| IMF Completes Fifth Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility with Niger and Approves US$1.5 Million ...
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the fifth review of Niger's economic performance under a three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. The completion of the review enables the release of an amount equivalent to SDR 940,000 (about US$1.5 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 25.38 million (about US$40.4 million). In completing the review, the Executive Board approved Niger's request for a waiver for the nonobservance of a continuous structural performance criterion on the application of the flexible pricing mechanism for petroleum products. The Board also approved Niger's requests for the modification of the quantitative performance criterion for end-December on domestic financing of the government, the modification of the structural performance criterion on the application of a flexible mechanism for petroleum pricing, and the elimination of the structural performance criterion for end-December on the adoption of a decree defining the modalities for reimbursing the frozen postal savings accounts of the former National Postal Savings Office over a two-year period.
H&R Block boss resigns as chairman, CEO
Mark Ernst has resigned as chairman, president and chief executive of H&R Block Inc., the tax preparation and accounting services company that is reeling from its foray into the collapsing subprime mortgage business. The company said Tuesday that Ernst's replacement as chairman is Richard Breeden, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who led a dissident shareholder group that won three seats on the H&R Block board. A retired Aetna Inc. chief financial officer, Alan Bennett, was named interim CEO while H&R Block looks for a permanent replacement. Breeden has criticized the company's diversification into mortgage lending, investment advising and banking, saying it had robbed momentum from its core tax preparation and accounting services business.
Pope & Talbot Announces Voluntary Chapter 11 Filing
Pope & Talbot, Inc. (PTBT.PK) announced today that, in order to address its financial challenges and to support efforts to be a more efficient organization, the company has filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Pope & Talbot's Board of Directors, in a unanimous decision, directed the company to take this action as the best alternative for the long term interests of the company, its employees, customers, creditors, business partners and other stakeholders. .
Fitch retains negative outlook on Fonterra
Another credit rating agency has reinforced the message to Fonterra that milk producers must remain at the end of the line of creditors, or the company's rating will suffer. Fonterra, New Zealand's largest company, wants to split into a milk-supply cooperative and an operational subsidiary and list about 35 percent of its shares on the NZX so it can raise capital through outside investors for overseas investments. Fitch said today it retained a negative outlook for the dairy giant and affirmed its AA-minus credit rating, following news last week of the planned restructure. Standard & Poor's has affirmed Fonterra's rating and downgraded the outlook to negative, continuing the rating agencies' declining assessment of Fonterra begun a year ago. Fonterra wants to maintain its ratings, but the rating agencies said the co-operative's business and financial risk profiles have weakened.
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MORE jobs are being axed by AstraZeneca – plunging employees at the Macclesfield site into fresh doubts about their future. The pharmaceuticals giant is to shed a number of staff from its global marketing department worldwide, although the exact figure is not yet known. Although no decision has yet been made about where jobs will go, the drug company's Hurdsfield site has a sales and marketing department, which places town workers under threat. A spokesman said: "AstraZeneca's global marketing organisation has announced proposals to restructure the scale and scope of its operations. "These proposals envisage a reduction in the overall size and headcount of the organisation. "The current headcount for the global marketing organisation is around 430 full time employees.
Polluting companies to be shut out of stock market
Major industrial polluters will be barred from raising capital on the stock market, the top environment watchdog said Tuesday while pledging to step up efforts to reduce industrial waste. "Enterprises found guilty of environmental violations or failing to meet pollutant discharge requirements will not be allowed to list their shares," said Zhou Shengxian, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). Listed companies "should open up their environmental records to public scrutiny", Zhou added. In addition, starting 2009, all enterprises which discharge pollutants must obtain environmental permits. "Otherwise, they will not be allowed to continue, or start, operations," he warned. "We will speed up industrial restructuring to ensure that the target of phasing out outdated techniques, equipment and products is met by the end of 2010," Zhou said.
Tyco earnings sink 85% on restructuring
NEWARK -- Tyco International Inc., which recently spun off its heath care and electronics units, said Thursday its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings fell 85 percent, hurt by restructuring and separation costs and a higher tax rate. Net income dropped to $181 million, or 36 cents per share, from $1.25 billion, or $2.45 per share, a year ago. Earnings from continuing operations excluding restructuring costs and other one-time items totaled $285 million, or 57 cents per share, up 20 percent from $238 million, or 47 cents per share, in the prior-year period. .
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