Marks & Spencer, Apple and Countrywide Financial |
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| Economy | |
| Written by Gary Howes and Sharecast | |
| Friday, 05 June 2009 | |
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A brief roundup of the morning financial news for the SME owner manager. Steven Esom, the former head of food at Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS), was paid more than £1 million for just 112 days’ work on its board, the annual report revealed. Mr Esom, who was dismissed by M&S in July last year after being appointed to the retailer’s board in March, received a payoff of £568,000 in line with the terms of his contract. Esom’s pay package for his entire stint at M&S was £1.038m, the Times writes.The FT adds that Sir Stuart Rose has ended the financial year at Marks and Spencer with 28 per cent more compensation in spite of presiding over a year that saw pre-tax profits at the retailer slide 40 per cent to £706m and the dividend cut for the first time in nine years. Sir Stuart, who promised investors when he was promoted from chief executive to executive chairman that he would not be taking a pay rise for his controversial combined role, has seen his total pay package increase from £1.38m to £1.76m. Cheap Apple iPhoneApple plans to introduce a cheaper version of its popular iPhone as soon as Monday, in a move that could dramatically increase the company’s share of the market for web-surfing devices, people familiar with the initiative said on Thursday. Analysts said that the company wanted to show off either a $149 phone or a $99 phone, down from the current low end of $199 and still subsidised in exchange for an AT&T communications service contract, the FT reports. Countrywide FinancialAngelo Mozilo, founder of Countrywide Financial, which was once the most prolific sub-prime lender in the US, last night became the first big- company chief executive to be charged with fraud over the credit crisis. Releasing a slew of damaging emails, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street's regulator, said it was charging him and his two most senior lieutenants with deceiving investors and insider dealing in the company's shares, reports the Independent. Sweden Bank NationalisationsSweden is preparing to part-nationalise banks exposed to the economic collapse in Baltic states, raising fears that a string of Western European countries could face similar fallout from rising defaults in the former Communist bloc. Finance Minister Anders Borg said the Swedish state will buy stakes in distressed banks if they fall deeper into trouble but will impose draconian terms. Swedish banks have lent more than $75bn (£46bn) to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, led by Swedbank and SEB, the Telegraph reports.
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