Industry news

George Osborne is set to boost lending for SMEs as the government seek to push economic growth, with an extension to the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) run by the Bank of England.

The FLS scheme has so far be credited with reducing mortgage costs for small businesses with the Chancellor admitting that an extension may have “merit”.

The scheme established in August was originally set to expire in January 2014, but is now expected to be extended after the IMF have raised concern regarding the UK’s efforts to promote growth and current austerity measures, with another major credit ratings agency downgrading the country from triple-A last Friday.

Expectations are on a FLS extension being announced before the arrival of an IMF delegation in May

UK prepares for 2013 budget

Government increases business innovation fund to £60 million

Chinese firm Huawei is looking to employ more than 5,000 workers for projects with Europe over the next four to five years.

The planned increase employees would bring the phone and network provider’s European workforce size to around 13,000.

The planned workforce increase comes as Huawei seeks to expand into the European marketplace, with expectations on the company’s ability to carve out a strong market from its ability to provide fast services at a competitive price.

Hirings come at a time when telecomm businesses situated in Europe are making employee cutbacks.

Ken Hu, Huawei chief executive officer and deputy chairman, said to Bloomberg: "We will continue to increase our investments in this market. If we can be successful in Europe and have a virtuous circle, we can invest more."

Huawei set to generate over $2.4 billion in net profit

Huawei records strong profits and revenue over 2012

Changes to the H-1B visa by the US Comprehensive Immigration Bill are expected to lead to increased costs for many Indian IT companies.

The bill itself has been delayed in light of the events surrounding the Boston marathon explosions, but expectations are on increased costs for H-1B visas which most Indian IT firms use for local employees, restrictions on their use are also expected to come into force.

The US Comprehensive Immigration Bill is expected to promote the employment of domestic workers, while the quota of H-1B visas for skilled workers has been increased, added costs and restrictions will decrease the attractiveness of investing in U.S. industries from an overseas-outsourcing perspective.

India and Germany boost links through language education program

Cameron signs cyber security deal in India leading the way for trade expansion

Apple has lost its position as the world’s largest company after shares fell to a 18-month low with a 40 percent decline in stock prices from last September.

Shares closed at $23.44, a record low last seen in December 2011 a wiping out $20 billion in shareholder value, leading to Apple losing its leading position to energy giant Exxon Mobil.

The decline in share prices was influenced by a reduced sales forecast from one of the technology giants leading suppliers for its iPhone and iPad, suggesting a slowing demand for its flagship range.

Analysts are continuing to remain cautious, with fears that share prices may still have some way to fall.

Apple have struggled in recent months, particularly over the winter period, as the company faces increasing competition from rivals including Samsung and Google.

Expectations now rest on Apples line up of product releases in 2013 to turn around the companies decline.

Samsung overtakes Apple as leading manufacturer of ‘smart devices’

A report by HfS and Accenture has found that neither sourcing buyers nor providers are making the necessary investments in the key driver of value creation – people. Barely a third of enterprise outsourcing customers believe their current governance talent – the people responsible for managing the service relationship – can drive innovation or define business outcomes. And only about half of outsourcing providers have established formal training programs to develop industry expertise and skills in analytics and relationship management.

According to the report, which featured a survey of executives from 282 enterprises, two examples of strategic business skills are increasingly important to enterprise executives: defining business objectives beyond cost reduction and efficiency (83 percent regarded this as important or critical) and influencing executives (77 percent). However, executives acknowledge that their current skill levels are deficient in these areas.

Mike Salvino, group chief executive, Business Process Outsourcing, Accenture: “If outsourcing is to deliver on its full potential, buyers as well as providers need to invest in developing the skills and talent to capture the greater levels of value available from fourth and fifth generation BPO solutions,” HfS Talent study – the first of its kind – highlights the growing talent gap between what the industry and its clients aspire to achieve and the lack of sufficient investment in people to make it happen. We hope it serves as a call to action for everyone involved in the business of outsourcing. The bottom line is that outsourcing business or IT functions is never ’done’ and with proper investments in talent, the outsourcing governance team has continual opportunities to improve productivity, efficiency and access to critical data.”

Business confidence among chief financial officers (CFOs) has improved for the third consecutive quarter, according to the latest Deloitte CFO Survey, which saw 34% of CFOs say now is a good time to take risk on to their balance sheets, compared to 25% in Q4 2012 and 13% in the final quarter of 2011.

The Q1 2013 CFO Survey, which gauges the views of 120 chief financial officers, including those from 26 FTSE 100 and 44 FTSE 250 companies, shows that CFOs’ perceptions of macroeconomic and financial uncertainty have dropped to the lowest level for two and a half years. 23% of CFOs say their business faces a high level of external uncertainty - the lowest level since Q2 2011 (21%).

Rising equity markets, exceptionally easy monetary policy and improving financial conditions have contributed to a more positive mood among major UK companies. Credit conditions for large companies have improved for the third consecutive quarter. Over two-thirds (69%) of CFOs say that credit is more readily available, 60% rated credit as cheap and 67% say that bank borrowing is an attractive source of lending, the highest levels recorded since the CFO Survey started in Q3 2007.

Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte, said: “Despite the gloomy coverage around the UK Budget and the crisis in Cyprus, CFOs believe that that the level of economic and financial risk facing their businesses has declined. Corporate appetite for risk is not far off the peaks seen in early 2011 when Europe looked set for a sustained recovery. Reduced stress in financial markets, especially in the euro area, has delivered improvements in credit conditions for big UK corporates. It is a measure of the change that CFOs now rate bank borrowing as offering a more attractive form of finance than at any time since the start of the financial crisis.”

Centrica plc and Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) have agreed to acquire jointly a package of producing conventional natural gas and crude oil assets and associated infrastructure located in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin from Suncor Energy for £650 million, cash.

The assets are located principally in South and Central Alberta where they overlap with existing Centrica assets, providing the opportunity for cost savings in production and development, and in North East British Columbia. The package also includes over 1 million acres of undeveloped land and there is significant potential for reserves and production upside through the use of horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracturing.

The acquisition is the first investment under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two parties in December 2011. The assets will be held in a newly established partnership between Centrica (60% share) and QPI (40% share), which will be operated by Centrica. The assets include proven and probable (2P) reserves estimated by the partners at 978 billion cubic feet equivalent (90% natural gas), with estimated 2013 production of approximately 250 million cubic feet equivalent per day (mmcfe/d), equal to 15 million barrels of oil equivalent per annum.

Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive of Centrica, said: “I am delighted to achieve our first investment with QPI under the MoU, and the establishment of a new partnership in North America. The acquisition provides attractive returns in a region we know well, and significantly increases the size and quality of our portfolio. It also presents exciting development opportunities, with the potential to improve returns further. Today’s announcement marks another step in delivering the strategy we announced in February and strengthens the relationship between Centrica and QPI. We look forward to working together to further expand the scale and scope of our joint North American operations.”

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) have placed tender for the delivery of new software for planning the passage of craft through MOD airspace throughout the ministries global theatres of operation.

The tender has been placed under ‘extreme urgency’ with bidders being given a limited period of 10 days to provide an offer, with the 22nd of April being the deadline for submissions.

Due to the urgency placed on the bidding process, only suppliers who have had previous experience of delivering software applications to major airlines will be invited to offer tender.

The demand for a rapid system has been put down to ‘operational urgency’ according to the MOD.

The specifications of the service include aircraft dispatch, passenger management, and booking services with mobile functionality across services.

The MOD has not revealed the reason for the limited tender period and the cause of the operational urgency.

Concern raised over MoD’s reliance on foreign firms

Private equity firm CVC Capital has entered into talks with other potential investors surrounding a bid for the takeover of Betfair.

The private equity firm released a statement today describing how it had entered into talks surrounding the acquisition of the betting firm.

CVC which owns Formula One are looking at the potential of the betting company, with discussions being held between investors Richard Koch who already holds a stake in Betfair, and Antony Ball.

CVC said that: "it has had preliminary discussions with Richard Koch, Antony Ball and partners regarding options in respect of Betfair, which could include an offer for Betfair by funds advised by CVC together with Richard Koch, Antony Ball and partners."

Betfair’s shares rose by 14 percent in response to the announcement.

William Hill reports 14 percent profit growth through online innovation

Ladbrokes plc Buys Stake in Stadium Technology Group

India has moved to promote German as a foreign language in India as part of a cooperative move between the two countries.

The language promotion is designed to IT procurement and industry transactions between the two countries, with Germany representing the largest European economy.

Currently they are skills gaps in Germany, with India looking to fore-fill opportunities in the countries manufacturing and engineering sectors.

Ministry of Human Resource Development in India is now moving to introduce a series of Bachelor of Education programmes for German, alongside Masters programs and funding for students to go to Germany.

Cameron signs cyber security deal in India leading the way for trade expansion