8/3/2019 Biz Front

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BSkyB downplays Murdochs hacking email admissionBy Katherine Rushton

THE BSkyB boad does not egadas mateial James Mdochsadmission that he was waned in2008 o the extent o the phonehacking, soces at the companyhave claimed.

The evelation is likely to angeBSkyB shaeholdes who opposeM Mdoch as chaiman bt hadbeen pacied by the boads pledgeto eview his position as new

evidence abot his esponse tohacking at the News of the Worldcomes to light.

The boadcastes independentdiectos have nanimoslybacked M Mdoch thoghotthe scandal, on the basis that theehave not been any ndings againsthim in any o the vaios inqiiesit has spawned.

Howeve, they have epeatedlyeassed shaeholdes that theboad will eview the sitation

wheneve mateial new evidencesaces.

M Mdoch, who is chaiman oNews Intenational and deptychie opeating oce o NewsCopoation in addition to his oleat BSkyB, admitted to a SelectCommittee inqiy in Decembethat he had been waned hackingwas as bad as we eaed in anemail in 2008. M Mdoch claimshe eplied to the email withoteading it closely, and that he had

not been eminded o its existencentil a ew days pio to theadmission.

Evey majo shaeholde andshaeholde gop contacted byThe Daily Telegraphsince thatheaing assmed that the boadwold view M Mdochsadmission in Decembe as amateial change, and wold eviewhis position as a eslt.

Howeve, soces close to thediectos said this was not the case.

BSkyB declined to comment.Meanwhile, Chis Byant, the

Labo MP who wote to BSkyBshaeholdes ahead o its annalgeneal meeting (AGM) inNovembe to ge them to opposeM Mdoch, has banded theboadcastes independentdiectos slipshod o not ootingot the email ealie. Eithe thishas been hidden om s while theboad o BSkyB knew abot it, oelse the boad has been kept in the

dak, which eithe way doesntefect well on copoategovenance, said M Byant.

He added that the email woldhave been likely to help boost theshaeholde vote against MMdoch at BSkyBs AGM, and heaised the pospect o anextaodinay geneal meeting(EGM) in light o the new evidence.

The boad shold be takingaction, othewise shaeholdes willbe seeking an EGM, he said.

JLR plans1,500 new

jobs inMerseysideexpansion

By Graham RuddickProperty & Industry Correspondent

JAGuAr Land rove is planning

to doble the size o its Meseysideactoy and ceate 1,500 new jobs ina majo boost to the Coalitionsdive to ebalance the economy.

An expansion o the plant oneo the biggest ca manactingacilities in the uK comes amidgowing woies ove a slowdown inuK indsty and the pospects o adoble-dip ecession in the wideeconomy.

JLrs Land rove plant in Hale-wood is at ll capacity podcingthe new range rove Evoqe andgowing the actoy will allow thecompany to keep p with sging

demand o its podcts. Socesamilia with the sitation say thecompany is exploing plans to do-ble the size o the plant by develop-

ing on sonding land. This willepesent an investment o aond100m, althogh the poposals aethoght to be at a elatively ealystage.

The pemim ca make hasaleady conmed it is bilding a355m engine plant inWolvehampton and is edevelop-ing its actoy in Solihll. It hashied thosands o new employeesove the past 12 months to lanchnew models.

The elease o the Evoqe, nick-named the Baby range rove, hasspaked anothe stage o expansiono JLr. Its sales ae p 30pc yea-

on-yea. It is ndestood the com-pany is on cose to post ecodpots o the 2012 nancial yeaand cold even make 1.5bn. JLr

employees wee called into wokove Chistmas o a special shit tohelp keep p with demand.

An expansion o Halewood, whichemploys 3,000 people, will take theuK anothe step towads podcinga ecod nmbe o cas.

The conty podced 1.9m casa yea in its manacting heydayin the ealy 1970s. Howeve, it coldbeak that annal ecod within veto 10 yeas ollowing 4bn o invest-ment in the past 12 months omca makes sch as Toyota, BMWand JLr.

JLr has enjoyed a emakabletnaond since seeking loangaantees om the Labo gov-enment in 2009. Demand o itspemim cas in emeging maketsled to JLr posting ecod pots o1.1bn in the yea to Mach 31 2011.

unde chie exective ral Spethand Indian paent Tata, JLr isinvesting moe than 1bn a yea ineseach and development. It wantsto lanch 40 new vehicles in thenext ve yeas, inclding a Jagaspots ca and a new Land rove

Deende.The company is in talks with

Chinese ca make Chey abot a joint vente that wold allow JLrto open manacting acilities inChina o the domestic maket. Theca make is also exploing how itcan wok moe closely with Bitishschools to boost the nmbe oengineeing gadates.

A spokesman o JLr said: JLrhas not made any annoncementsabot Halewood and we do notcomment on speclation abot pos-sible te plans.

Despite the global economicncetainty, a new svey om

By Richard Tyler

THE majoity o boadooms nowbelieve the uK will all back intoecession this yea and emaincatios abot thei hiing andinvestment plans, sveys sggest.

Moe than 50pc o nancediectos now expect a ecession doble the pecentage a yea ago diven by gowing concens ove abeak-p o the eo and theeslting sevee eect on the uKeconomy, said accontancy mDeloitte.

Condence among the ownes osmalle companies has alsocollapsed, according to the monthlyLloyds Bank bsiness baomete.

The banks svey sggestedindividal companies pospectshad eoded in Decembe, withthose based in the Midlands andWales paticlaly nevos. Lloyds

estimated that companies nowbelieve thee is a 75pc chance o aecession.

Ian Stewat, Deloitte chieeconomist, said: Those pinningthei hopes o gowth on a shapincease in copoate spending inthe uK this yea may bedisappointed. On balance, CFOs[chie nancial oces] expectcopoate hiing, investment anddiscetionay spending to contactin 2012.

The nance diectos said theitop pioities o 2012 weeedcing costs and inceasing cashfow, sggesting that calls byemployes body the CBI ocompanies to invest moe in 2012may not be heeded.

Deloitte said moe than hal othe nance chies sveyed thoghtthee was a high o vey high levelo ncetainty acing thei

bsinesses, p om 26pc lastsmme. One diecto smmed pthe mood: Eveyone is waiting osomething vey bad to happen, hesaid.

M Stewat said the majoity odiectos wee now woking onthe assmption that Bitain will allback into ecession. Theyexpected weak tading conditionsto last o moe than a yea.

Bank cedit and copoate bondmakets had also become moediclt, with nance diectosepoting the shapest decline incedit availability since the thidqate o 2008, he said.

Directorsexpect UKdouble-diprecession

Hayward may give yacht to charityBy Harry Wallop

IT biefy became the mostnotoios boat in the wold,epesenting the wost excesses oiesponsible capitalism. Btnow Bob, the yacht owned byome BP chie exective TonyHaywad, cold be sailing o to abette home.

M Haywad, along with hisellow ownes, is consideingdonating the acing boat to chaity.He shaes the Fa 52 yacht with

Sam Laidlaw, the chie exective oCentica, the paent company oBitish Gas, and rob Gay, whowoks at Detsche Bank.

Despite spoting snglasses anda baseball cap, M Haywad wasspotted on Bob at the height o theGl o Mexico oil spill in thesmme o 2010, competing in a

Greek official in tax evasion rowBy Harry Wilson

THE Geek ocial esponsible ocacking down on tax evasion in theindebted conty has been accsedo ailing to collect nes imposed onsmggles o el and heating oil.

Yiannis Kapeleis, the Geeknance ministys geneal secetayo tax and cstoms aais, is acingchages o alleged beach o hisdties, a cime that can cay a liesentence in pison.

The chages have been boght

by posecto Gigois Peponis jstdays ate he biefy esigned omhis position ollowing a pblic ghtwith Geeces coalition goven-ment.

M Kapeleis is acing calls tostep down amid claims o hisalleged aile to pse el smg-gles. A two-month investigation by

the athoities claims he obstctedeots to ne petol station owneso smggling el, a chage MKapeleis denies.

Lost tax evenes elated to thecase ae estimated at moe than

15m (12.5m).Tax evasion and avoidance in

Geece is egaded as endemic andthe cackdown comes as the con-ty attempts to convince its intena-tional ceditos and its ellow eo-zone membes that it can nd a wayto epay its debts.

Geek pblic secto debt amontsto 350bn and talks between thegovenment and ceditos have asyet ailed to each a deal on how theboowing, which amonts to moethan the contys entie annaleconomic otpt, will be epaid.

repots in the Geek pess yes-teday sggested that Gemany is

looking at poposals to accept a75pc haict in the vale o Geekgovenment bonds as pat o a debtswap deal.

A new deal wold go well beyondthe tems o an Octobe 130bnbail-ot package ageed by Eo-pean leades, which called o a50pc witedown on the nominalvale o moe than 200bn o pi-vately-owned Geek debt.

Cases like that boght againstM Kapeleis ae likely to nde-mine aleady weak investo con-

dence in the ability o Geece tomeet its nancial obligations.Extenal loans ae citical to

Geeces ability to emain solventand the conty needs to sece itsnext loan instalment to meet thepcoming epayment o an 11.4bnbond that is de to mate in lateMach.

The Telegraph

UK car production increases8.5pc despite weak economytelegraph.co.uk/fnance

Chance of the UK economy falling backinto recession, according to companiessurveyed by Lloyds Bank

75pc

Ramping up: Jaguar Land Rover employees were called in for an extra shift over Christmas to keep up with demandI

NDRANILMUKHERJEE/AFP/GEttyIMAGEs

Geneal Electic says 71pc ohi-tech manactes in Bitainae oecasting thei bsiness willgow in 2012.

Ot o moe than 350 bsinessesqestioned, a qate said theibsiness will gow by moe than10pc.

The manactes said this isde to demand om emegingmakets, the helpl exchange ate

and intenal impovements in pod-cts and sevices.

The gowth pedictions have beenmade despite only 15pc o man-actes being positive abot theuK economy. Also, 26pc said banknance emained eithe impossi-ble to obtain, o obtainable only onnacceptable tems.

Mak Elbone, chie exective oGE uK, said: These ges dem-

onstate uK hi-tech manactingis still a gowth stoy and can play apivotal ole in tning ond theuKs economy. It is encoaging tosee that a good popotion o theseims ae expecting signiicantgowth in the next 12 months.

Howeve, we need to enseconditions ae ight to help themgow and take advantage o theoppotnities on oe.

Halewood car plant to double in size as100m project counters recession fears

Bob, Tony Haywards Farr 52

ace aond the Isle o Wight. Itwas shotly ate M Haywadspaked contovesy by saying hewanted to get my lie back.residents o the Gl weeotaged, pointing ot that thewates o the Solent wee cystalclea compaed to thei stetch ocoast.

It is ndestood that the ownesbelieve Bobs acing days ae oveand Toe in the Wate, which helpsinjed sevicemen sail, woldmake bette se o the boat. The

yacht is elatively cheap with theaveage second-hand Fa 52costing 180,000.

A new owne wold also have topay o pkeep.

M Haywad, who let BP shotlyate the Isle o Wight incident, isnow nning Genel Enegy, an oilexploe.