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Headhunters pledge more women board candidates
Headhunters agree they will put more women on board candidate ‘longlists’.
Nineteen of the top executive search firms have agreed that “longlists” should contain almost a third of female candidates to give companies a better chance of recruiting women to top posts. Companies often complain that there aren’t enough female candidates to choose from when recruiting boardroom positions.
The code of conduct also suggests headhunters will take personal qualities as well as experience into account when selecting female candidates, supporting women during the recruitment process.
The guide comes in response to the Lord Davies’ review of women on boards, which in February urged FTSE 100 companies to double the number of females sitting at the top table or face mandatory quotas.
By 2015, the Davies report, accepted by the Government, wants to see 25pc of all FTSE 100 boards be made up of women, compared to the 12.5pc make-up last year.
Denise Wilson, a member of the report steering group who supported headhunters in drawing up the code told Reuters she was confident that the new guidelines along with “other pieces of the jigsaw” will be enough to get more women in senior positions.
“It’s a package of measures and I’m confident it will be enough,” she said. Read more…
BP oil spill report delayed by US team
Oil-covered brown pelicans found off the Louisiana coast following last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
A team from the US Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Management was meant to release its findings next week, but has had to postpone the conclusions. Read more…
European economists implore EU leaders to act on eurozone crisis – letter in full
Economists: For the first time, the very survival of the euro is at stake.
A call to action: EU leaders must act to save the euro and avoid a recession
The eurozone crisis is coming to a head. This column is an open letter to European leaders imploring them to take decisive action this week. Any more delays could mark the end of the Eurozone as we know it.
The debt crisis has reached the core of the Eurozone.
•Italy and Spain are now directly involved in a serious credibility crisis.
•The creditworthiness of more than one-third of the Eurozone is being challenged.
For the first time, the very survival of the euro is at stake.
EU leaders gathering in Brussels on Thursday face a historical responsibility. It is essential that an agreement be reached on a plan that prevents further escalation of the crisis.
Defensives fall on prediction ‘soft patch has ended’
By Ben Harrington
6:33PM BST 22 Jul 2011
UBS downgraded the sector – which typically performs well in turbulent markets as it is considered to be a defensive investment – to “neutral” because the broker sees “some signs that the global soft patch may be nearing an end”.
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Nick Nelson, an equity strategist at UBS, said: “Pharma has been the best-performing major European sector (up 13pc relative) and a big beneficiary of the economic soft patch and sovereign debt crisis. We do not expect macro data or the sovereign debt crisis to deteriorate again as much as they have in the past three months.”
As a result, AstraZeneca took the wooden spoon, falling 38p to £30.54. A bearish note from Evolution Securities also weighed on AstraZeneca, which earlier this week received US approval for its heart drug Brilinta. Dominic
GE Profit Tops Estimates On Growth Abroad
If General Electric’s second-quarter earnings are any indication, investors can put fears of a global industrial slowdown on hold.
General Electric, considered to be a bellwether for the industrial sector because of the breadth of its businesses, reported second-quarter earnings Friday that topped analyst estimates.
And emerging markets — a sector into which GE has plowed investment dollars — paid off big time.
International revenue accounted for $13.4 billion — or almost 60% — of the company’s industrial division revenues, a 23% increase. GE reported that revenue in India, China and Africa all grew at a double-digit percentage pace.
Overall, the Fairfield, Conn.-based industrial conglomerate logged earnings of $3.7 billion, or 34 cents per share, up 17% from a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thompson Reuters had been expecting GE to report earnings per share of 32 cents.
“With our fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings growth, we continue to execute in a volatile environment,” GE CEO Jeff Immelt said in a statement.
Immelt attributed the growth to strong results from GE Capital, as well as the company’s healthcare, oil and gas, transportation and aviation divisions.
Revenue came in at $35.6 billion, exceeding expectations of $34.7 billion. Read more…
Earnings Buoy May Help Markets Turn The Tide
– The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a higher opening on Tuesday, with sentiment suggesting that a rebound may be on the cards. The markets may shake off the debt fears and focus on the day’s positive catalysts, including a batch of positive earnings report and a fairly encouraging housing data released earlier in the day. That said, the averages may still be locked in recent trading ranges due to the unsettled nature of the debt crises that have recently come to haunt the markets.
U.S. stocks reeled under the impact of debt fears from both sides of the Atlantic on Monday and closed notably lower. Fitch reiterated that it will place the U.S. debt rating on Rating Watch Negative if the debt limit is not raised by August 2nd.
The major averages opened modestly lower and declined steadily until early afternoon trading.