Tata to invest £1 bn a year, workers agree to wage settlement After completing an investment of about £1 billion over the last one year in new technologies and product development, Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) today said that it would continue to invest an equal amount every year over the next five years. Improving sales and a return to profitability have also enabled the company to reconsider its plans to close one of its plants in UK’s Midlands. JLR has signed a new deal with its unions that will see pay rise for existing workers by around 5 per cent and also add another 1,500 workers over the next year, taking its total workforce to 17,500 by the end of next year. “This is a triumph for all concerned,” said JLR Chief Executive Ralf Speth. “The agreement is a great deal for our workers and the company, and we can now really get on with working together to achieve an even more exciting future for the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. This is truly the beginning of a new era for Jaguar Land Rover.” Nearly a year ago, the company had announced plans to shut one of its plants in the UK and streamline operations without any additional job losses.
The present intention to keep all three plants in the UK comes as a surprise. A couple of weeks ago, Tata Motors CEO Carl-Peter Forster had said at the Paris Motor Show that JLR wanted to merge plants. “The most efficient model is one large operation,” he had said. Dave Osborne, union Unite’s lead negotiator for the car industry, said: “This agreement secures the future of all JLR workers in the UK for the next 10 years and beyond. Just 18 months ago, our members agreed to changes to their terms and conditions, which ultimately helped the company navigate its way through an unprecedented recession. There can be no bigger sign of loyalty to JLR than that.” A JLR spokesperson said that development of a new sports car by Jaguar will continue as proposed earlier, and will be positioned a notch below the current Jaguar XK model. The concept electric hybrid, also under the Jaguar badge, will not be rolled into commercial production anytime soon. "That was a model developed to celebrate Jaguar 75th anniversary, not for production," the spokesperson clarified. Tata Motors group sales were up by 19 per cent in September. JLR global sales in September were 19,528 vehicles, higher by 16 per cent. Jaguar sales for the month were 4,861, higher by 10 per cent, while Land Rover sales were 14,667, higher by 19 per cent. Cumulative sales of JLR for the fiscal are 112,287, higher by 40 per cent. Cumulative sales of Jaguar are 29,780, higher by 27 per cent, while cumulative sales of Land Rover are 82,507, higher by 45 per cent. |
Friday, October 29, 2010
Deal with union saves JLR plant
Cairn Energy shareholders approve Vedanta deal
Shareholders in oil explorer Cairn Energy Plc today approved plans to sell the bulk of the company's stake in Cairn India to London-listed mining company Vedanta Resources Plc for up to $8.48 billion. About 99 per cent of all the shareholders unanimously approved the sale of 40 to 51 per cent stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Group, a spokesperson at Cairn Energy said. “We are pleased that Cairn Energy shareholders have approved the proposed transaction with Vedanta. This is an important step in the process towards completion (of the deal),” he said. But the Cairn-Vedanta deal is far from conclusion. Besides seeking its shareholders’ approval before October 30, Vedanta Group will have to complete the Indian open offer for the transaction to reach its logical ends. Vedanta Group is yet to get the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi’s) nod for making an open offer to minority shareholders of Cairn India, as the market regulator awaits the government to clear the deal first. While Vedanta is acquiring 40 to 51 per cent stake in Cairn India at Rs 405 per share, Sesa Goa, its subsidiary has applied for approval to make an open offer for an additional 20 per cent in Cairn India at Rs 355 per share. Meanwhile, petroleum secretary S Sundareshan today said the government would take a call on Cairn Energy’s stake sale to Vedanta Resources by the end of this calendar year. “The production sharing contracts require detailed examination, so we will into production-sharing contracts carefully and take the view with regard to granting the permission," he said, adding that the decision would come "sooner than later, hopefully within the next couple of months, by the year-end." The deal would also be subject to Vedanta qualifying as a technically competent company to own and run Cairn India, according to Indian government officials. “The issue has not been considered by the Indian government till now at all and all the focus has been on the applications given to us by Cairn Energy. One of the grounds for granting the permission is that the new party should have sufficient technical expertise,” Sundareshan said. “This will be examined when we take a final decision. I would like to make it very clear that I have no comment to offer on either the experience or the inexperience of the potential buyer. We have not made up our mind either way.” Another Indian official said he didn't think ONGC had plans to preempt the stake sale, after ONGC said in September it was "not passive" to the deal and trade minister Anand Sharma said in August the company should have a say in the transaction. “I don’t think the ONGC board has seriously considered the idea of a counter-offer,” Sundareshan said. “It is the question of money involved, it is a very large investment,” he said while responding to a question whether the ONGC was planning a counter-offer to Cairn Energy. Senior officials from the oil ministry are visiting London along with oil minister Murli Deora for a curtain raiser event in London for the ninth round of New Exploration and Licensing Policy, which proposes to offer 35 new blocks. Officials said nearly 60 per cent of the blocks offered this time were fresh ones and not recycled ones as it was done in the eighth round. The eighth round, which saw 70 blocks being offered, managed to sell only half of what was offered. With better seismic data in hand this time, ministry officials hope to find more buyers this time. Apart from the UK, officials will be visiting Russia as well and one of the visiting officials said the offer to Russia came after a gap of two years. |
Absolute Radio's loss swells 62%
Two years after buying Virgin Radio and re-branding it as Absolute Radio in the UK, The Times of India-controlled radio station has reported a 62 per cent rise in pre-tax loss to £4.3 million for calendar year 2009. The station owners blamed recession and rebranding for this rise in losses and fall in overall revenues by a third under the new management. Revenue fell to £14.8 million from £22 million. In 2008, pre-tax loss was at £2.65 million. The radio station changed hands in mid-2008, when the India-based publishing conglomerate bought it from the Richard Branson-controlled Virgin Group (Scotish Media Group) for £53.2 million without the “Virgin” brand name. The current owner, TIML, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd, the ultimate owners of The Times of India and other group publications. The new owner, however, is bullish about the coming months, and said revenues had started to look up as September revenues were reported to be up by 20 per cent. The station said its growth in revenues came at a time when the national advertising market was down by three per cent. Commenting on the results, Donnach O’Driscoll, CEO, said, “The heavy lifting is now behind us. We look forward to building on the strong growth shown in the most recent audience figures and we are optimistic about 2011.” Absolute said costs were down by 22.5 per cent, or £5.6 million, to £19.1 million in 2009. Wages were reduced from £4.76 million in 2008 to £3.4 million in 2009 as a result of the number of staff falling from 105 in 2008 to 90 in 2009. Cash used in operations was just £1.6 million, reflecting a combination of non-cash items and a strong working capital management performance. “The past two years have seen Absolute Radio Network reposition itself as it drives towards a digital future, reporting a 33 per cent increase in digital listening and considerable progression in digital online and mobile year on year. It continues to invest consistently in premium audio content to build audiences and drive new revenue streams,” an operational note from the station said. |
Ed Miliband is new Labour Party head
He won with 50.65 per cent of party-member votes, defeating his elder brother David Miliband (49.65), four years his senior, by a wafer-thin margin. The result was announced late last evening at Manchester. “I joined the party when I was 17. Never in my wildest imagination did I believe that one day I will lead this party,” he said, while addressing party members and supporters. In the final run up to the election, five candidates were in the fray. Diane Abbott (first Afro-Caribbean woman to contest for the party leadership), Ed Ball, former education minister, Andy Burnham and the Miliband brothers. The voting took four rounds to decide the the leader, though a knock-out system. It saw Abbott leave the fray first, followed by Burnham, Balls and finally David Miliband. Ed Miliband’s success was to a large extent made possible by the backing of the unions. He takes over as leader at a difficult time for the Labour party. It is barely recovering from a defeat in this year’s general election, after a 13-year reign under first Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown. Speaking at the Andrew Marr show on BBC this morning, he said unity and humility were the key to the party’s future and it must blame itself for the defeat in the recent general election, not blame the electorates. Ed Miliband is the son of Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband (whose father fled from Belgium during the second world war; he was earlier from Warsaw, Poland). He studied in Oxford and the London School of Economics, joining the Labour party when 17. He gradually rose to the position of cabinet minister in October 2008 (he was first elected to Parliament in 2005), when he was appointed minister for the then newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change. He held this charge till the general election defeat. Accepting the leadership office, he first paid rich tribute to his brother (who was foreign minister till the Brown government stepped down) and said, “David, I love you so much as a brother. And, I have such extraordinary respect for the campaign that you ran. The strength and eloquence that you showed. And, you taught us the most important lesson. Which is, we can be the party that reaches out to the community and we can also be a serious party of government again.” |
UK media slams New Delhi
Both The Times and The Guardian raised doubts over the games organisers’ ability to meet the deadline set for October 3, when the games will be declared open. The Guardian carried the picture of the bridge that collapsed near the main venue of CWG – Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium – injuring 27 workers with a provocative title. “Does this look ready to you?”. The Times carried the story of the fiasco surrounding the games as the only story on page one with a title ‘Games crisis grows as British stars pull out’. Even Business Secretary Vince Cable’s attacks on banks (which has a far more significant impact on the British economy) at his party’s annual conference was prioritised below the games story, highlighting Britain’s serious concerns over the Game’s preparedness. The tabloid-styled Daily Mail reported three of England’s top athletes pulling out of the game “as the chaotic £1.5 billion event edged closer to being cancelled”. Earlier, Olympic 400m gold medalist Christine Ohuruogu, world champion triple jumper Philips Idowu and Commonwealth 1,500m champion Lisa Dobriskey said they were pulling out of the games, citing the collapse of the footbridge as the reason for their decision, Daily Mail reported. UK’s most popular daily tabloid The Sun in a page 9 report dubbed the game as “Commonwealth shames”. Despite attempts by the organisers in fire fighting the media frenzy, the comment from Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fannell that it was the “biggest crisis in the Games’ history” helped in fuelling media speculation on the success of the games. |
India second-most challenging place for expats: Survey
S Kalyana Ramanathan / London September 18, 2010 It has emerged that India is the second-most difficult posting for expatriate managers to work in, according to a report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit today. The survey conducted in July this year covered 418 executives who had collectively worked in 77 different countries. It showed that 34 per cent believed working in India would qualify them for a special ‘hardship’ living allowance, next only to Nigeria (37 per cent). The hardship estimate is based on factors such as political stability, crime levels and quality of housing, health and education, according to the authors of the survey-based report. The survey also showed that India ranked third in terms of where the number of expatriate executives were coming from (21 per cent) and sixth in terms of where expatriate executives were heading for (16 per cent). More than a third of those polled were working in China (35 per cent). The survey also showed that a stint in a major emerging market scuh as India boosts careers. Although employers will not explicitly say so, employees believe working in a major market will make a big difference to the career. Around 80 per cent of those polled believe an assignment in a major emerging market will make the difference. Quoting Yvonne McNulty, Monash University, the report said, “Expatriate assignments used to be very much company-generated. Companies selected individuals. This tradition has now been turned on its head and many assignments are now self-initiated.”
Haroon Lorgat: Mr Clean
If formidable challenges help define a person’s real mettle, this is definitely the time for Haroon Lorgat to tell the world he means business. As CEO of International Cricket Council, this accountant-turned-management consultant-turned-PE firm founder has his plate full while the world of sports fans and sports managers wait to see if he will stand up to the big challenge. That challenge was a scathing report based on a sting operation by weekly tabloid News of the World from Rupert Murdoch’s stable that three Pakistani players were involved in a match fixing scandal during the fourth test match between England and Pakistan at Lords involving £150,000 changing hands. The ICC under Lorgat’s leadership lost no time in springing into action. Less than a week after this news broke, despite severe criticism by Pakistan Cricket Board and Pakistan High Commission in London, Lorgat along with colleague Ronnie Flanagan of ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit temporarily suspended the three players pending investigation not only by Scotland Yard, but also the ICC itself. Even before this, just two days into the scandal surfacing Lorgat went public and said, “Make no mistake — once the process is complete, if any players are found to be guilty, the ICC will ensure that the appropriate punishment is handed out. We will not tolerate corruption in this great game.” Born in South Africa, Haroon completed his BCom from Rhodes University and went to work for one of the Big Four accounting firms, where he trained to become a chartered accountant in 1985. After a brief stint at IBM, he set up his own consulting firm, which he merged into Ernst & Young. In June 2008, he became ICC’s CEO — only the third man to hold this office in the body’s 99-year old history. A cricket all-rounder himself, Logart has played 76 first class matches for his country. However, going by the widening scope of the current cricket scandal, this could prove his toughest innings so far. |