A round-up of today's other stories in brief
GM cautions on fourth quarter profits
General Motors has cautioned that its turnaround is far from complete, in spite of reporting a sizeable profit and positive cash flow in the fourth quarter.
"Nobody at GM is declaring victory," chief executive Rick Wagoner said yesterday. "There is still a lot more work to do to achieve our goals of steady growth, solid profitability and positive cash-flow generation."
GM, likely to be overtaken by Toyota this year as the world's biggest carmaker, reported fourth-quarter net income of $950 million (€719 million), or $1.68 a share, compared with a loss of $6.6 billion a year earlier.
The full-year net loss narrowed to $2 billion, from $10.4 billion in 2005.
The latest figure includes one-time gains of $770 million, stemming mainly from November's sale of a 51 per cent stake in GMAC, the financial services group. However, earnings were cut by a $284 million loss from GM's remaining stake in GMAC. - ( Financial Times service )
Days lost to disputes disappoint CIF
The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) says the number of days lost to industrial disputes during 2006 was disappointingly high. CIF says 65 per cent of days lost occurred in the construction sector.
North's jobless level at 4.3%
The unemployment rate in Northern Ireland was maintained at a historically low level of 4.3 per cent from November to January.
More than 2,800 jobs were created during the quarter, driven primarily by the services sector, followed by construction.
However, employment in the manufacturing sector remained static.
H&M new brand store in London
Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) will this week launch its new brand COS in London as the Sweden-based fashion chain turns upmarket in an effort to find different avenues for growth in its more mature markets.
The new shop is based in Regent Street and is the first of 10 COS - Collection of Style - stores planned this year, with openings planned in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Adding a premium line to the H&M stable reflects its need to find growth opportunities in markets such as Britain and Germany, where H&M is reaching saturation.
Google to erase searches details
Google will erase personal information on billions of internet searches in an attempt to secure the privacy of its users, the company has announced.
The search engine, which is being sued for $1 billion by the media company Viacom for alleged copyright infringement, said it would destroy huge tracts of identifying information it holds on internet searches.
Information such as who made what search and when is kept "for as long as useful" but under the new policy, all identifying data will be erased after 18-24 months.
British organisations are legally bound to hold such data for at least a year to allow police to trawl through it if they need access. - ( Guardian service )
3i sells portion of NCP for £790m
3i has completed one of its most profitable deals by its selling a big chunk of National Car Parks, the UK market leader, to a Macquarie Bank European infrastructure fund for £790 million (€1.16 billion).
The sale of NCP's off- street, airport and railways car parks comes 20 months after the FTSE 100 private equity group bought the business from rival Cinven for £555 million. 3i says it has tripled its investment with yesterday's sale.
