timesofmalta.com

Sony to discuss spin-off suggestion

Tim Kelly, Reuters — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:03:00 +0200

Few foreign activist investors have made much headway in forcing change in Japan, where a conservative corporate culture favours long-standing ties with banks, business partners and workers rather than shareholders seeking value. Struggling electronics giant Sony Corp., though, with more foreign and fewer bank shareholders, may prove something of an exception. That is the hope, at least, of Californian billionaire Daniel Loeb, whose Third Point hedge fund has built up a more than six per cent stake in Sony, making it the group’s biggest stockholder. Loeb wants CEO Kazuo Hirai to sell as much as a fifth of the group’s money-making entertainment arm – movies, TV and music – to free up cash to revive an electronics business battered by competition from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics. He reckons the shake-up, which Hirai said yesterday would be considered by the board, could increase Sony’s market value by 60 per cent. The target and timing of Loeb’s polite hand-delivered overture are not accidental. Sony earns two-thirds of its revenue overseas and, for corporate Japan, appears more westernised. Hirai, who spent most of his childhood in the US, was picked by former CEO Howard...

IMF urges Britain to do more to boost growth

William Schomberg and David Milliken, Reuters — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:02:00 +0200

The International Monetary Fund called on Britain’s Government yesterday to do more to speed up slow economic recovery, hinting that the country might be able to afford to borrow more to fund investment. The report is unlikely to spur Chancellor George Osborne to deviate from his flagship austerity programme, and does not directly urge him to defer planned spending cuts. The IMF expressed concern that a new government programme to boost the housing sector might simply push up prices and called for a “clear strategy” on returning state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group to private ownership. In an annual review of economic policies, IMF said Britain had shown “welcome flexibility” in its push to fix one of the biggest budget deficits in the European Union and noted “encouraging” signs that the economy was on the mend. “The UK is, however, still a long way from a strong and sustainable recovery. Per capita income remains six per cent below its pre-crisis peak, making this the weakest recovery in recent history,” it said. It said “planned fiscal tightening will be a drag on growth” and called for several measures to bring about a speedier recovery that would...

Ireland feels the heat from Apple tax row

Carmel Crimmins and Conor Humphries, Reuters — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:01:00 +0200

Ireland yesterday called for an international clampdown on multinationals shifting profits around the world to avoid tax, after criticism that Irish loopholes helped technology giant Apple to shrink its tax bill. A US Senate investigation into the tax affairs of the maker of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on Ireland’s tax regime and forced the Government to defend itself against accusations of being Europe’s onshore tax haven. Other European governments, notably France, have previously criticised Ireland’s low rate of corporation tax –12.5 per cent – but the revelations from Washington focus on loopholes in the Irish tax code that are more difficult to defend. Richard Bruton, the minister in charge of attracting foreign companies to Ireland, admitted that companies need to be reined in. “They play the tax codes one against the other; that is tax planning, and I think we do need international cooperation through the OECD to deal with the aggressive nature of that,” he told state broadcaster RTE. “Tax has always been an element of the Irish offering, and this will continue to be so, but what you have to avoid is what is known as harmful tax...