MOVES-Credit Suisse, Barclays Wealth
CREDIT SUISSEThe financial services provider appointed Stuart Guinness as
a managing director and head of emerging markets products, Asia
Pacific in the Asset Management Division. Previously, he was
head of institutional client relations, corporate & investment
banking at Societe Generale based in Hong Kong.BARCLAYS WEALTHThe wealth management division of Barclays
appointed Rachel McCarthy as private banker. Previously, she
worked at Coutts & Co.SYZ ASSET MANAGEMENTThe institutional management division of the Swiss banking
group SYZ & Co appointed Alessia Toricelli Dolfi to its business
development team. Previously, Dolfi was in charge of the
institutional clientele at Dexia Asset Management.
China’s Wen says trade friction politicised -paper
“The current challenge is that there is growing trade
protectionism worldwide and more trade friction is politicized,
which casts a large shadow over and hurts the global economic
recovery,” Wen was quoted as saying by the newspaper.”China and the other nations should work hand-in-hand to
open up markets to each other,” Wen said.The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it would delay
until later this year a ruling on whether China is manipulating
its currency as Democratic Party lawmakers tried to overcome
Republican opposition to a bill that would punish Beijing for
its currency policies.Beijing has already decried the U.S. legislation, which
would let Washington slap countervailing duties on goods from
nations deemed to subsidise exports by undervaluing their
currencies, including China’s yuan, which many lawmakers say is
held drastically low against the dollar.
TEXT-S&P cuts Greek telco OTE to ‘B’; otlk neg
— We expect the deteriorating macroeconomic environment in Greece will
weigh further on OTE’s (OTEr.AT) operating results and ability to refinance its upcoming
debt maturities.— We are lowering the long-term rating to ‘B’, primarily because we
consider that country risk in Greece is increasing and that OTE now has
less-than-adequate liquidity under our criteria.— The negative outlook reflects the possibility of a further downgrade
in the next six to 12 months if our expectations of support to OTE from 40%
owner Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGn.DE) were to weaken, or if our assessment of OTE’s
liquidity profile continues to weaken.Standard & Poor’s Ratings said today it lowered its long-term corporate credit rating on
Greek telecom operator Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE) to ‘B’ from
‘BB-‘. In addition, we affirmed the ‘B’ short-term rating. The outlook is negative.”The rating action reflects our view that the group’s liquidity profile has
weakened to less-than-adequate under our criteria in the absence of any recent
refinancing,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Matthias Raab.
“Furthermore, we believe the deteriorating macroeconomic conditions in OTE’s
domestic market, including a potential default of the Hellenic Republic
(Greece; CC/Negative/C), could continue to negatively affect the group’s
operating results and access to capital markets.”Although we expect that OTE’s credit measures, as adjusted by Standard &
Poor’s, do not materially weaken in our base-case assessment for OTE in 2011
and 2012 from current levels, we are revising the group’s financial risk
profile to “highly leveraged” from “significant”, reflecting the group’s
weaker liquidity profile. This is primarily because OTE has significant debt
maturities in 2012 and 2013 and has not been able to refinance debt since May
2011. Nevertheless, in our base-case assessment, we forecast that the group’s
available liquidity sources and free cash flow generation prospects are
sufficient to cover debt maturities in 2011 and 2012.
We continue to assess the company’s business risk profile as “weak”, which
primarily reflects the group’s leading market positions, solid profit margins,
and adequate cash generation despite an adverse regulatory and macroeconomic
environment.The ‘B’ rating on OTE is one notch higher than our assessment of the company’s
stand-alone credit profile, primarily because we factor in moderate support
from OTE’s 40% shareholder Deutsche Telekom AG (DT; BBB+/Positive/A-2), which
fully consolidates OTE in its financial results in line with a shareholder
agreement with the Greek government.As of June 30, 2011, OTE’s debt-to-EBITDA ratio and ratio of funds from
operations (FFO) to debt, as adjusted by Standard & Poor’s, were 3.5x and 22%,
respectively.”The negative outlook reflects the possibility of a downgrade in the next six
to 12 months if OTE’s liquidity profile continues to weaken,” said Mr. Raab.
“This could be the case if OTE generated less than EUR100 million free operating
cash flow in the second half of 2011 as a result of a weaker operating
performance than we currently expect, or if we assess that OTE was at risk of
not being able to address its debt maturities due in September 2012 and
February 2013. In addition, we could lower the rating if we believed DT’s
commitment to OTE had weakened.”RELATED CRITERIA AND RESEARCHAll articles listed below are available on RatingsDirect on the Global Credit
Portal, unless otherwise stated.— Use Of CreditWatch And Outlooks, Sept. 14, 2009— Stand-Alone Credit Profiles: One Component Of A Rating, Oct. 1, 2010— Rating Government-Related Entities: Methodology And Assumptions, Dec.
9, 2010— Criteria Methodology: Business Risk/Financial Risk Matrix Expanded,
May 27, 2009— Key Credit Factors: Business And Financial Risks In The Global
Telecommunication, Cable, And Satellite Broadcast Industry, Jan. 27, 2009— 2008 Corporate Criteria: Analytical Methodology, April 15— Methodology And Assumptions: Liquidity Descriptors For Global
Corporate Issuers,” published Sept. 28, 2011— 2008 Corporate Criteria: Ratios And Adjustments, April 15, 2008— General Criteria: Nonsovereign Ratings That Exceed EMU Sovereign
Ratings: Methodology And Assumptions, April 8, 2011
Talvivaara plans no temporary lay-offs - report
“For a crisis situation like in 2008 we have a plan B … At
the moment we have no temporary lay-off plans,” Pera said in an
interview with business magazine Talouselama published on
Friday.Finnish legislation allows companies to use temporary
lay-offs to adjust to weaker demand.Pera said company’s uranium extraction plan would succeed.”I have no doubt in the success of the plan. From every
aspect it is sensible, unless nuclear energy and x-raying will
be stopped.”
Sony Ericsson Q3 profit in line, mum on Sony buyout
Last week, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Sony is in talks to buy Ericsson’s 50 percent stake in the joint venture.The company, which stuck to its outlook for the market, said that it would shift all its production to smartphones during 2012. ($1 = 0.730 Euros)
PRESS DIGEST - British business - Oct 14
Growth forecasts for Germany were slashed on Thursday amid
fears that Europe’s largest economy will grind to a near
standstill as a deepening banking crisis threatens to plunge the
continent into recession.UK DATA EXPOSES SHIFT IN THE PAY GAPWages for public sector staff in the UK have risen by 13
percent more than their private sector peers in the past ten
years, but only for those on lower pay grades, according to data
released on Friday.BP PLANS UK OIL DEVELOPMENTBP has announced plans for a 4.5 billion pound
development of the Clair field, a seven billion barrel
superfield off the Shetland Islands.The TelegraphJOE LEWIS BID FOR PUB GROUP SAILS AWAYBillionaire Joe Lewis has withdrawn his 941 million pound
takeover attempt for pubs group Mitchells & Butlers ,
leaving shares down 6.9 percent at 235.3 percentUK REVENUE PURSUES 6,000 SWISS HSBC ACCOUNTSThe British government’s taxation arm, HM Revenue & Customs
(HMRC), is withdrawing its amnesty on 6,000 wealthy HSBC
customers and demanded they declare taxes due on Swiss
accounts or face criminal charges.WSJ MAY UNDO NEWS CORPRupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is facing severe
new legal pressure as The Wall Street Journal becomes a
lightning rod for widespread anger in the U.S. at the way the
company has behaved.The GuardianCARREFOUR SOUNDS ALARM OVER ECONOMYDeepening economic gloom has forced Europe’s biggest
retailer, Carrefour , to issue its fifth profit warning
this year.The IndependentUK BANKS DOWNGRADED AS STRESS TEST FEARS GROWSigns that the Government has become less likely to support
lenders led to another credit rating downgrade for Lloyds
and Royal Bank of Scotland on Thursday against
the backdrop of concerns that new European stress tests could
leave the sector in need of billions of pounds of extra capital.
