Pearson chief executive to step down

LONDON: Pearson PLC, the UK publisher and education company, said yesterday that Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino has decided to step down. Scardino, 65, has been chief executive since 1997 — managing the company through a time of significant change in the media world. She led Pearson’s transformation from a diverse conglomerate to a “learning company” and helped raise its profile in the United States. The publisher of the Financial Times and Penguin Group books said yesterday it expects more than half its revenues to come from digital and services businesses for the first time this year.

Nokia to sell HQ in Finland

HELSINKI: Nokia Corp. says it plans to sell its headquarters in Finland as part of a cost-cutting program. However, the company says it will maintain its corporate base in the country. Spokeswoman Maija Taimi says selling the glass and steel structure known as “Nokia House” near Helsinki is one of the options the struggling cellphone maker is considering as it disposes of non-core real estate holdings. She says the company though had “no plans to move out of Finland.” Taimi declined to comment on media reports earlier yesterday that the property could fetch up to 300 million euros ($ 390 million).

EU to rule on Xstrata-Glencore tie-up

BRUSSELS: The European Commission will announce Nov. 8 its competition finding on the massive tie-up between Swiss mining giant Xstrata and commodities trader Glencore to create a global leader. In a technical announcement, the Commission set a provisional ruling date of Nov. 8 after the two companies formally notified Brussels of their merger plans late Tuesday. Xstrata and Glencore said on Monday they had agreed new terms to create a massive company worth 67 billion euros ($ 87 billion) and capable of out-muscling all the other giants in the field.

Gold One suspends 1,300 illegal strikers

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s Gold One mine yesterday suspended the bulk of its workers at a mine west of Johannesburg after they didn’t show for work following a strike that started Monday night, a spokesman said. “We now have officially suspended approximately 1,300 to 1,400 of approximately 1,800 workers at the Ezulwini mine,” Gold One spokesman Grant Stuart told AFP. He said only around 400 workers clocked in at the Cooke 4 Shaft in Randfontein west of Johannesburg yesterday.

Investors in Gecina file for bankruptcy

MADRID: Two Spanish investment firms that own 31 percent of French property company Gecina have filed one of the biggest bankruptcy actions in Spanish history after a bank refused to refinance a 1.6 billion euro ($ 2.1 billion) loan. Alteco and MAG Import said in a statement yesterday that they were up to date with their payments on the syndicated loan, and other banks involved had supported the refinancing effort. The uncertainty over the fate of the firms’ stake in Gecina, which has a market capitalization of 5 billion euros, knocked the French company’s shares down 4 percent to 77.5 euros.



Spanish banks have already written off hundreds of millions of euros in losses on soured real estate investments after a property market crash in 2008 and are now waiting for rescue funds from Europe.


— Compiled from agencies