Reuters exclusively reported that Japan’s national and Tokyo governments are seeking a 700 billion yen ($4.7 billion) valuation for Tokyo Metro as they prepare to list the subway operator as early as October-end, in what would be the nation’s biggest IPO in roughly six years. The two governments, which own 100% of Tokyo Metro, plan to arrange a meeting of brokerages within a week for a briefing on the IPO and expect to receive approval for the listing from the Tokyo Stock Exchange as soon as mid-September, the sources said.
Business
Union boss questions Amazon’s public contracts
Amazon should be at risk of losing taxpayer-funded contracts if it fails to “treat workers with respect”, a union boss has said.
GMB general secretary Gary Smith accused the online giant of using “despicable” tactics to stop workers at its Coventry base from unionising.
In July, the union announced that 49.5% of Amazon workers at the site voted in favour of union recognition – falling just short of the required majority.
Amazon has been approached for a response, but has previously said it had “always worked hard” to listen to employees, “act on their feedback, and invest heavily in great pay, benefits and skills development”.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday, Mr Smith questioned how it could be right for the company to receive more than £1bn in public contracts in the past year.
“The tactics used by this company to try and union-bust have been despicable and our members will keep up the fight, but government has to step up too,” he said.
“Our Labour government needs to be clear with Amazon: if you want to keep trousering hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash, they need to treat workers with respect.”
‘Make work pay’
Steve Garelick, delegate for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner Constituency Labour Party, said procurement money needed to be focused on companies that support workers’ rights, specifically on safety and access to unions.
He told the conference: “It is essential that we ensure this money is spent wisely and it’s used to support businesses that provide good working conditions for their employees.”
At the conference, GMB moved a motion calling for the government to “fully partner” with trade unions to “co-design” Labour’s plans to “make work pay”.
Business
Japan, Tokyo governments target $4.7 bln valuation for Tokyo Metro in IPO
Business & FinanceEconomy
19 August 2024, 8:25 pm 1 minute
Market Impact
With half the company to be sold, the initial public offering could raise 350 billion yen at that valuation, which would exceed the size of Kokusai Electric’s IPO last year and become the largest since SoftBank Group listed its wireless unit in 2018.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & FinanceEconomy
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Business & FinanceEconomy & Policy
Regions: Asia
Countries: Japan
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Significant National Story
Money
IPAW 2024 kicks off with IP seminar for advisers
Income Protection Awareness Week (IPAW 2024) kicked off today (23 September) with a seminar for advisers exploring the current income protection (IP) market.
The awareness week is being organised by the Income Protection Task Force (IPTF) to raise the profile and grow sales of IP products.
The week will comprise a series of online keynotes, panel debates, case studies and presentations and will tackle various themes across income protection.
Today’s session looked at the case for income protection and what advisers are seeing in the market and in client conversations.
It also looked at how advisers include IP in their advice process and the impact that consumer duty has had on adviser behaviour.
Jo Miller, co-chair, IPTF, said the IP market has seen a rise in sales, with a record number of sales on advice.
However, she urged the sector to keep up the momentum as more work needed to be done.
The adviser panel – consisiting of Mike Douglas, protection specialist, Woodside Financial Services, Nina Brown, protection specialist at Pam Brown Mortgages, and Hannah Murray, financial adviser, St. James’s Place Protection Planning – expressed similar sentiments.
For his part, Douglas urged advisers to make the IP advice process simple by explaining the benefits and pitfalls of not having IP cover.
Meanwhile, research from protection and employee benefits provider MetLife UK has found that while one in five (20%) consumers see the benefit of financial protection, 12% don’t understand the difference between the various offerings.
The study, published today, found one in ten (9%) customers admitted they only thought about financial protection once it was too late and they needed to claim.
MetLife said IPAW provides the chance for advisers to talk to clients and review what protection they do and don’t have in place.
Business
Some investors demand change at LVMH after probe into Dior contractors
Business & Finance
23 July 2024, 9:11 am 1 minute
Reuters exclusively reported that Europe’s top asset manager Amundi and other LVMH investors want the $370 billion luxury behemoth to take more aggressive steps to monitor its suppliers’ treatment of workers after Italian prosecutors disclosed alleged sweatshop-like conditions at subcontractors for high-end brand Dior.
Market Impact
The investigation into suppliers for LVMH’s second-largest fashion label, which Reuters revealed on June 11, has shone a spotlight on potential worker exploitation in the $1.6 trillion global luxury goods industry.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & Finance
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Business & Finance
Regions: Europe
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Important Regional Story
Business
California accuses Exxon of misleading public on plastic recycling
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
California has filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil alleging it falsely promoted the recyclability of plastic, becoming the first US state seeking to hold an oil major accountable for plastic pollution.
The lawsuit alleges Exxon, one of the world’s largest producers of plastic, deceived the public for half a century about the sustainability of its plastic products. The lawsuit seeks damages from the oil group for harms inflicted from plastic production.
“For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible,” said California attorney-general Rob Bonta in a statement. “ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardising our health.”
Exxon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The allegations arrive as plastics play a growing role in supporting oil demand and as the UN prepares to broker in late November the world’s first binding agreement to cut plastics pollution in South Korea, a deal that has been likened to the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Global consumption of plastic, a primary driver of petrochemicals demand, is expected to triple by 2060, according to the OECD, reaching 1.3bn tonnes. China was the largest producer of plastics last year, surpassing North America by a slim margin, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.
The International Energy Agency cites the petrochemicals sector as the “single largest contributor” to oil demand growth for the next four years as the electrification of power and transport sectors curb the global thirst for crude. The plastics industry is expected to make up 10 per cent of global emissions by mid-century, up from 5 per cent in 2019, according to a report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
California’s lawsuit against Exxon follows the investigation it launched into the fossil fuel and petrochemicals sectors and their role in plastic pollution in 2022. A group of non-profit organisations including Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation filed a similar lawsuit on Monday targeting Exxon for misleading claims about its plastics business.
State and local governments are increasing efforts to hold companies accountable for plastic waste. Earlier this year, New York attorney-general Letitia James sued PepsiCo, demanding the food and drinks company reduce its plastic pollution and pay for damages.
Developing countries, environmentalists and businesses have called for a limit on plastic production to be included in the final UN plastics treaty expected by the end of the year, arguing that relying on waste management solutions such as recycling were inadequate.
Karen McKee, head of Exxon’s product solutions business, told the Financial Times earlier this year that a limit on production would not solve the pollution problem and that UN negotiators needed to be “open-minded” about solutions.
Exxon produced 11.2mn metric tonnes of polyethylene last year and operates a chemical recycling plant for plastic in Baytown, Texas.
About 10 per cent of all plastic is recycled, according to the OECD, which estimates investment in recycling must reach $1tn by 2040, up from less than $20bn today.
Money
Bank of America: Luxury consumer is 'all tapped out'
CNBC’s Robert Frank reports on news from luxury shoppers.
Business
First Quantum plans maintenance for Panama copper mine amid protests
Business & FinanceEnergyEnvironment
20 November 2023, 3:09 pm 1 minute
Reuters exclusively reported that Canada’s First Quantum Minerals was considering putting its key Panama copper miner on care and maintenance from Nov. 23, effectively shutting production at a mine that accounts for about 1% of global output. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported that the move follows protests that blocked coal from reaching First Quantum’s plant. Supply concerns at First Quantum’s Panama contributed to copper prices jumping to two-month highs traders said while First Quantum shares extended fall to drop as much as 5.7% on the news.
Market Impact
Supply concerns at First Quantum’s Panama contributed to copper prices jumping to two-month highs traders said while First Quantum shares extended fall to drop as much as 5.7% on the news.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & FinanceEnergyEnvironment
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Business & FinanceCommodities & Energy
Regions: North America
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Important Regional Story
-
News5 days ago
You’re a Hypocrite, And So Am I
-
Sport4 days ago
Joshua vs Dubois: Chris Eubank Jr says ‘AJ’ could beat Tyson Fury and any other heavyweight in the world
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
How to unsnarl a tangle of threads, according to physics
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
‘Running of the bulls’ festival crowds move like charged particles
-
Technology5 days ago
Would-be reality TV contestants ‘not looking real’
-
News1 day ago
Our millionaire neighbour blocks us from using public footpath & screams at us in street.. it’s like living in a WARZONE – WordupNews
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Ethereum is a 'contrarian bet' into 2025, says Bitwise exec
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
DZ Bank partners with Boerse Stuttgart for crypto trading
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Why this is a golden age for life to thrive across the universe
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
Quantum ‘supersolid’ matter stirred using magnets
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
Sunlight-trapping device can generate temperatures over 1000°C
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Liquid crystals could improve quantum communication devices
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Bitcoin miners steamrolled after electricity thefts, exchange ‘closure’ scam: Asia Express
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Dorsey’s ‘marketplace of algorithms’ could fix social media… so why hasn’t it?
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Low users, sex predators kill Korean metaverses, 3AC sues Terra: Asia Express
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Bitcoin bulls target $64K BTC price hurdle as US stocks eye new record
-
Travel23 hours ago
Where Retro Glamour Meets Modern Chic in Athens, Greece
-
News4 days ago
Israel strikes Lebanese targets as Hizbollah chief warns of ‘red lines’ crossed
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
Hyperelastic gel is one of the stretchiest materials known to science
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Maxwell’s demon charges quantum batteries inside of a quantum computer
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
Quantum forces used to automatically assemble tiny device
-
News4 days ago
Brian Tyree Henry on voicing young Megatron, his love for villain roles
-
Health & fitness5 days ago
The secret to a six pack – and how to keep your washboard abs in 2022
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
How to wrap your mind around the real multiverse
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
Physicists are grappling with their own reproducibility crisis
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
Nuclear fusion experiment overcomes two key operating hurdles
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Cardano founder to meet Argentina president Javier Milei
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
RedStone integrates first oracle price feeds on TON blockchain
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
SEC asks court for four months to produce documents for Coinbase
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Vitalik tells Ethereum L2s ‘Stage 1 or GTFO’ — Who makes the cut?
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Blockdaemon mulls 2026 IPO: Report
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
Meet the world's first female male model | 7.30
-
Sport4 days ago
UFC Edmonton fight card revealed, including Brandon Moreno vs. Amir Albazi headliner
-
Technology4 days ago
iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Review: Depth and Reach
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
How one theory ties together everything we know about the universe
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
ITER: Is the world’s biggest fusion experiment dead after new delay to 2035?
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Journeys: Robby Yung on Animoca’s Web3 investments, TON and the Mocaverse
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
$12.1M fraud suspect with ‘new face’ arrested, crypto scam boiler rooms busted: Asia Express
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
CertiK Ventures discloses $45M investment plan to boost Web3
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
VonMises bought 60 CryptoPunks in a month before the price spiked: NFT Collector
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
‘Silly’ to shade Ethereum, the ‘Microsoft of blockchains’ — Bitwise exec
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
‘No matter how bad it gets, there’s a lot going on with NFTs’: 24 Hours of Art, NFT Creator
-
Business4 days ago
How Labour donor’s largesse tarnished government’s squeaky clean image
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Coinbase’s cbBTC surges to third-largest wrapped BTC token in just one week
-
News4 days ago
Church same-sex split affecting bishop appointments
-
Politics6 days ago
Trump says he will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week
-
Politics4 days ago
Labour MP urges UK government to nationalise Grangemouth refinery
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Time travel sci-fi novel is a rip-roaringly good thought experiment
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Laser helps turn an electron into a coil of mass and charge
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
2 auditors miss $27M Penpie flaw, Pythia’s ‘claim rewards’ bug: Crypto-Sec
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Help! My parents are addicted to Pi Network crypto tapper
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Crypto scammers orchestrate massive hack on X but barely made $8K
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
Why we need to invoke philosophy to judge bizarre concepts in science
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
SEC sues ‘fake’ crypto exchanges in first action on pig butchering scams
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Elon Musk is worth 100K followers: Yat Siu, X Hall of Flame
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Bitcoin price hits $62.6K as Fed 'crisis' move sparks US stocks warning
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
CZ and Binance face new lawsuit, RFK Jr suspends campaign, and more: Hodler’s Digest Aug. 18 – 24
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Telegram bot Banana Gun’s users drained of over $1.9M
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Ethereum falls to new 42-month low vs. Bitcoin — Bottom or more pain ahead?
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
ETH falls 6% amid Trump assassination attempt, looming rate cuts, ‘FUD’ wave
-
Politics4 days ago
‘Appalling’ rows over Sue Gray must stop, senior ministers say | Sue Gray
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Bitcoin options markets reduce risk hedges — Are new range highs in sight?
-
News2 days ago
Bangladesh Holds the World Accountable to Secure Climate Justice
-
News4 days ago
Police chief says Daniel Greenwood 'used rank to pursue junior officer'
-
Business6 days ago
Guardian in talks to sell world’s oldest Sunday paper
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
How to wrap your head around the most mind-bending theories of reality
-
Technology6 days ago
Can technology fix the ‘broken’ concert ticketing system?
-
News7 days ago
Did the Pandemic Break Our Brains?
-
Politics6 days ago
Trump Media breached ARC Global share agreement, judge rules
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
A new kind of experiment at the Large Hadron Collider could unravel quantum reality
-
Fashion Models4 days ago
Mixte
-
Science & Environment4 days ago
How Peter Higgs revealed the forces that hold the universe together
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Nerve fibres in the brain could generate quantum entanglement
-
Business6 days ago
Glasgow to host scaled-back Commonwealth Games in 2026
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Quantum time travel: The experiment to ‘send a particle into the past’
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Real-world asset tokenization is the crypto killer app — Polygon exec
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Decentraland X account hacked, phishing scam targets MANA airdrop
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Beat crypto airdrop bots, Illuvium’s new features coming, PGA Tour Rise: Web3 Gamer
-
CryptoCurrency4 days ago
Memecoins not the ‘right move’ for celebs, but DApps might be — Skale Labs CMO
-
Business4 days ago
Thames Water seeks extension on debt terms to avoid renationalisation
-
Politics4 days ago
The Guardian view on 10 Downing Street: Labour risks losing the plot | Editorial
-
Politics4 days ago
I’m in control, says Keir Starmer after Sue Gray pay leaks
-
Business4 days ago
UK hospitals with potentially dangerous concrete to be redeveloped
-
Politics4 days ago
‘Hundreds’ of prisoners freed early in England and Wales not fitted with tags | Prisons and probation
-
News4 days ago
“Beast Games” contestants sue MrBeast’s production company over “chronic mistreatment”
-
News4 days ago
Sean “Diddy” Combs denied bail again in federal sex trafficking case
-
News4 days ago
Sean “Diddy” Combs denied bail again in federal sex trafficking case in New York
-
News4 days ago
Brian Tyree Henry on voicing young Megatron, his love for villain roles
-
Money3 days ago
Family offices are the most bullish they’ve been in years, survey says
-
Money3 days ago
Podcast: The art of putting things right
-
Money3 days ago
Weekend Essay: The art of putting things right
-
Money3 days ago
Here's what the top 0.01% pay in taxes
-
News1 day ago
Why Is Everyone Excited About These Smart Insoles?
-
News23 hours ago
Four dead & 18 injured in horror mass shooting with victims ‘caught in crossfire’ as cops hunt multiple gunmen
-
Technology4 days ago
Fivetran targets data security by adding Hybrid Deployment
-
Science & Environment5 days ago
Elon Musk’s SpaceX contracted to destroy retired space station
-
Politics6 days ago
Starmer ally Hollie Ridley appointed as Labour general secretary | Labour
-
Money5 days ago
What estate agents get up to in your home – and how they’re being caught
-
Technology6 days ago
‘The dark web in your pocket’
-
News4 days ago
Freed Between the Lines: Banned Books Week
You must be logged in to post a comment Login