Two of the UK’s largest power companies have quietly transferred the ownership of their British operations to offshore companies to protect themselves against Labour’s plan for renationalisation. National Grid (NG.) and SSE (SSE), which together own Britain’s gas and electricity transmission networks, confirmed on Sunday they had created overseas holding companies following Labour’s pledge to restore them to state ownership. SSE has put its UK business into a new Swiss holding company while National Grid has shifted its gas and electricity businesses into subsidiaries in Luxembourg and Hong Kong. The decisions, which follows a similar move by two water companies, are designed to protect their shareholders against any move to buy back the firms without paying what they would consider to be the full market value.
A multinational energy firm accused by prosecutors of maintaining a fake set of accounts to disguise the payment of bribes to foreign government officials has been identified by the Guardian as the UK-based company Petrofac Ltd. (PFC). Petrofac has been under investigation by the UK’s anti-corruption agency, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), for suspected bribery and money laundering. The allegations of corruption have emerged as part of a separate investigation by US prosecutors into another firm, Unaoil. Petrofac said no charges had been brought against any of its companies or current employees since the SFO started its investigation three years ago. In a press statement published by US prosecutors last month, two brothers who ran Unaoil admitted their roles in paying multimillion-dollar bribes to officials in Kazakhstan and eight other countries over 17 years. Cyrus Ahsani, 51, and his brother Saman, 46, who managed Unaoil, pleaded guilty to facilitating the payment of bribes between 1999 and 2016. They admitted conspiring to facilitate bribes on behalf of multinational firms to secure oil and gas contracts for them. The US prosecutors alleged in a legal document published last month that 27 firms around the world conspired with Unaoil to corrupt officials in specified countries.
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) – British Airways has agreed to a provisional pay settlement with its pilots, heading off the threat of Christmas disruption and bringing to an end one of the most damaging disputes in its history. The pilots union, Balpa, has recommended a deal worth 12% over three years to its members, more than a year after talks started and following strikes in September that cost the airline tens of millions of pounds a day. Pilots will still have to vote to accept the deal, which includes guarantees underpinning pay rises to inflation but does not have the profit-sharing scheme they had demanded, according to an email seen by the Financial Times. The deal also offers improvements to working conditions, including rosters.
Legal & General Group (LGEN) has defended its decision to retain Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) as one of the top stocks in its climate-conscious fund despite a pension client raising concerns about the oil corporation’s inclusion. PensionBee, an online pension provider that handles £650m worth of client assets, said it was being inundated with questions from its customers about the composition of one of Legal & General Investment Management’s Future World Funds, which counts Shell among its top 10 holdings. “While Shell has made some progress in the right direction, our customers are asking us on a daily basis whether Shell’s business model is sufficiently transitioning to a low-carbon economy to warrant continued inclusion in this responsible investment plan,” PensionBee’s chief executive, Romi Savova, said in a letter sent to LGIM this week. PensionBee, which has more than 60,000 customers, is believed to be one of the fund’s top five owners, with about £50m invested.
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) has hired a senior Tesco executive to lead its latest attempt to reinvigorate its struggling clothing business. Richard Price, the head of Tesco’s F&F clothing and homewares label, has worked at M&S before. He spent seven years with the chain, rising to become menswear director, but left in 2012 after becoming disillusioned with the then M&S strategy. Price said: “I left the business because I felt it was drifting in the wrong direction but now feel we have a real chance to make it special again. The new team has already started to improve product and value and I am looking forward to working with them.” The 52 year-old businessman, who also ran the now defunct department store chain BHS for three years, is a more orthodox choice than his predecessor Jill McDonald, a former boss of Halfords and McDonalds who had no fashion experience before joining M&S. She was sacked in the summer after failing to buy enough stock to meet demand of a range promoted by TV presenter Holly Willoughby. M&S boss Steve Rowe described the stock levels as the worst “I have ever seen in my life”.
British American Tobacco (BATS), Imperial Brands (IMB) – New York City could ban flavored vaping products as soon as next week, in a move that would make the metropolis of 8.6 million people the most populous place in America to ban flavored e-cigarettes. The backlash against flavored e-cigarettes has gained momentum after a vaping-linked illness swept across the United States, killing at least 40 people and sickening 2,000 more. Vaping bans have emerged in an effort to curb e-cigarettes’ appeal to young people. New York City was also home to one of the youngest victims of the epidemic: a 17-year-old Bronx boy, who died this October from complications related to the illness. The ban would halt the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes in New York City, except tobacco flavors. Already, there appears to be majority support for the measure in the city council, and the mayor, Bill de Blasio, said he supports the measure. Juul, which dominates the vaping industry, had already stopped selling flavors other than tobacco and menthol in an effort to stymy criticism.
