Firms fined for fixing bitumen prices
Europe’s top antitrust authority fined 14 companies a total of €266.7 million (£180 million), including a €108 million penalty for Shell, for fixing prices of road surface material bitumen in the Netherlands. Four of the firms said that they intended to appeal. Shell received the biggest fine, while its French peer Total was ordered to pay €20.25 million. An EU competition spokesman also revealed that it was inspecting suspected bitumen cartels in Spain and Belgium.
Rogue trader cost Citigroup $20m
A rogue trader lost $20 million (£10.7 million) for Citigroup, America’s largest bank, by hiding more than $300 million of gold and silver contracts and reporting fake prices, the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory unit said yesterday. Gail Edmonds, the trader, had as much as $373 million of open positions, nearly 75 times her trading limit, before the bank discovered her misconduct in early 2003 and fired her.
Advertisement
New resistance to EU footwear tariff
Footwear retailers and importers, including Nike, Timberland and Clarks, have written to European Union countries urging them to stand firm against impending punitive tariffs on shoes imported from China and Vietnam, after Austria put forward a new proposal for anti-dumping action. Austria, one of 14 EU members that voted against the EU tariffs, wants anti-dumping duties to be imposed for a year and then reviewed.
Rolls-Royce strikes $800m China deal
The aircraft-engine maker Rolls-Royce said that it had struck an $800 million (£426 million) deal with Air China to install its Trent 1000 engines in the 15 Boeing 787 aircraft that it has ordered. The deal includes a long-term maintenance agreement. Deliveries of the twin-engine aircraft are scheduled to begin in June 2008. The announcement came as Tony Blair and Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, met to talk about trade.
Finmeccania weighs up space plans
Advertisement
Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chairman of Finmeccanica, said the company was interested in setting up a joint venture with EADS in the space launcher sector. He said that such a venture could include the space assets of Avio, on which Finmeccanica holds a call option. “As you know, the space part of Avio is specialised in launchers. We are thinking of the possibility of having a European launcher company,” he said.