FILE PHOTO: A sign for BlackRock Inc hangs above their building in New York U.S., July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) – BlackRock (BLK.N), the world’s biggest asset manager, has appointed two executives to oversee Continental Europe for the first time as part of its efforts to expand in the region, a memo to staff on Wednesday seen by Reuters showed.
Over the last two years, BlackRock had accelerated its investment in the region as a “strategic priority” and now ran more than $1 trillion, “making us the largest independent asset manager on the Continent,” its head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Rachel Lord, said in the memo.
With “an ambitious strategy for growth” in the region, Lord said it needed “dedicated leadership” and so had appointed two country heads, Stephane Lapiquonne and Christian Hyldahl, to jointly lead the company’s efforts.
Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Sinead Cruise
FILE PHOTO: The Mattel company logo is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo
(Reuters) – Mattel Inc (MAT.O) will close a factory in Canada after shutting down two plants in Asia, as the toymaker reduces its manufacturing footprint to cut costs, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.
The maker of Barbie dolls closed its manufacturing sites in China and Indonesia last year and will shut a facility in Canada sometime this year, the newspaper said.
The closure of the Mega Bloks factory in Montreal, Canada would affect about 580 workers, the journal reported, citing a company spokeswoman.
The manufacturing overhaul is said to be a part of Chief Executive Officer Ynon Kreiz’s plan to turn around and stabilize Mattel, which has struggled in recent years from weak sales, the newspaper added.
Mattel did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The El Segundo, California-based company is scheduled to report its earnings later in the week.
Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – AirAsia Group (AIRA.KL) CEO Tony Fernandes and Chairman Kamarudin Meranun will step aside for at least two months while the airline and authorities investigate allegations Airbus paid a bribe of $50 million to win plane orders from the company.
FILE PHOTO: Founder of AirAsia X Tony Fernandes (R) listens to its chairman Kamarudin Meranun during the signing ceremony for the new Airbus A330-200s in Kuala Lumpur February 28, 2011. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad/File Photo
A committee comprising the non-executive members of AirAsia’s board will review the allegations and take any necessary action, Asia’s biggest budget airline said on Monday.
Fernandes, one of the aviation industry’s best known executives, and Kamarudin will remain advisers, however, “in view of the current difficult economic circumstances facing the airline industry”, the company added.
Senior company executive Tharumalingam Kanagalingam will be the acting CEO, with the changes effective immediately.
In a joint statement, Fernandes and Kamarudin denied any allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct as directors of AirAsia.
“We would not harm the very companies that we spent our entire lives building up to their present global status,” they said.
Shares of AirAsia and unit AirAsia X (AIRX.KL) fell on Monday after the allegations by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) came to light on Friday. AirAsia stock fell as much as 11% to 1.27 ringgit, their lowest since May 2016, while AirAsia X dropped 12% to an all-time low of 11.5 Malaysian sen.
Malaysia’s anti-graft agency is also investigating the allegations. AirAsia has said it never made any purchase decisions that were premised on Airbus (AIR.PA) sponsorship, and that it would fully cooperate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Malaysia’s Securities Commission said on Sunday it would also examine whether AirAsia broke securities laws.
The allegations were revealed as part of a record $4 billion settlement Airbus agreed with France, Britain and the United States. Prosecutors said the company had bribed public officials and hidden payments as part of a pattern of worldwide corruption.
“This agreement and the contents were arrived at without any reference to us; neither were any explanations sought from us,” Fernandes and Kamarudin said in their statement.
“This is in clear violation of fundamental legal principles of fairness.”
Airbus said at the weekend it would not comment on the Malaysian investigations.
The SFO’s allegations concern a 2012 sponsorship agreement between the now-defunct Caterham Formula 1 racing team, founded by Fernandes, and Airbus’s then-parent, EADS.
The SFO said on Friday that between October 2013 and January 2015, EADS paid $50 million to sponsor a sports team which was jointly owned by two people described as AirAsia Executive 1 and Executive 2. It said Airbus employees offered an additional $55 million, though no payment was made.
Fernandes bought Caterham together with Kamarudin in 2011.
FILE PHOTO: Lotus (later Caterham) Formula One team principal Tony Fernandes poses with Air Asia flight attendants before the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix at Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpur April 10, 2011. REUTERS/Tim Chong/File Photo
The SFO said Executives 1 and 2 were “key decision makers in AirAsia and AirAsia X, and were rewarded in respect of the order of 180 aircraft from Airbus”.
Analysts said the accusation against AirAsia comes at a particularly bad time as airlines grapple with a slowdown in business because of the fast-spreading coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 300 people in China and disrupted air travel.
TA Securities downgraded AirAsia Group stock to “sell” from “buy”.
Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Mark Potter
FILE PHOTO: A WeWork logo is seen at a WeWork office in San Francisco, California, U.S. September 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kate Munsch -/File Photo
(Reuters) – Softbank-backed office sharing firm WeWork plans to name real estate industry veteran Sandeep Mathrani as its new chief executive, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sebastian Gunningham and Artie Minson who are currently co-CEO’s of WeWork parent The We Company, will remain with the company at least through a transition period, the people said.
The news was reported earlier on Saturday by The Wall Street Journal.
Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese attorneys representing Carlos Ghosn, including lead lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, quit on Thursday following the former Nissan chief’s flight to Lebanon from Japan, where he had been fighting financial misconduct charges.
In an emailed statement, Hironaka said everyone involved in the case at his practice had resigned. A spokeswoman there declined to give a reason.
A second lawyer in Ghosn’s three-person legal team, Takashi Takano, also quit on Thursday, according to an official at his office.
A person who answered the telephone at the office of the third lawyer, Hiroshi Kawatsu, said she did not know if he still represented the former automotive executive.
Ghosn, who fled Tokyo last month, told Reuters in an interview in Beirut with his wife Carole that he was happy to stay in Lebanon for the rest of his life and claimed he was treated with “brutality” during his detention and bail in Japan.
Carole said she was “done with Japan”.
Japan has issued international wanted notices for the couple, which means the two will live in Lebanon as fugitives and could be arrested if they leave their country.
Hironaka, who earlier expressed disappointment at his client’s decision to abscond, had said he would quit once Ghosn had settled his account.
The case has cast a harsh light on Japan’s justice system, igniting a fierce publicity battle between the former businessman and Justice Minister Masako Mori, who has described Ghosn’s criticism as “absolutely intolerable.”
Ghosn spent more than 120 days in a Tokyo detention center and was interrogated on most days, often for more than seven hours without his lawyers, Takano has said.
Prosecutors questioned him for the first 43 days without a break, including Christmas and New Year’s Day.
On Thursday, Ghosn found an ally in another foreigner, Australian sports journalist Scott McIntyre, who was detained for 44 days for trespassing in a bid to get information on his missing children. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was freed on Wednesday with a six-month suspended sentence.
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Speaking at a news conference, McIntyre, who was held at the same detention center as Ghosn in western Tokyo for part of his detention, described the conditions there as “torture”.
Japanese officials reject such criticism, saying the justice system is humane and protects human rights.
McIntyre said the lights were on 24 hours a day, making it impossible to sleep more than an hour at night, and that several of his fellow detainees told him they would confess to crimes they had not committed in order to shorten their time there.
Reporting by Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by David Dolan and Clarence Fernandez
VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Legal professionals for Huawei Chief Monetary Officer Meng Wanzhou will probably be in a Canadian courtroom on Monday to press for particulars surrounding her arrest at Vancouver’s airport practically 10 months in the past.
FILE PHOTO: Huawei’s Monetary Chief Meng Wanzhou leaves her household house in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Could 8, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photograph
Meng, 47, was detained on Dec. 1 on the request of america, the place she is charged with financial institution fraud and accused of deceptive HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) about Huawei Applied sciences Co Ltd’s [HWT.UL] enterprise in Iran. Meng, who is anticipated in court docket, has mentioned she is harmless and is preventing extradition.
The arrest has strained China’s relations with each america and Canada.
At Monday’s 10 a.m. (1700 GMT) listening to earlier than Justice Heather Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court docket, Meng’s protection group will request extra disclosure surrounding her detention on the airport, together with contacts between U.S. and Canadian authorities.
Meng’s attorneys argue she was unlawfully detained, searched and questioned for over three hours after she landed on a flight from Hong Kong. Below the ruse of an immigration examine, the protection claims, Canadian officers delayed her arrest and picked up proof for U.S. authorities.
Extradition proceedings in opposition to Meng ought to be halted if officers abused the method, the attorneys say. Moreover accusations of misconduct associated to her detention, they argue america is utilizing Meng for financial and political achieve, noting that after her arrest, U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned he would intervene if it might assist shut a commerce deal.
Legal professionals for Canada will reply to the demand for extra details about Meng’s arrest in court docket, in response to a Canadian Division of Justice spokesman, who added that Meng had already been supplied with “intensive disclosure, past what’s required.”
Canadian police and border officers, in response to a civil declare Meng filed earlier this yr, have mentioned they acted “lawfully and in good religion.”
Vancouver lawyer Gary Botting, who has seen a video of Meng being detained on the airport, mentioned immigration officers got here throughout as “Keystone Cops.”
“There are actual questions on whether or not her rights had been violated,” mentioned Botting, who briefed Meng’s protection group on Canada’s extradition regulation after her arrest however is not concerned with the case.
The extradition listening to itself is just not scheduled to begin till January.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, spent 10 days in jail in December however was then launched on C$10 million ($7.5 million) bail and resides in considered one of her two multimillion-dollar houses in Vancouver. She is required to put on an digital ankle bracelet and pay for safety guards.
Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications gear maker, has been accused by america of actions opposite to nationwide safety or overseas coverage pursuits.
U.S. and Chinese language officers resumed commerce talks final week, because the world’s two largest economies attempt to negotiate a approach out of their 14-month commerce warfare.
Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Modifying by Chris Sanders and Tom Brown
(Reuters) – Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), the largest investor in WeWork proprietor The We Firm, is exploring methods to exchange Adam Neumann as chief government of the U.S. office-sharing start-up, 4 folks aware of the matter mentioned on Sunday.
FILE PHOTO: Adam Neumann, CEO of WeWork, speaks to visitors throughout the TechCrunch Disrupt occasion in Manhattan, in New York Metropolis, NY, U.S. Might 15, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz -/File Photograph
The uncommon showdown between SoftBank and considered one of its largest investments comes after We Firm postponed its preliminary public providing (IPO) final week, following pushback from perspective traders, not simply over its widening losses, but additionally over Neumann’s unusually agency grip on the corporate.
This was a blow for SoftBank, which hoped for We Firm’s IPO to bolster its income because it seeks to woo traders for its second $108 billion Imaginative and prescient Fund. It invested in We Firm at a $47 billion valuation in January, but inventory market investor skepticism led to the startup contemplating a possible valuation within the IPO earlier this month of as little as $10 billion, Reuters reported.
Administrators on We Firm’s seven-member board which are aligned with SoftBank are deliberating learn how to exchange Neumann as CEO, the sources mentioned. Benchmark Capital, one other huge investor in We Firm, would additionally like Neumann to step apart, one of many sources mentioned.
No problem to Neumann has but been tabled, the sources mentioned. A We Firm board assembly to debate Neumann’s future might be held as early as this week, one other of the sources mentioned.
One possibility that SoftBank is contemplating is asking Neumann to develop into interim CEO whereas a headhunting agency is employed to search out an exterior alternative, the primary supply mentioned.
The sources requested to not be recognized as a result of the matter is confidential. We Firm and SoftBank declined to remark, whereas Neumann and Benchmark Capital couldn’t be instantly reached for remark. The Wall Avenue Journal first reported on SoftBank exploring methods to exchange Neumann as CEO.
As co-founder of the We Firm, Neumann holds particular voting shares that allow him to dismiss dissident board administrators and shoot down any problem to his authority. Nonetheless, SoftBank may select to not again We Firm’s IPO or present it with extra funding. It has already funded the cash-burning start-up to the tune of $10 billion, and was discussing committing one other $1 billion to the IPO.
We Firm mentioned final week it’s aiming to develop into a publicly traded firm by the tip of the 12 months.
In an indication of the deteriorating relations between SoftBank and WeWork, Neumann didn’t take part in a gathering of executives of corporations backed by SoftBank that occurred in Pasadena, California, final week and was organized by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, based on two folks aware of the matter.
Reporting by Anirban Sen in Bengaluru and Joshua Franklin in New York; Extra reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in new York and Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Modifying by Sonya Hepinstall and Daniel Wallis
FILE PHOTO: A person leaves a Marks & Spencer retailer in London, Britain, on this January 7, 2016 file photograph. REUTERS/Toby Melville
(Reuters) – Marks & Spencer Group Plc (MKS.L) mentioned on Saturday its Chief Monetary Officer Humphrey Singer has determined to go away the corporate.
Singer will work with Group Chief Govt Officer Steve Rowe on his succession course of, the corporate mentioned in a press release.
Singer’s departure date has not but been determined and he’ll proceed together with his duties till it’s confirmed, the British retailer mentioned.
“After eighteen months of working with Steve to guide the transformation technique and rebuild the finance operate I’ve determined that now’s the appropriate time to maneuver on,” Singer mentioned in a press release.
The information of Singer’s departure comes at a time when the 135-year previous retailer shall be relegated out of the London’s FTSE 100 index from Sept. 23.
Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru, Enhancing by Ros Russell
FILE PHOTO: The brand of United Parcel Service is seen on the new bundle sorting and supply UPS hub in Corbeil-Essonnes and Evry, southern Paris, France, June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photograph
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – United Parcel Service Inc has agreed to pay america $8.four million to resolve allegations it overcharged federal companies for bundle supply providers, the U.S. Justice Division stated on Friday.
The settlement resolves allegations that from 2007 to 2014, UPS did not observe a Common Providers Administration (GSA) contract requiring it to offer companies with sure agreed reductions, ensuing within the authorities paying greater than it ought to have for bundle deliveries, the federal government stated.
The Justice Division stated there was no willpower of legal responsibility within the settlement that covers floor supply service.
“Contractors are anticipated to fastidiously adjust to the pricing necessities of GSA contracts and different federal contracts,” stated Assistant Legal professional Common Jody Hunt of the Justice Division’s Civil Division. “This settlement demonstrates that the federal government will maintain accountable contractors that overcharge federal companies by failing to observe the pricing phrases of federal contracts.”
UPS stated in a press release that the “allegations stem from good religion variations relating to contract interpretation and have been resolved as a contractual matter.”
The corporate added that it “maintains a robust relationship with its authorities prospects and helps the vital work of federal companies below many contractual automobiles, together with the one at concern right here.”
Reporting by David Shepardson; Modifying by Chris Reese and Tom Brown
FILE PHOTO: Passengers disembark a Ryanair flight at Dublin International Airport in Dublin, Ireland. Aug 23, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Members of Ryanair’s Irish pilot union are to decide next week whether to join British colleagues in holding a ballot on strike action, according to a memo distributed to members.
Ryanair pilots in Britain, the Irish airline’s largest market, last week announced a ballot that could lead to strike action in late August, citing disagreements over pay and conditions.
Ryanair pilots who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) will meet in Dublin on Tuesday to decide whether to hold a ballot for “industrial action up to and including strike action”, with voting to begin on or before Thursday, July 25, the memo said.
It did not say when possible strike action would take place.
Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, suffered a series of damaging strikes last year after the carrier bowed to pressure in late 2017 to recognize unions for the first time.
Management say significant progress has been made since, with collective labor agreements concluded with a number of pilot unions throughout Europe.
But IALPA said in the memo that management had failed to agree pay, terms and conditions for directly employed pilots. The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) last week said issues included pensions, maternity benefits and a fair, transparent pay structure.
Ryanair, which says it offers better conditions than low-cost rivals for Boeing pilots, declined to comment on the union action.
On Tuesday, Ryanair said it had been forced to halve its growth plans for 2020 due to delays in the delivery of Boeing’s (BA.N) grounded 737 MAX jet and planned to start talks with airports and unions about downsizing or closing some operations from November 2019.
Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
