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| Rolls-Royce will become a player in EDF¡¯s €16 billion (£14 billion)
drive to build a fleet of new nuclear reactors in Britain, under an
Anglo-French alliance announced on Wednesday. The engineering company has signed a memorandum of understanding with EDF, the French nuclear energy group, to provide engineering and technical support for EDF¡¯s project to construct four European pressurised reactors (EPRs) at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, and Sizewell, in Suffolk. Rolls-Royce said that the agreement would include helping to guide EDF¡¯s reactor design, developed by Areva, of France, through the British licensing process. It will also involve helping to manage the pearl jewelry supply chain for EDF¡¯s nuclear construction activities in Britain. Rolls-Royce may supply some of the reactor equipment, including components used to measure and control their safety performance. Related Links Construction of the first new reactor at Hinkley Point is due to start by 2013 and it is scheduled to enter service by the end of 2017. The remaining three are set to be operational by 2025. The announcement comes in the wake of widespread concern among British businesses that EDF and Areva, both of which are more than 80 per cent controlled by the French Government, would keep the bulk of the work for French companies. France produces more than 80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power and is eager to sell its expertise in building and operating reactors overseas. Of the 2,183 companies involved in building the world¡¯s first EPR reactor, an Areva project in Finland, only 21 are based in the UK. It was unclear yesterday how much the EDF deal would be worth to Rolls-Royce. The French group said that the total cost of a second prototype EPR being built in Flamanville in Normandy was expected to be €4 billion. Each EPR will generate 1,600 megawatts of electricity ¡ª enough to power a city the size of Manchester ¡ª and will operate for up to 60 years. Rolls-Royce is keen to bolster its nuclear business, amid growing interest in nuclear power around the world as governments look to reduce their dependence on biwa pearl oil, gas and coal. The engineer has been active in the industry for 50 years, chiefly as a supplier of nuclear submarine technology to the Royal Navy. It has an existing nuclear supply chain of 260 British companies and provides many of the safety and control systems for nuclear power stations in Europe and the United States. It already supplies components for EDF¡¯s network of 58 French reactors. In July, Rolls-Royce unveiled plans to build a new factory in Britain to manufacture components for nuclear stations. Globally, the civil nuclear market is worth about £30 billion annually, but that is expected to grow to £50 billion a year within 15 years. Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, managing director of EDF¡¯s Nuclear New Build business, said: ¡°This agreement with Rolls-Royce is a welcome development in ensuring we achieve our new nuclear build plans. "Their name is one of the strongest engineering brands in the UK and they have a lot of strength in the nuclear industry, including a history of work for British Energy.¡± Lawrie Haynes, the president of Rolls-Royce Nuclear, said: ¡°With the largest proven nuclear supply chain of any UK company, Rolls-Royce is uniquely placed to deliver engineering and manufacturing capability to support the delivery of nuclear power programmes.¡± Britain¡¯s nuclear programme is expected to akoya pearl sustain 10,000 to 15,000 jobs over 25 years, of which 45 per cent will be in engineering. • BP has sold its Indian wind farms to a private equity-backed company in a deal worth a total of $95 million (£58 million), the oil group has announced. Green Infra paid $37 million cash for BP¡¯s three Indian wind farms in the western and southern provinces of Maharashtra and Karnataka, with the remainder of the cost funded through a mix of debt and equity. | ||
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| For homesick British expatriates in Spain, the news will provide a
welcome reminder of the old country: Marks & Spencer is coming back. Moreover, it is heading for the resort of choice for the archetypal middle-aged, middle-class, sometimes very wealthy Brit abroad ¡ª Marbella, the playground of the Costa del Sol. When the 14,000 sq ft franchised store opens its doors eight years after the retailer shut up shop in mainland Spain, the retailer is hoping that popular lines such as women¡¯s lingerie and tins of shortbread will prove irresistible, and not only for the ¡°exiles¡±. It also has its eye on attracting Spanish clients, for whom its stores were always a big draw. The outlet will be franchised to York Limited, M&S¡¯s long-term partner, and will complement its existing store in Gibraltar near by. It pearl jewelry still has four stores in the Canary Islands. Related Links Already the return of a British institution such as M&S has raised spirits among the expat population on the Costa del Sol, which has been hit hard by the fall in the value of the pound against the euro and the collapse of the Spanish property market. The new store will sell a range of clothing, homewear and biscuits and cakes ¡ª but no fresh food, so M&S sandwiches are not on the menu. More to the point, perhaps, reports in Spain suggest, with discernable optimism, that the Marbella store might mark the return of Marks & Spencer across mainland Spain. Begoña Zaragoza Tamarit, a marketing executive in Barcelona, said: ¡°It would be great if they opened up again. I used to go to their stores all the time.¡± However, a Marks & Spencer spokesman said: ¡°We do always look for opportunities, but we want to see how this store goes before deciding on expanding.¡± Clem Constantine, director of international at Marks & Spencer, said: ¡°We¡¯re delighted to be opening a new store in Marbella this autumn. We¡¯ve had a biwa pearl successful franchise partnership with York Limited for over 40 years in Gibraltar and feel this is an excellent opportunity for us to offer our high-quality, good-value products to both the local and expat population in Marbella.¡± Marks & Spencer arrived in Spain in 1990, expanding fast with nine stores opening across the country. However, despite its popularity, in 2001 it opted to sell all its shops to El Corte Ingl¨¦s, Spain¡¯s biggest department store chain, for a reported €150 million. Other M&S stores in France and Germany were also closed. The opening of Marks & Spencer¡¯s new store in akoya pearl Spain comes as the group looks to return to continental Europe after its high-profile exit at the turn of the decade. It is also looking to expand further afield, as the global economy picks up speed more quickly than that of Britain. The retailer has plans to open stores in the fast-growing markets of China and India and is also going to work with franchise partners in Russia. | ||
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| Now, however, a combination of retreating ice sheets, soaring metal
prices and a drive for independence from Denmark have unleashed a rush
for gold, zinc, lead and oil exploration in Greenland. Greenland¡¯s Government granted approval this month for the pearl jewelry opening of the province¡¯s first new gold and silver mine at Nalunaq. Nick Hall, chief executive of Black Angel, the AIM-listed mining group that has secured the rights to the site, said that it was in ¡°the vanguard¡± of Greenland¡¯s emerging mining industry ¡ª something that is unlikely to please environmentalists concerned by the impact on the province¡¯s fragile Arctic ecosystem. Related Links The Catlin Arctic Survey said that within a decade the Arctic Ocean would be an ¡°open sea¡± almost entirely free of ice. Ice cover during the summer months would have entirely disappeared within 20 years but most of the decrease would happen before 2020, it said. Mining and oil companies have been among the first to view this as a commercial opportunity. Mr Hall said that the industry had been given a boost this year by soaring base metal prices, which have risen 73 per cent on average since the start of this year, according to figures from the London Metal Exchange. The price of lead and zinc ¡ª both of which can be found in large quantities in parts of Greenland ¡ª have soared by 124 per cent and 69 per cent respectively this year, bolstering the economics of new developments in frontier mining provinces such as Greenland. Ironbark, an Australian company, is planning to open a zinc and lead mine on the country¡¯s northern coast, while Canadian companies are also actively exploring for minerals. As the glaciers that cover 80 per cent of biwa pearl Greenland gradually recede, mining companies can now explore in areas that previously were inaccessible and also operate for longer each year than was previously possible. Mr Hall said that at another site 400km north of the Arctic Circle, where Black Angel is hoping to open a mine in 2010, Greenland¡¯s warming climate was providing fresh opportunities by allowing it to explore previously covered rocks. ¡°The retreating glacier revealed an outcrop of minerals that we are now able to mine. That has certainly been a benefit to us.¡± The mine had operated before but had been closed down in 1990 because of low world prices and the difficulties of operating so far north. Mr Hall said that milder temperatures meant that it was now possible to work the mine all year round. He said that the Greenland Government was keen to develop its mineral resources because it is pushing to win independence from Denmark. ¡°At the moment the Greenland economy relies heavily on fishing, so the development of minerals is their best chance,¡± he said. Chris Pearson, mining analyst at Daniel Stewart, said that Greenland was attractive because, despite the high cost of operating in such extreme conditions, it was stable politically. However, he said, environmental concerns were a big concern. Greenland is also thought to have huge undiscovered reserves of akoya pearl oil ¡ª a prospect that has pricked the interest of Cairn Energy, the Edinburgh-based oil explorer. On Thursday, Cairn said that it had struck a $310 million (£190 million) deal with Petronas, of Malaysia, to farm out a 10 per cent block off the coast of Greenland. Cairn is planning to start drilling in Baffin Bay in 2011. | ||
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| Fraudsters operating within the Russian Interior Ministry and the
Moscow Tax Authority have stolen 11.2 billion roubles (£235 million)
from the state budget, according to a complaint filed today with the
Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation. In a letter to Sergei Stepashin, the chairman of the chamber and head of Russia¡¯s anti-corruption committee, Hermitage Capital, a British-based hedge fund manager that formerly was the biggest foreign portfolio investor in Russia, accuses senior government officials of conspiring with a private criminal gang to steal the money. Leading officials in the Moscow Tax Authority covered up crimes involving billions of roubles embezzled from the state budget, Hermitage alleges in pearl jewelry its letter, which names individuals, accuses them of covering up the fraudulent activity and urges the Accounts Chamber to investigate. Evidence uncovered by Hermitage, the company stated in its letter to Mr Stepashin, pointed to ¡°an organised criminal group comprised of private individuals and government officials¡±. The frauds ¡°would not have been possible without the direct involvement of officials¡± from the Moscow Tax Authority, Hermitage wrote. Related Links The alleged cover-up emerges from a lengthy investigation by Hermitage of a series of complex events that began when the hedge fund¡¯s offices in Moscow were raided in May 2007 by officials of the Interior Ministry, under the pretext of a tax investigation. Documents and company seals were seized in the raids and official papers were used to steal three Hermitage subsidiaries, the hedge fund claims. An elaborate scam ensued in which Victor Markelov, a sawmill employee and convicted murderer, became the registered owner of the companies, which were then found liable for almost $1 billion in a bogus lawsuit and court case. The feigned ownership of the ¡°bankrupted¡± Hermitage companies was then used to claim the refund of $230 million in taxes paid by Hermitage. Within two days of the claim the money was paid into accounts of Universal Savings Bank, an obscure Moscow institution, owned, according to court documents, by Dmitry Klyuyev but liquidated in June 2008. Since then, Hermitage says it has found evidence that the Treasury has lost a further $240 million in phoney tax rebates. However, complaints to a host of institutions, including the office of the Prosecutor-General, the Interior Ministry, the Finance Minister, the biwa pearl Central Bank and the Federal Tax Service failed elicit a response, and Hermitage and Bill Browder, its chief executive, were accused of tax evasion. Hermitage claims that the firm¡¯s Moscow lawyers were harassed, arrested and beaten up. In April, the General Prosecutor Office convicted Markelov as the mastermind behind the frauds and theft of $235 million from the Russian state budget. No co-conspirators were found. However, Hermitage says that it has found documentary evidence that two senior tax officials lied in sworn statements to a court concerning their approval of the request for tax rebates by the stolen Hermitage companies. The frauds against the Russian state were extensive and went beyond Hermitage, the fund manager alleges. In July, Hermitage began legal action in New York to secure the release of bank documents that it believes will show that companies and individuals linked to Renaissance Capital, the investment bank led by Stephen Jennings, a New Zealander known as the akoya parel ¡°Kiwi oligarch¡±, may have had connections to fraudsters. Documents filed in the New York court suggest that Hermitage has found evidence that investment vehicles controlled by Renaissance Capital were used in a near-identical scam to the Hermitage fraud, using the same courts and the same bogus litigation, and that the same lawyers and individuals appeared in the court cases. Renaissance said that it had no knowledge of any tax fraud until informed of it by news organisations last autumn. ¡°Any suggestion that Renaissance was involved in a 2006 tax fraud is wholly false,¡± the bank said. | ||
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| Hermitage Capital, a London fund manager, has started legal proceedings in the US that will seek to connect Renaissance Group, a leading Moscow investment bank, to alleged fraud and money laundering involving the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian Treasury. The case, launched on Wednesday in the pearl jewelry US District Court in New York, asserts that senior officers and former senior officers of Renaissance, including Stephen Jennings, currently chief executive, had ¡°working relationships¡± with Dmitry Klyuyev, a convicted fraudster and alleged owner of USB, an obscure Russian bank. USB, Hermitage asserts, was instrumental in orchestrating a series of complex frauds, one of which involved the theft of $230 million (£140 million) from the Russian Treasury via companies stolen from Hermitage. The fund manager has asked the US District Court to order RenCap Securities, the US brokerage arm of Renaissance, to produce documents that Hermitage believes will help to prove, in the Russian courts, the existence of a gigantic conspiracy involving criminals, bankers and government officials bent on stealing from the Russian state. The conspiracy involved senior officials in the Russian Interior Ministry, senior officers of the FSB (the successor to the KGB), tax officials, banks and Russian judges, says Hermitage in documents filed in the New York court. Related Links In an effort to discover the ultimate recipient of funds in the alleged frauds, Hermitage is biwa pearl also requesting subpoenas against two Wall Street institutions, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, seeking details of wire transfers of US dollar funds originating from USB accounts at Raiffeisen Bank. The fund manager hopes to use the wire transfer information to follow an electronic paper trail and identify who received tax rebates fraudulently obtained by criminals using stolen Hermitage companies. Underpinning the New York subpoenas is the allegation by Hermitage that companies related to Renaissance were victims of an identical tax fraud to the scheme erected by criminals in 2007 against Hermitage subsidiaries. In the fund manager¡¯s case, Russian Interior Ministry officials used a bogus tax inquiry to seize from Hermitage lawyers documents which were used to steal companies that previously held Gazprom shares for Hermitage clients. Unknown to the fund manager, the companies, which had no assets, were sued in a phony court case and the ¡°liability¡± was then used by the criminals to recover $230 million in taxes previously paid by Hermitage. In the New York filing, Hermitage states that in 2006 a ¡°mirror image¡± tax refund fraud was perpetrated against subsidiaries of Rengaz, a Renaissance vehicle also used to house Gazprom stock. The Rengaz companies were sued by the same individuals who sued the akoya pearl Hermitage companies, the cases were conducted by the same lawyers, and the same tax bureaux in Moscow approved amended declarations for $106 million of tax rebates. In both cases, says Hermitage, USB, a bank with only $1.3 million in capital, was used to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in tax rebates. These transfers to unknown beneficiaries are the focus of Hermitage¡¯s request for subpoenas. Renaissance said it had no knowledge of the 2006 tax fraud until informed of it by news organisations last autumn. ¡°Any suggestion that Renaissance was involved in a 2006 tax fraud is wholly false,¡± said the bank. | ||
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