 20 clubs earned 4.4bn euros, a rise of 3% on the previous year.

Spanish rivals

Nine of the 20 clubs saw their revenues grow in double digits in 2010/11.

Although seven of them saw a fall in revenue, the authors said that this was mostly down to weaker on-pitch performances, causing falls in ticket sales and merchandising, rather than the effect of weakness in eurozone economies.

Barcelona’s shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation is worth about 30m euros per season, according to the report.

This, coupled with the club’s 3.5m-euro prize money for winning the Fifa World Cup, may enable the Spanish club to catch up with its arch-rival Real next year, the report suggests.

Both Spanish clubs are approaching record revenue levels of 500m euros and may top this in the next few years, says the report.

German club Schalke leapt six places to 10th after a strong performance in last year’s season, which took the club to the semi-final in the Uefa Champions League.

In next year’s report, however, Schalke will be edged out of the top 10 by Manchester City, say the report’s authors, after considering City’s heavy financial support from Abu Dhabi investors and its participation in the 2011/12 Champions League.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16951878

Inflation hit a three-year high in July of 6.5% but had been easing since then

China’s rate of inflation unexpectedly accelerated in January for the first time since it peaked in July, as consumers raised spending around Chinese New Year.

Consumer prices rose 4.5% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That compares with 4.1% in December.

Analysts were expecting prices to rise by 4.0%.

High consumer prices have threatened to derail growth in China.

Policy decision

Inflation had been easing steadily since hitting a three-year high of 6.5% in July.

Analysts said not too much should be read into the New-Year-distorted January figures.

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The January inflation number will of course make policymakers wary of the risk and be more cautious in further relaxation of monetary policy”

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Shen Jianguang
Mizuho Securities

“January numbers are distorted by the Lunar New Year holiday and we need to wait until February numbers come out to make our conclusions,” said Shen Jianguang from Mizuho Securities Asia in Hong Kong.

“I think the policymakers will wait as well.”

Chinese authorities, who were once implementing measures to control high inflation, had recently begun easing monetary policy to spur growth as inflation eased and weak demand from Europe affected exports.

“The January inflation number will of course make policymakers wary of the risk and be more cautious in further relaxation of monetary policy,” said Mr Jianguang.

Income gap

The New Year holiday, which fell between 22 January and 28 January this year, may have boosted prices and retail sales.

It also acted to dampen trade and industrial production as factories closed down for the celebration.

The biggest contributor to the rise was pork prices, which gained 25% compared with 21.3% in December. That drove overall food inflation to rise 10.5%.

Last year’s spike in living costs spurred frustration among the public over the income gap.

Chinese leaders have been under pressure to distribute the country’s economic prosperity better to the poor.

On Wednesday, in an attempt to alleviate some of those concerns, the Cabinet said it would increase the minimum wage by at least 13% each year until 2015.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16958764

The party leaders only received the text of the draft proposals on Wednesday morning

Greek PM Lucas Papademos has failed to secure the support of his coalition for a raft of new austerity measures, after more than seven hours of talks.

He met officials from three parties to try to secure a deal leading to a fresh bailout package.

The main stumbling block was proposed pension cuts, reports said.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is travelling to Brussels where Eurozone finance ministers meet on Thursday afternoon.

Observers say there is huge pressure for Greek political leaders to strike a deal prior to that meeting.

“I leave for Brussels with hope that the Eurogroup will take a positive decision concerning the new aid plan,” Mr Venizelos said prior to his departure from Athens.

Following the coalition talks, Mr Papademos was reported to have gone directly into a meeting with EU and IMF officials.

They represent the so-called “troika” of bailout creditors – the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – who had earlier agreed the draft proposals with the prime minister.

They are thought to include a 20% minimum wage reduction, pension cuts and the sacking of 15,000 public sector workers – and have prompted further mass protests.

Officials from Pasok, New Democracy and the far-right Laos party only received the 50-page text on Wednesday morning, reports said, after Mr Papademos agreed the deal with the troika on Tuesday night.

Pressure

According to Laos leader George Karatzaferis, the bulk of Wednesday’s meeting was spent discussing the issue of supplementary pensions, which had reportedly been in line for a 15% cut.

Mr Papademos’s office said Mr Karatzaferis had expressed “serious reservations” during the meeting.

As he left, Mr Karatzaferis told reporters: “I made my positions clear from the beginning… I wanted to support Mr Samaras (New Democracy leader) on that issue (pensions).”

Antonis Samaras said he had felt obliged to bargain hard.

“We want to ease the people’s suffering,” he said.

However, the BBC’s Mark Lowen, in Athens, says the package of cuts and reforms would go down very badly with an austerity weary Greek nation.

According to unconfirmed reports in the Greek media, the measures were aimed at trimming 3.2bn euros (£2.7bn; $4.2bn):

• Minimum wage to be cut by 22% from 751 euros per month to 600 euros.
• Supplementary pensions to be reduced by 15% but basic pensions also likely to be cut
• 15,000 public sector jobs to go by end of 2012
• But holiday bonuses, known as 13th and 14th month salaries, expected to be saved

On Tuesday night, a spokesman for the International Institute of Finance (IIF) which is negotiating on behalf of the private creditors said the talks had been constructive and its three officials were returning to Paris for further consultations.

As part of Greece’s new 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout deal – Greece’s second international bailout – Mr Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos have also been engaged in a separate strand of negotiations with private creditors over a write-off of up to 70% of the value of the money owed by the Greek government.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-europe-16958102

The company announced a series of job cuts in a statement in September 2011

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced the details of 4,000 job losses on Wednesday at plants in Hungary, Mexico and Finland.

The company said the plants would remain open and refocus on customising phones whilst the actual assembly would move to South Korea and China.

The cuts are planned to be complete by the end of the year.

Nokia said the move is aimed at placing its production closer to its component suppliers who are also based in Asia.

The cuts come two weeks after the Finnish firm posted a 1.08bn euro ($1.4bn; £905m) loss for the three months to the end of December 2011.

Nokia reported that its net sales fell 21% on a year earlier to 10bn euros and net sales of its mobile phones were down by a quarter.

Burning platform

Nokia, formerly the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, announced a tie-up with Microsoft last year in the face of fierce competition from a new generation of smartphones including Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy.

At the time Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop likened Nokia’s situation to standing on a “burning platform”.

The company announced a series of job cuts in a statement in September 2011 and mentioned planned cuts to its European facilities at the time.

With the latest job losses, the firm has made 14,000 cuts since 2010.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16953411

Cisco shares rose in after-hours trading

Technology giant Cisco, saw a 43.5% rise in net profits to $2.2bn (£1.3bn) for the three months to 28 January 2012, compared with the same period in 2011.

Cisco’s results come after a prolonged period of cost-cutting, which saw the firm shed more than 6,000 jobs in 2011.

Cisco increased its dividend by two cents to eight cents per share.

Shares in the firm rose 2.4% in after-hours trading to $20.93, as the results beat analyst expectations.

“Broadly speaking, people expected a good quarter. This is probably a little better than expected and the dividend is an added surprise,” said Joanna Makris at Mizuho Securities.

“We are executing well on our three-year plan to drive earnings faster than revenue,” said Cisco chief executive John Chambers.

“Our operational focus continues to yield positive results, we hit our billion dollar expense reduction a quarter early, and our ongoing innovation enables our customers to solve their critical business needs.”

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16929306

Groupon shares launched on Nasdaq on 4 November 2011

Daily voucher company Groupon has reported an unexpected loss.

In its first set of results since listing on Nasdaq stock exchange in November, Groupon reported a net loss of $42.7m (£27.0m), when a small profit had been expected.

The loss for the last three months of 2011 compares with a loss of $378.6m in the same period of 2010.

Shares in the company fell 13% in after-hours trading to $21.35, still above the listing price of $20.

The number of people who bought a Groupon in the fourth quarter rose to 33 million, which was up 20% from the third quarter, but still below expectations.

“The number of active customers came in short. That means not enough people are buying groupons,” said Sameet Sinha at B. Riley and Company.

“Yes, you can get fewer people to buy more, but how long can that continue? You need to start investing in new customer growth.”

The net loss for the whole of 2011 was $350.8m, down from $456.3m in 2010.

Groupon blamed the fourth quarter loss on $34.8m of tax expenses in some of its international businesses, where it said it had paid an effective tax rate of approximately 1,600%.

It also said that it had made extra provisions for income tax after establishing its international headquarters in Switzerland.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16957704

Rupert Murdoch said the financial performance was a good one

Media giant News Corporation has seen its net profits rise 65% in the three months to the end of December 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.

The rise is the first time that News Corp’s profits have grown compared to 2010 since since 1 January 2011.

The company made $1.06bn (£888m) net profit in the period, up from $624m in 2010.

The firm’s results were fuelled mainly by income from advertising and fees at its cable television networks.

“The significant growth we reported in the quarter in the cable network programming, television and filmed lntertainment segments clearly validates our strategy to develop and distribute superior wide-ranging content,” said chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch.

Mr Murdoch also mentioned that the firm had completed over half of its share repurchase program.

The repurchasing program was announced after News Corp’s bid to acquire the remaining shares in British Sky Broadcasting fell through in 2011 after the emergence of the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World.

The funds set aside for the Sky purchase were diverted into the share buying scheme.

TV, film and sport

Income at News Corporation’s US cable television networks rose 9% as the company benefited from the lower cost of broadcast rights to the NBA national basketball league.

The company’s cable news network, Fox News saw an 8% rise in revenues

The firm’s film division also performed strongly with Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked creating over $300m in worldwide sales.

On television, News Corp’s sold 25% more advertising around its flagship US programmes, X Factor and The New Girl as well as its baseball and American football coverage.

The firm also saw a 100% increase in the amount it charges other networks to broadcast its content, a move that reflects Rupert Murdoch’s strategy of creating revenue around every part of News Corporation’s content.

Publishing

One area which saw a decline despite the ongoing use of paywalls, was News Corporation’s publishing businesses including the Wall Street Journal and the Times newspaper in London.

The company said the losses were mainly due to lower advertising income from its Australian newspapers and the gap in revenue left by the closure of the News of the World in 2011.

The firm has so far had to pay $87m in relation to the ongoing investigations surrounding the closure of the News of the World.

The News of the World was Britain’s biggest selling weekly newspaper up until its closure.

The paper sold nearly 3 million copies every Sunday.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16956278

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Supergroup

Last Updated at 08 Feb 2012, 16:30 GMT

*Chart shows local time

The company behind the Superdry fashion chain has seen its shares fall 17% after it scaled back its profit forecast for the year.

Supergroup said that sales in January were disappointing and that profits for the financial year would be at the low end of its forecast.

Chief executive Julian Dunkerton said rival retailers had been making the deepest discounts he had ever seen.

The Cheltenham-based firm expects to make £50m to £54m for the full-year.

However, Mr Dunkerton is confident that profits will pick up.

“As the new product drops, normal service will resume,” he said.

“In the next 12 months, we’re going to see better margins from better sourcing and cotton prices coming down.”

According to Mr Dunkerton, the brand continues to be supported by celebrities.

He said that Pippa Middleton was recently seen wearing a pair of Superdry jeans.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16947166

The TUC believes that about 1.8 million women could be affected

Low-earning women could be frozen out of plans to enrol workers automatically in a pension scheme, the TUC has warned.

The programme, which starts in October, will see eligible employees becoming part of a pension scheme unless they opt out.

Workers will be enrolled only if they earn at least £7,475 a year, but this threshold could rise to £10,000.

The TUC said that this shift could lead to 1.8 million women missing out.

It has called on the government to freeze the earnings level at which auto-enrolment is triggered.

“Whether this is the best way to help the low-paid is an interesting debate, but it would be disastrous if it had the unintended consequence of excluding a significant proportion of women workers from pensions saving,” said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

Ros Altmann, director general of Saga, told the BBC that women had lost out from the pensions system in the past and were most likely to be among the lowest earners.

About 500,000 male workers could also be affected because they earned between £7,475 and £10,000 a year, the TUC said.

The government has consulted on whether to raise the threshold to bring it in line with the income tax personal allowance, although workers below this level could opt in to a pension scheme.

This would push the threshold up to £8,105, but eventually could rise to £10,000 along with the planned increase in the personal allowance.

This was one option in the government’s consultation.

The Department for Work and Pensions said that the consultation had taken place and a decision would be announced soon.

Enrolment scheme

Under the scheme, employees will be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme with employer contributions if they are aged between 22 and the state pension age, meet the earnings threshold and are not already in a scheme that meets minimum standards.

Once enrolled, employees can opt out, but saving in a pension will be the new default setting for anyone who does not express a choice.

Eventually, the automatic level of contributions must be at least 8% of the individual’s “qualifying earnings”. This includes 3% that must come from the employer. These contributions are being phased in.

Qualifying earnings include payments such as overtime and commission, not just salary. But an individual’s first £5,564 of earnings will not count and nor will any earnings above £39,853.

The largest employers will start enrolling workers in October, with others following in subsequent years.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-16943476