1 Barclays hikes bonus, to slash 12,000 jobs (Jill Treanor in The Guardian) Barclays faced condemnation on Tuesday after announcing a 10% rise in bonus payouts despite a dramatic fall in profits and plans to cut 12,000 jobs this year. The bank's new boss, Antony Jenkins, came under intense pressure after being accused of failing on promises made only a year ago to clamp down on pay and change the culture of the bank after its £290m fine for rigging Libor.
The TUC accused the bank of "sticking two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain", while the Unite union was furious at further cuts at the retail bank, which could harm customer service. The harshest words came from the Institute of Directors, whose corporate governance director Roger Barker asked "for whom is this institution being run?" after the bank paid out £2.4bn in bonuses but just £860m in dividends to shareholders. The bank disputes that figure, but refused to say exactly how much it is paying out to shareholders.
The total bonus pay for 2013 is £2.4bn – up from £2.2bn a year ago. Within that, the investment bankers enjoyed bonuses of £1.6bn compared with £1.4bn a year ago, even though their division suffered a loss in the fourth quarter and its annual profits tumbled 37%. Profits across the group, which also includes high street banking, Barclaycard and operations in Africa, fell 32% to £5.2bn. Jenkins, who has waived his own £2.7m bonus, insisted he had the support of shareholders for the higher bonuses, which had to be paid because he had no control over market-led pay.
Jenkins said 820 senior roles – or 10% – would be cut. He also disputed concerns about the impact of job cuts on customer service. Seven thousand of the 12,000 job cuts will be in the UK but not all in the high street. "The reason why we're doing this is not because we're trying to deliver poorer customer service, actually quite the reverse. Customers can now do their banking when its convenient to them, not … us. Technology allows [us] to reduce headcount," said Jenkins.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/11/barclays-hikes-bonuses-profits-slide
2 Tesla share price at record (San Francisco Chronicle) Shares of Tesla Motors Inc., the youngest and smallest publicly traded US automaker, rose to a record Monday after an analyst said investors anticipate that the electric carmaker will post favorable sales in China and Europe. The shares gained 5.4 percent to close at $196.56, surpassing the previous record close of $193.37 on Sept. 30. The Palo Alto company's stock reached an all-time intraday high of $199.30.
Elon Musk, Tesla's billionaire chief executive officer, and JB Straubel, its chief technical officer, were in Europe this month to brief customers. Tesla, which quadrupled in value last year, began rising again last month after the company reported strong sales of Model S sedans and said its fourth-quarter revenue was 20 percent higher than it had expected. Musk also said in a January interview that China, where sales begin next month, may match US volume by next year.
China confirmed that electric-vehicle incentives will be higher in 2014 than previously announced as part of efforts to curb the nation's worsening air pollution. While Tesla won't qualify for the incentive program as an imported vehicle, the confirmation can be viewed a positive for the company, said Craig Irwin, an analyst.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tesla-share-price-hits-record-5222441.php
In a video demonstration of the current drones tested by the UAE government, a package carrying an Emirates ID card can be delivered from the ID centre to a resident’s house. “This is a very realistic target and the current technologies in the UAE are among the best in the world. Our job is to listen to people’s ideas and make it a part of the vision by providing sustainable solutions.”
Contestants will be expected to submit detailed proposals with the technical features and how it could help improve an existing government service. Winners of the international competition will be announced at next year’s Government Summit in February 2015. The competition’s UAE edition would come to a close in May 2014.
http://khaleejtimes.com/nation/inside.asp?section=nationgeneral&xfile=/data/nationgeneral/2014/February/nationgeneral_February98.xml
But the New York-based credit-ratings agency says the contest between the governing Congress party and the BJP will hardly be decisive for India's economic prospects. The correlation between economic performance and the party in power is historically quite weak, it notes. What could be a bigger influence is the state of the global economy. Factors such as the budding recovery in the US and Europe, the shaky economic outlook in China, and the Federal Reserve’s withdrawal of monetary stimulus will continue to buffet India and many other big emerging markets.
Meanwhile, a messy election outcome — in which a coalition of unhappy political bedfellows forms a government without clear policy mandate — would heighten investor concerns, Moody’s says. India has become highly dependent on foreign capital, fleet-footed portfolio investments in particular, to finance its imports. While markets have been upbeat about the formation of a BJP-led government, Moody’s says fiscal consolidation might prove extra-tough if a minority government is formed.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/02/11/moodys-indian-election-not-a-game-changer/
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