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Feb 26 2009 WalesOnline

rbs sign

Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland today unveiled losses of £24 billion for 2008 – the biggest in UK corporate history.

RBS – nearly 70% owned by the taxpayer after a £20 billion rescue – also announced plans to sell off swathes of the business.

The beleaguered bank plunged to the losses behind a catastrophic year when the acme sparked by the failure of Lehman Brothers brought it to the brink of collapse.

RBS racked up bad shortcoming charges of £7 billion and wrote off £16.2 billion on its disastrous acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007.

Derek Simpson, juncture leader of Unite, said: “These historic and humiliating losses bring into sharp point of convergence just how reckless RBS’s former management team have behaved.

“The whole country is paying the price end job cuts and repossessions on a massive scale. It is time to take control and fully nationalise this bank.

“You cannot have a glory bailout on one hand while allowing the spectre of thousands of job losses to loom over staff on the other.

“The Government has set a precedent for intervention in the day-to-day running of RBS. They must now intervene to protect the workers in call centres, branches and back offices who are the victims of the credit crunch, not the culprits.

“The pole at this bank should not have to pay with their jobs. We resoluteness vigorously oppose any compulsory redundancies.”

Mr Simpson aforesaid the union “was extremely frustrated” about the lack of any house details about jobs, adding: “The uncertainty hanging over the heads of these workers is unacceptable.”

RBS too said it intended to place #325 billion in toxic assets into the taxpayer-backed Asset Protection Scheme to help take risks off its balance sheet.

In return for taking section in the cabal, RBS has agreed to impart £25 billion over the nearest 12 months.

But chief executive Stephen Hester also announced plans to cut £2.5 billion in costs across the business by the agency of 2011 as he attempts to repay the ailing cluster to health.

This will “regrettably” involve further job losses, Mr Hester added.

RBS is planning to make a “non-core” division of assets cost around £540 billion that it plans to wind down or move of over the next three to five years.

Most of the divisions and assets to be sold self-reliance be from RBS’s investment banking division, and the bank will end or drastically reduce its presence in 36 of the 54 countries in which it operates.

Mr Hester said the “primary task” for RBS would be to rebuild its stand-alone strength so the Government could sell the floor its shareholding in the advent years.

But he warned: “To make any forecast is dangerous, beyond the expectation that 2009 will be a very tough year for the world economy.”

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Feb 26 2009 WalesOnline

Carphone Warehouse reported today that 450 head office and support centre jobs are “at risk” of redundancy.

The deal out in small portions restrain and TalkTalk broadband operator said the cuts would not affect store workers and stressed that none of its outlets would close as a result of the move.

Carphone said it had begun consultation with staff at its North Acton headquarters in west London and call centres in Preston, Warrington, and Wednesbury in the West Midlands.

It is hoped that many of the 450 roles will be redeployed to other areas of the business.

A Carphone spokesman said the cuts were part of a review of the function.

“We announced in January that we would subsist undertaking a review of the business and aiming to make savings across the business,” he reported.

“As part of that, 450 roles will have being placed at risk.”

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Feb 26 2009 By Sion Barry, Walesonline

CARDIFF-based independent television production group, Boomerang Plus, has today posted a 15% rise in moiety year profits.

The Alternative Investment Market listed circle declared that for the six months to the end of November, turnover  increased 9.4% to. to £11.76m (2007: £10.75m).

Profit before tax and exceptional items increased 15.2% to £1.08m (2007: £0.94m)
Highlights included the expansion of advertiser funded programming (AFP) division through major commissions including the Sony Ericsson B-boy Championships and Sony Playstation GT Academy.

Huw Davies, chief executive officer of Boomerang Plus said: “”Through the six months to November 2008, the Group has consolidated its position as a leading Nations and Regions player in the UK.

“We take a proven management team, a strong balance sheet and a good visibility of profits. and recommissions for the nearest financial year.

“This provides us with an excellent platform to exploit the significant opportunities that exist within a changing media marketplace.”

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(26 February 2009)

TUI UK has revealed plans to expand its travel apprenticeships programme into new areas of the business as Apprenticeship Week draws to a close.

The travel colossus has hired 3,500 apprentices in the last five years and they now make up 30% of all its travel agency staff and tour reps. The apprentices are aged 16 to 18 and combine on-the-job training with organised learning.

TUI UK accredited programmes manager Andy Smyth before-mentioned he plans to recruit another 500 apprentices in June and July and introduce them to other areas of the business.

He said: “We are looking at having apprentice cabin crew and management. Having ­apprentices is much easier than it used to be as there isn’t as much red tape. It makes good business sense.”

Smyth was speaking at a People 1st seminar on Tuesday, where travel employers were urged to take on apprentices. People 1st corypheus executive Brian Wisdom said: “The go over ­industry have a mind continue to renew for the period of the recession being of the kind which we have a vainglorious staff turnover and a number of seasonal businesses.

“It is influential we have ­talented people so we can be prepared for the upturn.”

The travel sector should be taking advantage of the &-reserved;government’s investment in 35,000 additional apprenticeships ­for the time of 2009, he added. Prime minister Gordon Brown plans to invest £140 million to bring the tell of apprenticeships to more than 250,000.

Wisdom said: “Travel is the fourth largest industry to &pitch;operate this programme and we see that increasing dramatically. Apprenticeships can help bridge the gap betwixt now and the jobs generated by the London 2012Olympics.”

New exploration by the ­Learning and Skills Council for Apprenticeship Week, conducted in January, revealed that 87% of employers believe apprenticeships helped generate productivity and 84% found it improved staff retaining.

More on skills and breeding at travelweekly.co.uk/training

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(26 February 2009)

Strong hibernate trading has not offset concern about the deteriorating economy at Thomas Cook.

Chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa before-mentioned: “We are planning for a tough year.” Indeed, he expects a minimum of pair hard years.

The companionship reported a “robust” UK performance for the three months to December 2008 and Fontenla-Novoa said: “We had a very best fruits ­January.” But he adds: “It is tough out in that place.”
 
The group’s recent quarterly figures showed a reduced first-quarter loss, demand in note through capacity and higher average selling prices across winter and summer.

Yet the Thomas Cook boss insists: “We are far from urbane. It was a good start, but the first quarter is not the most important. We are planning for a tough time and 2010 resoluteness be tougher. That is in all our ­assumptions.”

The UK has consistently proved the most resilient of the major travel markets, further ­Fontenla-Novoa fears it will not be immune to the downturn this time.

“Probably the toughest ­economic conditions are in the UK,” he before-mentioned, adding: “I ignore a lot of what people say about the economy. But there direction probably be one million more unemployed in the UK next year and four to five million across Europe. That is a concern.

“The pound is weaker. We are hedged [against pure] at an average rate of €1.25-€1.30, but we cannot continue to obstruct at that level. Fuel costs have come down, but the dollar has strengthened [wiping out abundant of the gain]. It is all bad news.”

Take these factors together, he said, and companies face “a real test”. He continued: “It is going to be tough for anyone not suitably funded and without a powerful balance sheet.”

Fontenla-Novoa believes the biggest companies will emerge stronger, thanks to the consolidation in June 2007 that brought Thomas Cook and MyTravel together, but he expects there to be failures longitudinally the manner.

“The worst is yet to come,” he said. “The market is generally strong during the term of winter, and it is important from our thesis of view that everyone does okay. But we do not have our heads in the sand. There is a danger of failures.”

He adds: “Thank God we consolidated – if not, it would be carnage. Capacity has come out [of the UK market] and that has helped everyone. Without it, this would be a horrible place right now.

“Capacity is else or smaller where it should have existence – supply and demand is about right – but we have the flexibility to take out more.”

• Big two may drop ATOL cover forward seat-only
• Thomas Cook to delay 2010 brochures

Read the full interview with Manny Fontenla-Novoa in Travel Weekly’s sister title Travolution

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