• Iran is Back…With the French and Chinese Iran is set to sign a preliminary $6 billion deal with French oil and gas group Total next week for the development of an offshore natural gas field. China's CNPC will also be a signatory to an agreement that will finally develop South Pars, one of the world's biggest known gas fields, after years in which development was stopped by U.S. sanctions. It's the first major deal that Iran has signed with foreign oil and gas companies since sanctions were lifted, and a stark reminder of how far down the line U.S. companies will be for any business in a country that is host to some of the best conventional energy resources in the world. Reuters • Peace At Southwest Airlines Pilots at Southwest Airlines voted to ratify a new contract that hikes wages and alters retirement benefits, following more than four years of talks. The approval marks a step toward better labor relations at the budget airline after recent picketing by workers and calls by union leaders for two executives to resign. Flight attendants, meanwhile, had ratified a new contract a week ago. The airline's shares were up 3% at the market's close, despite the company's forecast that the deals will raise unit costs by around 3.5%-an increase it is already passing on to customers in the form of higher fares. On the plus side, it frees up management time for overhauling its creaky IT system. Fortune • News Corp Rounds off a Bad Quarter for Print News Corp rounded off a miserable earnings season for old media, reporting a 2.4% drop in quarterly revenue and a net loss of $15 million. The results were rescued only by rapid growth at its online real estate advertizing business. Ad revenue at the group's biggest title, The Wall Street Journal, fell 21% on the year despite a 6% increase in circulation. Ad revenue also fell 28% at its stable of U.K. newspapers, with the post-referendum decline in sterling largely to blame. The group comparison was also made less favorable by the fact that book division HarperCollins had published Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman a year earlier. Last week, the New York Times had reported a 19% drop in ad revenue, while Gannett's print ad revenue fell 15% and Time Inc.'s fell 13%. Fortune • Samsung Raided If it's not one thing, it's another. South Korean prosecutors raided Samsung Electronics on Tuesday as part of a probe over a political scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her friend, Choi Soon-sil, who is alleged to have exerted improper influence in state affairs. Choi has been charged abuse of power and fraud while a former aide has been charged with abuse of power and extortion after they helped raise $68 million from dozens of the country's biggest conglomerates on behalf of two foundations. Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Samsung provided $3.1 million to a company co-owned by Choi and her daughter, a former member of the national equestrian team. Thank goodness it couldn't happen here. Fortune | 
No comments:
Post a Comment