The study also found that a CEO of one of the UK’s largest listed companies earns 117 times more than that of an average UK employee with £29,574 salary per year. 

Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD, said, “The gulf between the pay at the top and the bottom ends of companies is slightly smaller this year but it’s still unacceptably wide and undermines public trust in business.We must question if CEOs are overly focused on financial measures and are being incentivised to keep share prices high rather than focusing on the long-term health of their business.”  

The study surveyed 100 bosses in the UK, of which 43 of them said their pay increased last year with long-term incentive plans. It appears that gender diversity played a very little role in the outcome of results. For example, female chief executives were taking less than some of their male counterparts.

Consultancy firm Deloitte also found similar results earlier this week.

High Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard told reported that a lot needs to be done to sync pay practices with the society’s interests by large. The pay gap will continue to persist if major reforms are not made, Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) concluded. 

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Fintec called off the deal due to the non-fulfillment of certain pre-agreed conditions stipulated in the agreement. The company’s statement was released on Bursa Malaysia’s website.

According to clause 5.5 of the agreement, the vendors shall refund in full the deposit in the amount RM3million to the purchaser within seven days from the date of the termination on June 26,  2019.

The report highlights that the termination will not have any material effect on the dividend policy, earnings per share, net assets per share, gearing, share capital and the substantial shareholders’ shareholdings of the group for the financial year ending 31 March 2020.

Earlier in March, it was announced that Fintec Ventures, a fully-owned subsidiary of Fintec Global will purchase 750,000 ordinary shares of Zouk Club KL for approximately RM28.95million with a view to broaden Fintec’s F&B investments and to create a platform to establish commercial deals that may be beneficial to the company’s other investments.

Founded in the year 2007, Fintec Global was earlier known as Asia Bioenergy Technologies. In the year 2017, the company changed its name to Fintec Global.

Fintec Global has investments across six different industries –  Focus Dynamics Group (food and beverage), AT Systemization (precision engineering), NetX Holdings (financial and application technology), Vsolar Group (renewable energy), Asia Bio Petroleum (oil and gas), and Mlabs System (multimedia solutions).

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Under the terms of the agreement, Hindustan Unilever is acquiring Glaxosmithkline through an all-equity merger.

According to media reports, the company received 99.9 percent votes in favour of the merger. Glaxosmithkline in a BSE filing said, “The proposed resolution approving the Scheme was passed by the requisite majority of the equity shareholders of the Company.”

In January, the Glaxosmithkline said that it had received a proposal from the fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) for its merger deal with HUL.

Hindustan Unilever is India’s largest consumer packaged goods  company by sales, according to analysts’ estimates.  The FMCG company reported a 13 percent growth in net profits while its volume growth dropped to 7 percent.

Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director of the company, said, “We have delivered a strong performance for the quarter despite some moderation in rural market growth.”

Last year, the food giant had announced the acquisition of Horlicks and Boost from Glaxosmithkline in India and 20 other markets for £3.1 billion.

In March, Hindustan Unilever’s company revenue increased 9.3 percent from the same period last year. According to analysts, the company’s earnings were better than its peers, however the management had cautioned about the slow growth in rural markets.

An analyst with Global research firm Emkay’s said in a note, “The management indicated about a slowdown in market growth led by rural, and the commentary did not indicate any pick-up,”

“We believe that Hindustan Unilever may continue to outperform its peers given its better execution, but slow market growth may impact performance.”

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One of the obstacles point to the sensitive equation with Nissan. The media reports said that Nissan’s technology, especially in electrification and emissions reduction could in some ways impact the merger, though its stake in the newly formed company is quite low.

Sources close to the matter said, “Whenever Nissan transfers platform, powertrain or other technology to Renault, there is a margin or royalty which Renault has to pay for use of that tech.”  

“In that sense, FCA, if everything went well, would become another ‘client’ of ours and that’s good. More business for us.” Nissan spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

Currently, Renault pays less for Nissan’s technology than what the latter pays for French technology, sources said. That said, Nissan can leverage the merger to seek more favourable terms.

Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann said, “These countries [involved in the merger] including Italy, our country, will see great benefits if this opportunity goes ahead.”

The automobile industry is largely dominated by political interferences compared to other industries. French politician and former diplomat Bruno Le Maire said that his priority is to ‘is to protect industrial jobs and industrial sites’.  Even the Italian government holds no shares in Fiat Chrysler, it might want to show its presence, the Financial Times reported.

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Volkswagen finance chief Frank Witter said in a statement, “Current market assessments have encouraged us to take today’s decision.” Previously, Volkswagen had said that it could list up to 25 percent of Traton in a deal anticipated to be worth $6.7 billion.

The company said that its supervisory board and board of management have agreed to prepare for Traton’s IPO which is ‘subject to further market developments’.

Traton CEO Andreas Renschler said: “Our groundwork has been excellent and we are now fully focused on a potential IPO before the summer break.”

The truck unit Traton is a subsidiary of Volkswagen and one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers. Traton includes MAN, Scania and  Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus brands.

Volkswagen said on Monday that it would encourage talks to establish a new plant in eastern Europe. The plant will manufacture vehicles under multiple car brands. Mark Langendorf of the group’s communications department said in an interview with Blic that the company is still in the early stages of exploring more options. One of the few considerations for finalising on the location is ‘the favourable economic environment and the multitude of parts suppliers’.  

Last year, Volkswagen chief Herbert Diess said that Volkswagen’s brand factory in Eastern Europe will start production after 2022. Then, Volkswagen will reportedly shift production of the Skoda Karoq and Seat Ateca SUVs to the new plant which would employ 5,000 people.

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The company achieved the highest active monthly users in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore in the first quarter. In addition, it ranked second and fourth behind Tokopedia and Shopee, becoming one of the top apps in Vietnam and Indonesia.

That said, Lazada saw a 12 percent drop in its total average visits by comparison with the previous quarter. This is mainly owing to ‘differences in marketing initiatives’ between popular shopping events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, according to the iPrice report.

Lazada is backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba. Alibaba has also invested in Tokopedia, an Indonesisan e-commerce company also referred to as a unicorn. Lazada has adopted Alibaba’s technology to boost its platform. Recently, it announced a series of tools for sellers on its online shopping platform, South China Morning Post reports. The tools will boost the brand’s engagement with its users.

“We believe that in Southeast Asia there is a very different way of shopping, consuming, and entertainment,” Pierre Poignant, chief executive of Lazada, at the company’s press event, said. “Consumers do everything on their smartphones … we need to make the [shopping] experience more fun and entertaining with ‘shoppertainment’.”

After China, e-commerce in Southeast Asian markets is often recognised as the sector’s next big hub. The region has a population of 650 million who are relatively young and keen on online shopping. The region’s internet economy has reached approximately $72 billion in 2018. According to a join report published by Google and Temasek, the estimation is twice that of its value in 2015.

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Both companies aim to further develop the heterojunction photovoltaic technologies. Through the collaboration they will introduce high added-value photovoltaic modules to a market with potential growth on a global scale.

With that, Panasonic will be able to scale up the production capability of its photovoltaic business. It will also continue to procure and sell its photovoltaic modules produced at its Malaysian factory. Panasonic manufactures cells for its photovoltaic module combining amorphous and monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic cell layers to ensure high conversion efficiency.

The decision comes in an effort to also boost its profit for this financial year which is expected to drop for the first time in eight years owing to rising cost in battery output. Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga said, “Over the last three years, we aimed for stable revenue and profit growth focusing mainly on the automotive business…but development costs and insufficient abilities to adjust to rapid battery production expansion limited our profits.”

Based in Quanzhou, Fujian, GS-Solar is a photovoltaic module manufacturer active in research and development of heterojunction photovoltaic technologies.

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Souq users in the UAE will be redirected to Amazon’s UAE website Amazon.ae, where products sold by Amazon in the US will also be displayed. In addition, there will be better payment options for users, according to Souq Founder Ronaldo Mouchawar. He said Amazon.ae is a milestone for the company as well as the customers, allowing them to shop in Arabic on both the Amazon app and the website.

There are also specific deals featured on Amazon.ae, such as sales during Ramadan which will begin next week. Also, Souq will be available in other countries such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Europe where it operates.

“The UAE becomes the first country to transition to the Amazon marketplace in the region, and the focus had been on achieving that in the most painless manner possible,” Mouchawar said. “What this means is all our regional vendors can migrate to the global platform and with all the benefits that come with it.”

According to Bain & Company, the e-commerce market in the Middle East was valued at $8.3 billion in 2017, and is expected to triple to $28.5 billion by 2022.

Currently, Amazon is competing with other e-commerce companies such as AliExpress owned by the Chinese ecommerce firm Alibaba, and eBay. Both companies have a firm presence in the region.

Amazon is trying to reinforce its presence in the Middle East especially after its plan to pull back from China. This means Amazon customers in the country will no longer be able to purchase goods from Chinese merchants on the platform.

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The ECJ adviser said that Airbnb should be treated as digital services provider free to operate across Europe. The French tourism association AhTop had complained that Airbnb was breaking the so-called Hoguet Law applicable to real estate agents.

ECJ judges typically follow their advisers non-binding ruling and a similar outcome is expected on France’s complaint against Airbnb. A formal ruling is now expected in two to four months.

The US-based home renting service claimed that the ECJ adviser’s opinion had provided clarity over what rules actually applied.

Airbnb had advocated that the Hoguet Law is incompatible with an earlier EU directive on ‘information society services.’ An investigating judge in Paris had asked for an ECJ ruling on the right interpretation of the law.

“A service such as that provided by the Airbnb portal constitutes an information society service,” advocate general Maciej Szpunar told the media. Szpunar said the Airbnb should benefit from the EU’s free flow of information.

France is Airbnb’s second biggest market after the US. Airbnb has 65,000 homes listed on it in Paris, making it the home renting service’s single biggest market.

Several city governments have sought tighter restrictions on Airbnb. This is based on the assumption that the service has made certain city zones sterile, tourist only areas.

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Sainsbury’s proposed plan for a merger with Asda for £7.3 billion was thwarted by the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA). Asda is currently owned by Walmart.

The CMA refused to accept Sainsbury’s claim that the Asda merger will reduce prices for consumers. The CMA found that the merger will not only increase prices, but it will also lengthen queues at the supermarkets.

Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Mike Coupe planned the deal under pressure to show growth to shareholders. He now has to prove that Sainsbury’s can still grow without the Asda deal.

The Sainsbury’s CEO told the media that he plans to stay on despite the collapse of the Asda deal. “I am confident in our strategy and also clear on what we need to do to continue to evolve the business in a highly competitive market where shopping habits continue to change,” Coupe told Reuters.

Sainsbury plans to invest to improve more than 400 of its supermarkets this year. It is also investing in technology to make shopping at not only Sainsbury, but also Argos and Sainsbury’s Bank as fast and convenient as possible.

Sainsbury’s annual underlying pre-tax profit rose 7.8 percent to £635 million in the year to March 9, 2019. Like for like sales fell 0.9 percent in the final three months. Underlying earnings per share rose 7.8 percent to 22 pence per share.

Sainsbury’s new target is to reduce net debt by at least £600 million over the next three years.

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