A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Germany to 'tighten screw' on tax havens
Germany plans to "tighten the screws" on Europe's tax havens, the country's finance minister vowed yesterday amid a growing global government backlash against financial centres with bank secrecy rules that foster tax evasion.
Mr Steinbrück said Berlin was considering bilateral measures against Liechtenstein, such as levies on wire transfers to the principality or an obligation for German banks to declare such transfers.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, also signalled she would press Monaco to increase co-operation with tax authorities in other countries when meeting Prince Albert, the principality's ruler, on Wednesday. - (Financial Times service)
Trade pick-up for Oglesby & Butler
Toolmaker Oglesby & Butler has returned to a five-day week following a pick-up in trading conditions. However, in interim results published yesterday, the group said it lost €28,000 before tax in the six months to the end of September last compared to a profit of €78,000 in the year-ago period.
Turnover dipped 16 per cent to €2.165 million. The company says it is developing a number of new products but is struggling with adverse foreign exchange costs.
UK changes 'could benefit' IFSC
The International Finance Services Centre in Dublin could benefit from plans by the UK government to tax so-called "non-doms", wealthy foreigners working in the UK, according to Prof Kjell Nybord of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.
Prof Nybord, who will speak at a seminar in Dublin next month on the challenges facing the Irish financial services sector, said that if the UK changes come into effect, it could attract senior executives in the UK to work in the financial services sector in Ireland.
International link for accountants
Accountancy firm Farrelly Dawe White, which has offices in Dublin, Skerries, Dundalk and Newry, has become the Irish agency for the international accountancy network, UHY. The firm will be renamed UHY Farrelly Dawe White. UHY has representatives in 57 countries and 5,485 staff in its network.
Anti-VAT fraud measures debated
European Union finance ministers are to be asked next month to choose between rival proposals designed to clamp down on value added tax fraud, which is estimated to cost EU member states tens of billions of euros annually.
Since both measures would involve fundamental changes to the way in which VAT operates in the EU, the European Commission said yesterday that it needed political guidance on how to proceed. - (Financial Times service)
C&C buys group of own shares
Drinks group C&C has bought 300,000 of its own shares in the market and cancelled them.
The shares were bought at a price of €4.57 each. A total of 314,330,936 shares remain in issue.
Utility group RWE disappoints
German utility RWE earned less than expected in 2007 and said earnings may be unchanged this year, disappointing investors.
Operating profit last year was €6.5 billion, the energy company said, falling short of the average of €6.9 billion expected. RWE said operating profit in 2008 will at least match last year's level. RWE performed worse than competitors in Europe, where rivals such as Spain's Endesa or France's Suez met or beat market expectations with their 2007 earnings. - (Reuters)
