The CEO of troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Fabrizio Viola, and its former Chairman Alessandro Profumo are under investigation for alleged false accounting, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The latest development is part of an ongoing probe into misrepresentation of the bank’s finances starting in 2015, and was been confirmed by an MPS spokesperson on Thursday. The case has been handed over to prosecutors in Milan, who are “obliged to open an investigation if they receive a complaint”, according to MPS. The prosecutors now have 18 months to decide whether to shelve the investigation or seek trial for Viola and Profumo.
MPS has been in trouble for several years after overpaying on the purchase of rival Antonveneta and engineering risky derivatives trades back in 2007. Profumo and Viola were hired in 2012 to get the bank back on its feet, and oversaw two cash calls to the tune of $8 billion euros before Profumo stepped down.
Monte dei Paschi performed the worst in Europe in stress tests carried out earlier this year, and is now looking for either a private or public bailout.
American clothing retailer Gap saw earnings come in below analysts’ estimates as it fails to revive Banana Republic’s flagging image.
Its Banana Republic line has consistently seen poor sales, which have now fallen again for the sixth straight quarter, despite Gap working on turning its image around.
The company’s net income fell to $125 million in the second quarter, down from from $219 million a year earlier. Net sales remained at $3.85 billion, the same figure as was provided last week.
However, shares in Gap rose on Friday after the news, up 1.65 percent to 25.88 (1151GMT).
Budget surplus smaller than expected for July
Public sector net borrowing had a £1 billion surplus in July, the first month since the vote to leave the European Union, less than the £1.2 billion figure this time last year and lower than expectations.
July was the second month in a row debt has fallen as a percentage of GDP, according to the Office for National Statistics figures released on Friday. Public borrowing stood at £23.7 billion between April and July, £3 billion less than 2015.
Fed President open to September rate hike
San Francisco Fed Bank President John Williams has become the latest Fed member to highlight September as a possibility for a rate hike.
He said, “I think every one of our meetings should be in play in principle … I definitely think September should be.”
He argued that if rates remain low for too long, it could have a negative effect on the economy.
Microsoft shareholders to vote on LinkedIn deal
Microsoft shareholders will cast their votes today on the company’s proposed buyout of business networking site LinkedIn.
If the $26 billion takeover goes ahead it will break records as the biggest tech buyout in history, valuing each LinkedIn user’s profile at $62.
Microsoft is hoping to use the site to reinvigorate its business, as its renowned Windows and Office products, get increasingly sidelined by users switching to tablets and other competitors. However, the deal will be a risk – LinkedIn has consistently lost money over the past two years, with shares tanking on negative economic forecasts.
The latest Monetary Policy Account, published by the ECB this morning, indicated that monetary policy will remain largely unchanged for a prolonged period of time.
Current monetary policy measures seem to be fulfilling their purpose
The Council Members agreed with the Vice-Presidents statements that recent data, collected since the last policy meeting in July, indicate that current policy measures are fulfilling their role.
The latest set of monetary policy measures were adopted in March. Since then the interest rate on the main refinancing operations, marginal lending facility and the deposit facility are held at 0.00%, 0.25% and ‑0.40% respectively. The ECB also targets monthly asset purchases of €80 billion for further expansion.
It has been noted that the European economy seems to be recovering well from the latest period of recession. While inflation remains below the target close to 2%, headline HICP rates turned positive in June due to rising energy prices and a fading effect of decreasing oil prices.
Data published this morning by Eurostat showed the Core Euro-Zone CPI fwas 0.9% in July. A measure matching both analysts’ estimates and figures from the previous month. The all-inclusive CPI also remained flat at 0.2%. Month on Month figures have however turned positive again for both core and all-inclusive measures, with the all-inclusive CPI dropping 0.8 percentage points to -0.6%, missing estimates by 0.1%.
There have been promising developments in manufacturing and services in the Euro-Zone over the past months and according to the latest ZEW survey of economic sentiment, investor confidence in the EMU has recovered from it’s initial post-Brexit slump.
The ECB indicated that it expects the Euro-Zone economic recovery to continue and “these base effects were expected to lead to a significant increase in headline inflation towards the end of 2016.”
Brexit and a weak banking sector do present some challenges
However, the council members did identify some factors which could add uncertainty to the EMU economy, and in particular the financial sectors. Such include post-Brexit developments as well as the persisting weaknesses in the banking-sector of some Euro countries.
Most notably, Italy is still struggling with grave imbalances in their banking sector. Especially Monte di Paschi de Siena is considered to be highly over-leveraged and discussion of possible rescue of the bank through either the private or public sector has been a hot topic.
ECB will be likely to hold off on adjusting policy measures in next-month’s meeting
The ECB is however confident that by continuing its’ current monetary policy strategy it can aid further economic strengthening in the Euro-Zone, while managing prevailing risks and preserving the necessary tools and flexibility to respond to future shocks.
Interest rates are therefore unlikely to increase any time soon, and the ECB is set to continue its’ monthly asset purchases of €80 billion until at least March 2017 as well as further if needed.
The next monetary policy meeting of the governing council of the ECB will be held on the 8th September.
With two days to go in its Crowdcube campaign The Hebridean Food Company has overshot its crowdfunding target. It raised a further 260% of the £60,000 aimed at, reaching a total of £156,090.
The company was able to attract 281 investors to expand it’s business.
The Hebridean Food Company produces soups and sauces for the sale in supermarkets. It advertises the soups to be made solely from “slowly grown food, bursting with character and community at its very heart.”
In its funding bid the business stated: “We have created our products so that they are never over processed, using plenty of meat and packed with hearty vegetables. Working with a world class chef we have created a fantastic range of meat and seafood soups.”
The Hebridean Food Company is trying to target a gap in supermarket supply of soups without artificial preservatives, flavouring and colouring by offering unprocessed, but flavoursome and affordable alternatives.
Growth in fresh soup market is promising
It taps into the world wide £125 million fresh soup market, which is currently growing in value by 8.6% a year.
In only seven months the company has already achieved great success. The leading global discount market chain, Aldi, currently features one of their soups on their range. Aldi will add two more products in September. Wholefoods, the American Food Market which exclusively offers food free from artificial preservatives, colours, flavours, sweeteners and hydrogenated fats, has also committed to working with the soup producer. Lastly, the firm has recently secured a supply contract with Southbank Fresh Fish. The distributor caters to supermarkets and other retail stores such as UK department store Selfridges & Co.
The Hebridean Food Company is ready to invest in expansion
Having not only reached, but far overshot its crowdfunding target, with another two days to go in their campaign over the UK platform CrowdCube, the company can now focus on investing in further expansion and innovation.
The company stated: “We have the capacity in our premises to produce 900,000 tubs of 400g soups (£1.62m turnover) and with this investment we will expand our production capacity to produce £3m worth of products annually.”
In the heat of the Olympics, as the world’s best athletes wow the world with their talent, it can be easy to forget the amount of training required to reach that standard – and money. The world’s best coaches, facilities and training programmes don’t come for free, and with government funding and part-time work not always enough, some athletes have turned to crowdfunding to realise their dreams.
Crowdfunding has spread to almost every sector over the past couple of years, helping businesses and individuals alike to grow. Canadian athletes in particular have pioneered crowdfunding in the industry, finding it difficult to train, compete and live on the $18,000 per year provided to athletes by the Sport Canada’s Athlete Assistance Program.
Two of the biggest sports crowdfunding sites have been launched by Canadian Olympic athletes, Pursu.it and MakeAChamp. Pursu.it was founded by former Olympic kayaker Julia Rivard and former gymnast Leak Skerry in 2012, just after the last Olympic games. Crowdfunding was a relatively new phenomenon, which could have a been a risk – but it’s paid off. Since then, the site has raised $680,440 for 105 athletes.
Julia Rivard and Leah Skerry, co-founders of Pursu.it
MakeAChamp is a similar site, offering a messaging service allowing the athletes to keep their supporters up-to-date with their progress. This year, 24 Canadian athletes ran campaigns on MakeAChamp, with ten launching campaigns with Pursu.it, to cover everything from training, to travel and equipment costs.
Athletes’ campaigns have been hugely successful in the run-up to the Olympics, especially when combined with the power of social media. British diving champion Tom Daley tweeted a link to the Pursu.it page of fellow diver Maxim Bouchard, causing his donations to soar and reach his $12,000 goal.
Lenovo shares up on impressive results
Lenovo smashed expectations with its first-quarter earnings, up 64 percent to $173 million.
“Strong profits” were achieved amidst a challenging environment, which has seen other tech firms struggle. Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said in a statement:
“Our PC business delivered strong profits and our smartphone business stabilised compared to last quarter.
“we significantly improved our profit year-on-year through innovative products and strong execution.”
However, a decline in Chinese currency took its took on revenue, which fell 6 percent.
Lenovo shares rose 2.24 percent to 5.47 (1045GMT).
Penfold and Wolf Blas shares soar on strong results
Australian wine makers Penfold and Wolf Bas saw profits soar, despite lower economic growth in Asia.
Its lower priced bottles stand out in Australia, where tax on alcohol is high. Their market is largely millennial drinkers, who chief executive Michael Clarke calls “a very good target for us”.
“We are finding is that a lot of those consumers are moving away from other beverages like beer, spirits and baijiu in China and moving to wine,” he continued.
Shares in the company soared on the news, pushing its total rise this year to 28 percent.
Nestle hampered by slowing sales
Global food giant Nestle saw sales growth slow over the first half of the year, missing its long term growth target and reporting a fall in profit.
First half sales volumes rose 2.7 percent in the second quarter, down from 3 percent in the first quarter. However, the company are expecting sales to pick up in the second half of the year:
“We also expect pricing, which reached historically low levels in the first half, to recover somewhat in the coming months,” commented CEO Paul Bulke.
Sales of watches and jewellery boosted retail sales in July, pushing them up 1.4 percent on the month.
The latest figures, published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday, were far better than expected and up 5.9 percent on a year earlier.
Sales from watches and jewellery alone were up 16.6 percent in July, the biggest jump in nearly two years.
The report covers the period immediately after the Brexit vote, adding to the string of economic evidence suggesting the UK has shrugged off financial fears following the decision to leave. Figures were helped by average store prices falling by 2 percent in July compared with the same month last year, and falling 0.8 percent from the month before.
Fed split over interest rate rise
Minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting show a split in policymaker sentiment, with members split over when to raise rates.
Whilst some policymakers agree more data is needed before any action is taken, others were keen to tighten policy within the next few months:
“Some members anticipated that economic conditions would soon warrant taking another step in removing policy accommodation,” the Fed said in the minutes.
Several Fed policymakers, however, said a slowdown in the future pace of hiring would argue against a near-term hike, and members of the FOMC said they wanted to “leave their policy options open.”
The release of the minutes saw the dollar strengthen , but negatively affected US stocks.
Co-op bank fearful over future
The Co-op bank has expressed concern over “economic uncertainty” in the wake of Brexit.
The bank narrowed its losses in the first six months of the year to £177 million, but the report was lacking in positivity going forward.
It warned that the decision to leave the EU would be “challenging” for the banking sector, and that it may also have an impact on mortgage loan growth.
Cisco to cut 5,500 jobs
Tech giant Cisco has announced plans to cut 7 percent of its global workforce, calling it a “decisive” move needed to reinvest in the business.
The job cut, which amounts to around 5,500 jobs, comes after its main business selling network switches and routers begun to run into trouble. Increasing competition has led to fourth quarter revenue from routers falling 6 percent.
The job cut will allow it to reinvest money into higher growth areas of the company, such as its firewall business and computer protection software.
Overall, Cisco reported a 21 percent increase on profit for the fourth quarter.
CleanTech, or clean technology, emerged as an umbrella term for all services, technologies and products which hope to cater to the growing demand for solutions to environmental issues. It hopes to offer customers services or products, while at the same time generating further value for the wider community by tackling a more far reaching environmental issue. As Climate Change is rising on the global political agenda, consumers are also voicing demand for new ways to offer private sector solutions to environmental issues. CleanTech has therefore grown to become a more and more viable – and profitable – business concept.
CleanTech businesses are fast growing in numbers and enter into a wide range of different sectors. We found seven promising business projects which look to not only attract consumers but also promote sustainable living.
Ecovative is a New York based biomaterials company founded by the two mechanical engineers, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, in 2009.
Mushroom® Packaging was the company’s first commercial offering, and was licensed to Sealed Air in NA and Europe in 2012.
The company produces eco-friendly materials such as mushroom packaging and bio-fabricated wood. In 2008 the two founders received a $750,000 grant from a green business competition. A year later started delivering its mushroom packaging to companies such as Dell and Crate & Barell.
Since then Ecovative has gained great influx in funding from private investors as well as government agencies. They reached close to $18 Million in funding in March this year.
The business expanded the product range and moved its production of mushroom packaging to a full-scale 20,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Troy, NY. This year the company launched Ecovative Interiors, a full range of interior design products grown from mushroom materials.
CEO and Co-founder Eben Bayer has spoken at multiple conferences, such as Ted Talks about the vlaue of CleanTech and particularly the possibility of mushroom replacing plastic in the future. Ecovative has also been given considerable attention in the press this year for their new innovations such as the “Grow-at-home modelling kits” and its funding success. It has also been reported that Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, is looking into replacing current packaging with Ecovative’s mushroom option.
Big Belly Solar produces rubbish bins for the use in public spaces, which uses solar power to compact waste. The rubbish bin is also network connected to deliver information to a computer or smart-device, making for easier handling and data analysis.
The CleanTech company, which was founded in Massachusetts in 2003, was named “Top Smart City Application” at the Internet of Things Awards in 2014/15. It’s business idea previously won $500,000 in funding from the Verizon Powerful Answers contest.
Big Bellys are now operating in 47 countries world-wide, including the UK and its’ business concept seems promising to expand further.
We Farm is a UK based start-up which offers a digital solution to increase efficiency for farmers all around the world by sharing best practices, exchanging new ideas and answering each other’s questions via texts and an online platform.
The company’s webpage states their mission as:
“Small-scale farmers are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and they face many challenges including lack of access to traditional markets, agricultural inputs and finance.
Every day small-scale farmers develop a diverse range of innovative, low-cost solutions in response to the many challenges that they face. But with the majority of farmers living in remote areas without internet access, they cannot share this information with other farmers… Until now, with WeFarm.”
The CleanTech business was founded two years ago. It was named a Nominet Trust 100 company in 2015 and won the Google’s Impact Challenge the same year. It has since raised over £1 million in funding through grants.
The business is currently generating its revenues by charging governments, as well as suppliers and researches to access the data accumulated on their platform.
In the next 12 months We Farm is hoping to expand its network globally and grow its revenue stream by offering third party advertisement on their platform.
The Smog Free Project is a CleanTech idea developed by Dutch Designer and Artist Daan Roosegaarde. Together with a team of experts, he developed the largest existing smog vacuum cleaner to suck particles out of the air and create a clean air environment.
The project attracted much attention lately with the World Economic Forum launching a video describing the idea and developments of Roosegaarde.
What is very interesting about the project is that by a large part it is able to fund itself. The sale of jewellery, made from compressed smog the machines collect, raises revenue to build more machines.
The project has gained support from the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection. It will start a China Tour in September this year, which hopes to generate more attention and valuable publicity.
While the idea is not yet commercialised it provides valuable inspiration for business.
Modifi is a start-up co-founded by Jim Poss, founder and former CEO of Big Belly Solar, earlier featured in this list. Together with a team of tech savvy professionals from BigBelly Solar, Oracle, Google and Amazon he founded Modifi in 2014.
Modifi transforms old unused mobile phones into sensors and uses such to track, measure and monitor assets, such as for example your home or business, from a mobile location over a remote platform.
While still in its infant shoes the company raised $675,000 in equity funding over the platform CrunchBase in October 2015 to expand its CleanTech business.
It is currently supplying its sensors to three major clients, managing 8.1m “end-points” (networked devices) and is hoping to grow this figure exponentially in the coming years.
Conceptos Plasticos is a company, based in Colombia, which started out as a free housing project for the homeless but has since turned into a revenue generating business and flourished under growing demand for its’ services.
The business melts plastics and rubber waste into alternative construction foundations for both permanent and temporary housing. The material blocks, which have been compared to Lego blocks, can be assembled to create housing, shelters, classrooms, community halls and even entire buildings in an easy way in which an entire family or community can participate.
The company names governments, NGOs, Foundations, as well as private companies, as their current customers paying for the alternative and cheap housing solution which also helps to recycle plastic waste.
It is however not only generating income through selling its materials, but also by educating communities on how to use it and train people in the construction of the new housing solutions.
Conceptos Plasticos stated that it would take four people without construction experience only five days to assemble a family house. According to the company, a 14 family shelter would take 15 unskilled labourers only ten days to build.
The company is currently searching for additional funding on the Venture to expand it’s business operations further.
In a new and innovative move to save on plastic rings in the packaging of beer can six packs, the Florida, US based Saltwater Brewery developed edible six pack rings made from barley and wheat left over in the brewing process.
The new business innovation does not only reduce wasting of production ingredients barley and wheat, but also helps to save animal lives. The plastic rings, which traditionally hold together can beer six packs, often end up harming animals which get caught in them or try to swallow the material. The new model completely decomposes but can also be eaten safely by animals.
The firm’s move to sustainable materials has been viewed as a great development in CleanTech, celebrated by environmentalists and innovators alike.
The Smog Free Project is a CleanTech idea developed by Dutch Designer and Artist Daan Roosegaarde. Together with a team of experts, he developed the largest existing smog vacuum cleaner to suck particles out of the air and create a clean air environment.
The project attracted much attention lately with the World Economic Forum launching a video describing the idea and developments of Roosegaarde.
What is very interesting about the project is that by a large part it is able to fund itself. The sale of jewellery, made from compressed smog the machines collect, raises revenue to build more machines.
The project has gained support from the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection. It will start a China Tour in September this year, which hopes to generate more attention and valuable publicity.
While the idea is not yet commercialised it provides valuable inspiration for business.
