Helsinki, January 5, 2015

Russia grants 150 billion roubles from its National Wealth Fund to gas company Novatek’s Yamal LNG project.

Among his last government decisions in 2014, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved Novatek’s application for state support to Yamal LNG developments. They were allocated 150 billion roubles (€ 2.1 billion) from the National Wealth Fund to the project.

The support will enable Novatek to continue its development of the Yamal LNG, a grand energy and infrastructure project on Russia’s Arctic Yamal Peninsula. Once on full awing, the Yamal LNG plant will have the capacity to produce around 16.5 million tons of LNG per year, all go it extracted at the nearby South Tambley field. The project also includes the development of the Sabetta port, a major infrastructure hub on eastern shore of the peninsula.

The 150 billion roubles are to be invested in the construction of LNG plant, as well as auxiliary production, processing and unloading facilities.

The Russian government has from before invested heavily in Yamal project. More than 47 billion roubles has been invested in the Sabetta port and auxiliary infrastructure.

The Sabetta harbor will be able to handle more than 30 million tons of goods per year and should operate all-year-round, despite the highly complex ice conditions of the Ob Bay.

There are other companies applying for state support as well. One of them is Rosneft. The bids for state support emerged as companies face major hardship following western sanctions and limited possibilities to get foreign credits.

The National Wealth Fund is one of the two state investment funds, both of them established in 2008. The National Welfare Fund was initially given $87.97 billion. The fund is controlled by the Minitry of finance and one of its main responsibilities is to support the Russian pension system.

Novatek is the Russia’s biggest independent gas producer, partly controlled by structures associated with businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Leonid Mikhelson, two businessmen with good relations with Kremlin.

NOVATEK started in August 1994, when AOOT FIK Novafininvest was established (the name was changed to OAO NOVATEK later). The new Company focused on oil and gas assets development from the very beginning.Novatek acquired the exploration and production licenses in the YNAO (East-Tarkosalinskoye, Khancheyskoye and Yurkharovskoye fields) and made significant investments in the fields development and surface facilities construction. The trial operation of the East-Tarkosalinskoye oil field commenced in 1996 and commercial production of natural gas started in 1998. Gas marketing development commenced in 2002 with first natural gas sales to end-customers.

The company completed the consolidation of NOVATEK’s main assets in 2004 and disposed the non-core businesses – in 2005 in order to focus on its core assets.

The Purosky Condensate Processing Plant was commissioned the same year becoming the most important element of the vertically integrated production chain of the Company and the Company’s IPO was conducted on the London stock exchange and Russia’s MICEX stock exchange.

With over 25 bcm production per annum NOVATEK was the largest independent producer in Russia as earlier as 2005 and retained its market position afterwards. The Company’s production volumes and asset portfolio grew rapidly in the subsequent years. NOVATEK acquired stakes in SeverEnergia, Nortgas and Yamal LNG, as well as new licenses including prospective areas in the Gydan Peninsula and the Gulf of Ob.NOVATEK launched a large-scale project on LNG plant construction (Yamal LNG) which will enable the Company to enter the international gas market.

Source:

http://government.ru/dep_news/16397/

http://www.novatek.ru/en/

Edinburgh, January 5, 2014

The luxury shoe company Mandarina aimed to hit £ 1 million sales mark in 2015 as Harris Tweed styles prove great success with customers

Mandarina,  the internet shoe shop is based in  Scotland rural Angus. The small local company is reporting a year-on-year sales boost of 11 percent in the pre-Christmas period. Based on “steady 10 percent growth over each of the last two years”, it is aiming to breach £1 million in sales in 2015.

Mandarina is the online-only fashion brand, which has pioneered the use of Harris Tweed in ladies’ shoes and boots, benefits from Christmas marketing tie-up with men’s shoes specialist Shipton & Heneage.

The young, Scottish-based company was founded in 2004 by Caroline Townsend, a St Andrew University graduate, while working as a magazine editor in the Far East. Townsend was based in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam for 20 years before returning to the run the business from a converted bothy near Forfar.

What makes Mandarina a sustainable company is the engagement in local tradition and boosting the use of local materials. It works together  with UK designers including Peony & Sage, Emily Bond and Inchyra Liners. This attributes the international success of its products alongside the good matching of price and high quality standards.  The combination of quality of the manufacturing and the daring use of high-impact materials, with Scottish tweed lines is proving bestsellers in the industry sector.

Mandarina shoes are handmade in a small family-owned factory in the Duc, near Ho Chi Minh City.  Avoiding the mechanized methods of making shoes Mandarina is able to manufacture shoes of  high quality with fine detail.

Source: www.heraldscotland.com, www.mandarinashoes.co.uk

MANDARINA SHOES LTD

Zurich, October 30, 2014

With the fall of oil prices (-25% since June), the sovereign funds related to oil and gas (Gulf countries, Russia Norway) are obviously less money available for investment. Currently their stand remains intact. They have a combined total of 4,200 billion dollars to manage, and yet remain immune to the lack of liquidity. In the circumstances against an oil shock, they should show more caution and a more conservative investment strategy. A chance for sustainable investments.

Source: www.lesechos.fr

Berlin, October 29, 2014

The newest OECD and G20 standard on automatic exchange of information was endorsed today in Berlin by all OECD and G20 countries as well as major financial centres participating in the annual meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The status report in committed and not committed jurisdictions will be presented to G20 leaders during their annual summit in Brisbane, Australia on November 15-16.

The jurisdictions expressed their commitments into action by a convincing signing of a Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement that will activate automatic exchange of information, based on the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

Earlier adopter states who signed the agreement have pledged to work towards launching their first information exchanges by September 2017.

The Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters was recently presented by OECD to the G20 Finance Ministers during a meeting in Cairns last September. It provides for exchange of all financial information on automaticaly annual basis. Most members have committed to implementing this Standard on reciprocal basis with all interested jurisdictions.

The Global Forum will establish a peer review process to ensure effective implementation of automatic exchange. Governments also agreed to raise the bar on the standard of exchange of information upon request, by including a requirement that beneficial ownership of all legal entities be available to tax authorities and exchanged with treaty partners.

The Global Forum invited developing countries to join the move towards  automatic exchange of information, and a series of pilot projects will offer technical assistance  to facilitate the move. Ministers and other representatives of African countries agreed to launch a new “African Initiative” to increase awareness of the merits of transparency in Africa. The project will be led by African members of the Global Forum and the Chair, in collaboration with the African Tax Administration Forum, the OECD, the World Bank Group, the Centre de Rencontres et d’Etudes des Dirigeants des Administrations Fiscales (CREDAF).

The Global Forum is the world’s largest network for international cooperation in the field of taxation and financial information exchange,gathering together 123 countries and jurisdictions on an equal footing. Peru and Croatia  joined the Forum at the Berlin meeting.

For further information on the Global Forum meeting in Berlin, including a Statement of Outcomes, go to: www.oecd.org/tax/transparency.

For further information on the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, today’s signing ceremony and the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, go to: www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/automaticexchange.htm.

Source: www.oecd.org

Helsinki, October 7, 2014

The Finnish Cabin Crew Union (SLSY) announced on Monday, October 6th, that it has voted in favour of a settlement proposal in the prolonged row over wages with Finnair. 

 The settlement will enable the struggling airline to all but meet its original savings target of 18 million euros, when the savings arising from its earlier decision to outsource cabin crew services on certain long-haul routes are also take into account, highlighted Anu Hietala of SLSY.

Although the settlement will not affect the base pay of flight attendants, it includes cuts in additional incentives that translate to a seven per cent reduction in overall wages. In addition, the flight attendants have agreed to work an additional 15 hours a month without separate compensation. 

“Now our wages, duty schedule and other obstacles that have prevented this company from ascending no longer exist,” Thelma Åkers, the chairperson of SLSY, snorted outside her home in Paloheinä, Helsinki, on Monday evening. 

“Under such circumstances, you must be satisfied that [an agreement] was reached.”

According to Åkers, it was of utmost importance to the flight attendants that they were granted a four-year protection against outsourcing and two-year protection against unilateral dismissal.
/RLU

Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi

Zürich, 6. Oktober 2014

Der grösste Schweizer Milchverarbeiter Emmi verkauft den Joghurthersteller Trentinalatte an die deutsch-österreichische Industrieholding Livia. Über den Kaufpreis wurde Stillschweigen vereinbart, wie Emmi am Montag mitteilte. Trentinalatte mit Sitz in Roverè della Luna hat dem Unternehmen den Halbjahresabschluss schwer in Leidenschaft bezogen. Belastet von Wertberichtigungen auf der norditalienischen Tochter von CHF 38.5 Mio. ist der Reingewinn um 76% auf CHF 9.8 Mio. gefallen.

Emmi hatte Trentinalatte im Juli 2006 übernommen mit dem Ziel das Joghurtgeschäft in Italien zu diversifizieren. Der Kaufpreis war damals nicht genannt, jedoch von Analysten aber auf rund CHF 30 Mio. geschätzt worden. Trentinalatte leidet laut Emmi unter der angespannten wirtschaftlichen Lage in Italien. Für die Tochtergesellschaft seien alle Optionen geprüft worden, hiess es. Emmi habe sich unter einer Vielzahl von Interessenten für den Verkauf an Livia entschieden.

Für das weiter Bestehen von Trentinalatte seien alle Optionen sorgfältig geprüft worden und man freue sich, dass mit der Livia Gruppe ein Investor gefunden wurde, der das Potenzial der Mitarbeitenden und des Standortes zu würdigen wisse. Die Industrieholding mit Sitz in München und Wien verfüge über das notwendige Knowhow für eine erfolgreiche Trentinalatte. /RLU

source: www.emmi.com

Tokyo, October 6, 2014

From Silence Shareholders  to Proactive Stakeholders

Japanese institutional investors such as pension funds and financial institutions were traditionally seen as “silent shareholders” or “sleeping shareholders.” Companies would have cross-holdings of share with other companies with which they did cooperate, but these investors long supported the management of the companies in which they held investments without getting proactively engaged, even when they were underperforming. This situation has started to take another shape drastically.

Japanese Financial Service Agency (FSA) launched a Japanese version of “Stewardship Code” in February 2014, inviting institutional investors to sign up. Modelled on the British Stewardship Code adopted in 2010, these Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors were set out as a code of behaviour for institutional investors who hold corporate stocks.

In Japan’s stewardship code, “stewardship responsibility” is defined as the responsibility of institutional investors to enhance the medium- to long-term investment return for their clients and beneficiaries by improving the investee companies’ corporate value and promoting sustainable growth through constructive engagement or purposeful dialogue based on in-depth  and trustfuly understanding of the companies and their business environment.

The code encompasses principles considered to be useful for institutional investors who behave as responsible institutional investors in fulfilling their stewardship responsibilities, with due regard to all stakeholders as to clients/beneficiaries and to investee companies. The code states: “By fulfilling their stewardship responsibilities properly in line with this Code, institutional investors will also be able to contribute to the growth of the economy as a whole.” The seven principles in the code are ment to promote sustainable growth of the invested company and enhance the medium- and long-term investment return of clients and beneficiaries.  Institutional investors are invited to:

1. shape and disclose a policy to fulfil their stewardship responsibilities
2. shape and disclose a policy on how they manage conflicts of interest
3. monitor investment  situations appropriately
4. work together with the invested company and search to solve problems through constructive engagement with the invested company
5. have a policy on voting and disclosure voting activity
6. report periodically and trasparently on how they fulfil their stewardship responsibilities, including their voting responsibilities, to their clients and beneficiaries
7. Have good knowledge of the invested companies and their business environment, and consolidate skills and dialogue resources needed to make proper judgments in fulfilling their stewardship activities.

The code is not a law or legally binding regulation. Nevertheless, the FSA expects to see progress in its implementation by compiling a list every three months of institutional investors who have announced that they have adopted the code. As of May 2014, three months after it was launched, 127 institutional investors had announced their intention to adopt it.

The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), managing about 130 trillion yen (about U.S.D. 1.29 trillion), is the biggest among them. Also, in the private sector, some major life insurance companies and trust banks have together indicated their acceptance of the code. In the past, many of the institutional investors were subject the investment management companies for voting at the shareholder meetings of their investments and did not disclose their policies on voting. With the code principles, functions of monitoring investments’ management will be strengthened, thanks to the code inducing institutional investors to create voting policies or make the respect the sustanability standards more rigorous.

Japan has not been known as a leader in socially responsible investment (SRI), in part due to the lack of proactive institutional investors. The ethical values worked within the Japanese traditions’ frame. With this new code, “proactive shareholders” get the larger scale of universal ethical values in doing business and may play a bigger role in supporting money flows that will enhance a sustainable society. /RLU