The world this week-Business
本周商业报道
Tesco reported a worse-than-expected pre-tax loss of 6.4 billion ($9.6 billion) for the year to February 28th, one of the biggest losses in British corporate history. The world's third-biggest supermarket retailer, which is being squeezed by discount rivals such as Aldi, booked several charges and took a hefty write-down in the value of its stores. Dave Lewis, the chief executive, said it had been “a very difficult year”, an understatement given the catalogue of profit warnings.
截止到2月28日的2014财年,乐购超市税前亏损64亿英镑,比想象的更糟糕。这是英国公司历史上绝无仅有的亏损数额。作为世界第三大零售超市,乐购遭遇到阿尔迪等折扣超市的激烈竞争,并且受到几件官司的影响及其市面价值急剧下降。CEO大卫·刘易斯称,对乐购来说“这一年不好过“。从收益表来看,情况要比他所述严重。
Meanwhile, Which? lodged a complaint with Britain's competition authority against what it described assupermarkets' “misleading” pricing practices from “ dodgy multi-buys to baffling sales offers”. The consumer lobby said that convoluted pricing has left customers bewildered.
同时, Which? 向英国竞争委投诉了关于超市”误导人”的标价策略。这些策略包括从“骗人的多件更便宜”到“让人眼花撩乱的特价商品”。这家消费者游说代表称,这些迷惑人的标价手段让消费者困惑。
Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil giant, released its much-delayed quarterly results, its first audited accounts since a corruption scandal involving former executives shook the government of President Dilma Rousseff. The company wrote off 6.2 billion reais (2.1 billion) because of the alleged graft and a further 44.6 billion reais for overvalued assets, mainly on a petrochemical plant and a refinery.
巴西国营石油巨头巴西石油,公布了延期已久的季度报表。这是自其前首席等人贪污受贿丑闻动摇了总统迪尔玛·罗塞夫政府以来,首个审计后的账目。由于涉嫌贪污,且另有446亿雷亚尔的高估资产,公司购销了用于建设石油化工厂和精炼厂的62亿雷亚尔(合约21亿美元)。
Executives from Comcast met regulators at the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission to argue the case for their proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable. Comcast did not comment about the talks, but the FCC might hold an administrative hearing on the deal, which would be a sign that it is not warming to the idea.
就450亿收购时代华纳有线电视公司的提议,康卡斯特的高管们与来自司法部和联邦通信委员会的人员进行了见面会谈。康卡斯特并没有对会谈发表看法,但是联邦通信委员会就该收购进行行政听审,这可能是表明其对这个想法并无好感。
In an attempt to increase lending to business, the People's Bank of China lowered the level of cash that banks must set aside as reserves, reducing the reserve-requirement ratio by one percentage point, the biggest cut since the global financial crisis in 2008. This came after data showed that China's economy grew in the first quarter at its weakest pace since early 2009 and that industrial production had slowed considerably in March.
为了进一步鼓励商业贷款,中国人民银行降低了银行存款准备金,把存款准备金率降至1%,这是自2008年全球金融危机以来最大幅度的下调。在此之前,有数据显示,中国经济第一季度出现自2009年初以来最缓慢增速,且三月份工业产量大幅下降。
The Nikkei 225 stockmarket index closed above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years. Japanese shares have been boosted in part by a government-backed drive for companies to return more of their 231 trillion yen ($1.9 trillion) cash pile to shareholders. Markets were also buoyed by Japan's first monthly trade surplus in three years.
日经225股票指数收盘位超过20000点,此为15年来首次。日本政府支持企业向股民返还231万亿日元(合约1.9万亿美元)资金,受此举刺激,日本股市大涨。日本3年来首次出现月度贸易顺差也刺激了市场上扬。
Wonga, Britain's biggest payday lender, reported an annual loss, following a crackdown on the industry that led to a 36% drop in its lending volumes.
由于受到了行业打压而导致借款总量降低了36%,英国最大的短期信贷公司Wonga公布了年度亏损报告。
A 36-year-old day trader operating out of a suburban house in London that sits under Heathrow's flight path was charged by American authorities with involvement in the “flash crash” on May 6th 2010 that saw stockmarkets dive by 10% within just a few minutes. Navinder Singh Sarao appeared in court to fight his extradition to America, where he is accused, among other things, of “spoofing” the futures market by placing phoney orders.
36岁英国交易员纳温德·辛格·萨劳,居住在伦敦郊区位于希思罗航线下方的房子里。美国政府指控他涉嫌参与2010年5月6号导致股票价格几分钟内下跌10%的“闪电崩盘“。继在美国被抓后,纳温德出庭就因涉嫌出售虚假订单扰乱期货市场而被引渡到美国进行辩护。
The febrile dealmaking in the drug industry continued as Teva, based in Israel and the world's biggest maker of generic drugs, launched an unsolicited $40 billion takeover of Mylan, an American rival. Mylan had itself recently offered $29 billion for Perrigo, which has its headquarters in Ireland (that deal has been scotched). If it succeeds, Teva's acquisition would be the biggest foreign takeover yet made by an Israeli firm.
制药行业交易热度不断。世界最大的非专利药品生产公司---以色列梯瓦公司 主动提出以400亿美元的价格收购竞争对手美国迈兰制药。迈兰不久前提出以290亿美元价格收购总部位于爱尔兰的百利高(交易未能达成)。如果梯瓦收购成功,这将成为以色列公司最大的境外并购。
After years of declining profit margins Volvo dismissed Olof Persson as chief executive. The Swedish lorry-maker named Martin Lundstedt as its new boss, who currently heads Scania, a rival that is owned by Volkswagen. The German carmaker has had its own management problems of late, with its supervisory board issuing support for Martin Winterkorn as chief executive despite his spat with Ferdinand Pi?ch, the chairman.
因利润率逐年下降,沃尔沃罢免了首席执行官欧罗夫·佩森。瑞典籍卡车制造商伦德斯·泰特接任,他当前是沃尔沃的竞争对手——大众旗下斯堪尼亚公司的首席执行官。大众汽车近来管理层出现了问题,监管理事支持马丁·文德恩当首席执行官,即使其与董事长费迪南德·皮耶希有矛盾。
Google launched a wireless service that charges $20 a month for phone and text services and $10 per gigabyte of data, but which refunds customers if they don't use all their data allowance. It also overhauled its mobile-search algorithm to prefer sites that are mobile-friendly. The consequences for the search rankings of some organisations have caused the change to be dubbed “mobilegeddon”.
谷歌开通了一项无线网络服务,电话和短信服务每月20美元,1G流量每月10美元,但是流量如果没有用完将退费给消费者。而且更新了移动搜索系统中的推荐网页使其更适合手机。这导致众多企业的搜索排名改变,人们称之为“手机浩劫”。
Cirque du Soleil was bought by a consortium that includes Fosun, a Chinese conglomerate that hopes to develop the acrobatic troupe's shows in China, where they have not gone down so well with audiences used to large-scale circuses. Fosun has been boosting its entertainment portfolio to tap into leisure spending by China's middle classes, buying Club Med this year and investing in Thomas Cook.
太阳马戏团被包括中国巨头复兴集团在内的财团收购。复兴集团希望发展中国的杂技表演,中国观众过去常看大型马戏演出,但是今日不同往日。复兴大力发展娱乐产业来挖掘中国中产阶级的娱乐花费,今年购买了地中海俱乐部并投资了通济隆。翻译:刘苗苗 校对:戴秀平