UK Prime Minister David Cameron late on Thursday launched an attack on his European counterparts at the World Economic Forum about their planned transaction tax “madness.” Cameron said the introduction of such a tax could cost half a million jobs and cut Europe’s economic output by around €200bn. He also risked upsetting relations with Germany in the run-up to the European summit next week by telling Germany it needs to play a bigger role in protecting the euro because “bold and decisive action” is required. He told the Davos assembly that in spite of the UK rejecting the new EU treaty he wants the country to remain within the EU....
Swiss drug giant Roche Holding on Wednesday made a hostile $5.7bn bid for DNA diagnostics company Illumina. Roche had previously attempted “multiple efforts” to start negotiations but Illumina refused to enter into “substantive discussion,” the company said. The offering of $44.50 a share represents an 18 percent premium over Illumina’s closing price per share on Tuesday. Roche said an acquisition of Illumina would provide benefits such as increased strength in the life sciences and diagnostics sector....
The Bank of Japan on Tuesday slashed its growth forecast for the current fiscal year, citing as reasons the appreciation of the yen, the upshot of a slowdown in overseas economies and declining post earthquake reconstruction spending. The bank’s governor Masaaki Shirakawa and the board reduced the economic forecast to two percent from an earlier 2.2 estimate in October. But the central bank left monetary policy unchanged for the third successive month. The policy rate remains at close to zero percent. The Japanese economy is expected to shrink 0.4 percent in fiscal year 2011, invalidating a previous forecast for a 0.3 percent growth, accord...
Swedish home products retailer, Ikea, said on Monday it has decided to delay its planned entry into India’s market because of concerns about local sourcing requirements, according to an FT report. Chief executive Mikael Ohlsson noted that the country’s rule for single brand retailers was a hindrance and needs to be re-evaluated. He said: “We will need to see what this means for us.” Currently companies operating in the Indian market must supply 30 percent of produced goods from regional, small and medium-sized companies. However, The world’s biggest furniture vendor has increased its expansion in China, where it has opened three new...
India’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled that telecoms group Vodafone will not be liable to pay more than RS13,500 crore ($2.7bn) in tax related to an acquisition five years ago. Vodafone, which is the world’s largest mobile phone company, won a landmark tax dispute regarding an $11.5bn purchase of a 67 percent stake in mobile phone operator Hutchinson Essar. The country’s highest court found that Indian tax officials did not have jurisdiction over a deal between two international companies, even with the assets located in India. The original agreement in 2007 was between Vodafone International Holdings, the Dutch subsidiary of Vodafone, a...
Israeli hackers on Tuesday claimed to have taken down the Saudi Arabian and UAE stock exchange websites. The group of hackers, who call themselves IDF Team- an acronym for Israeli Defence Forces, was able to temporarily paralyse the two websites. The IDF Team said that the hits came in retaliation for an attack on Monday by a group of Saudi-based hackers, named Nightmare, who shut down the sites for Tel Aviv stock exchange and Israeli airline El Al’s. The hackers warned in a statement: “Pathetic hackers from Saudi Arabia decided to launch an attack against Israeli sites (…) if these continue, we will move to the next level, which will...
Egypt’s government is in discussions with the International Monetary Fund about the possibility of obtaining a $3.2bn loan package to help support its economic reform. An IMF delegation arrived in Cairo on Monday to discuss the loan package which is to assist Egypt in bridging the gap in its state budget for the fiscal year 2011/2012. Follow-up discussions are due to be continued by the end of the month. Egypt’s deficit pushed wider last year following almost a year of economic and political turmoil. The country’s previous army-backed authorities had earlier turned down $3bn in IMF assistance, but since then the situation has worsened a...
The euro on Monday fell to an 11-year low versus the yen following a mass downgrade that stripped France and Austria of their AAA rating and cut eight further sovereigns. Europe’s currency dropped to its lowest point since 2000 to reach 97.10, compared with 97.59 on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average dropped 1.43 percent, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9 percent and China’s Shanghaio Composite lost 1.71 percent. Standard & Poor’s late on Friday also cut the ratings of Spain, Cyprus, and Portugal by two notches. Italy, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia all saw their ratings dropped by one notch. Portugal’s downgrade has now relegat...
China’s vast foreign exchange reserves showed on Friday their first quarterly drop since 1998. The decline was partly attributed to a slowing Chinese economy and capital outflows amid worldwide economic ambiguity. Reserves fell by $20.5bn to $3.18trn in the final quarter of 2011, said the People’s Bank of China.Net quarterly decreases are rare for China, which is momentarily the largest holder of foreign exchange reserves globally. On a year-on-year basis, however, the country’s fx reserves still expanded from its previous $2.85trn at the end of 2010, the bank said....
Argentina will enforce new restrictions on consumer goods’ imports by February in an effort to remedy its retreating trade surplus, according to a resolution published by the Revenue Office. The new regime will require importers to file a sworn statement of planned imports to the tax agency “prior to the issuing of the request, purchase order, or similar document used for completing overseas purchasing operations.” The statement will be checked by the correct authorities for an unspecified amount of time Officials will then give their consent or refusal to the person making the import application. In the first 11 months of 2011 imports ...