Tag Archives: Ernst Young

Articles of Interest

Bankruptcy Lawyers See Land Of Opportunity In Detroit Crisis

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

By Nick Brown
July 21 (Reuters) – With more than $18 billion at stake in Detroit’s restructuring, big law firms and other advisers are clamoring to represent the city’s many creditors – including some advisers not exactly known for municipal work.
The city, which filed the largest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy on Thursday, tapped high-priced lawyers from Jones Day, financial advisers from Ernst & Young and restructuring consultants from Conway MacKenzie, court papers show.
For creditors and related parties, there is clearly a lot at stake. That means bondholders, insurers, retirees and others are sure to be accompanied in court by platoons of lawyers.
Detroit owes more than $8 billion in bond debt, and the insurers likely on the hook for those costs have already retained big-name law firms to take their cases.
Federal Guaranty Insurance Co tapped Weil Gotshal & Manges, according to a source close to the matter, who declined to be named because the information was not public as of Saturday. An attorney for Weil declined to comment.
David Dubrow, a lawyer at Arent Fox, confirmed on Saturday that he has been tapped by Ambac Financial Group.
And, according to the court’s electronic docket, Syncora hired Kirkland & Ellis, known for its corporate bankruptcy work, while Assured Guaranty retained Winston & Strawn, and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp hired Sidley Austin.
Bond insurers will play a key role in Detroit’s case. While a portion of the city’s $1.13 billion in general obligation bonds are secured by city assets, about $651 million of it is secured only by the ability to raise taxes. The city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, has said he will treat that portion of the debt as an unsecured claim.
That classification, which has been largely untested in federal courts, is likely to be hotly contested and possibly litigated by bondholders or their insurers.
Detroit also owes $5.7 billion in unfunded healthcare and other benefits to retirees, and has …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

PPG Appoints Sklarsky as Executive Vice President, Finance

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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PPG Appoints Sklarsky as Executive Vice President, Finance

PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)– PPG Industries (NYS: PPG) today announced that Frank S. Sklarsky will join the company as executive vice president, finance, effective April 15, reporting to Chairman and CEO Charles E. Bunch.

Also, effective August 1, Sklarsky will be named PPG executive vice president and chief financial officer.

David B. Navikas, currently PPG senior vice president, finance and chief financial officer, will continue in his current role until August 1, and will then continue as senior vice president in a senior leadership role that will be announced later.

“We are pleased to welcome Frank to PPG. His deep financial management expertise and executive leadership experience guiding strategy and operations with large, global enterprises will be an asset to PPG as we continue to grow and expand our positions around the world,” Bunch said.

“I also want to recognize David Navikas as he transitions into his next senior leadership role in PPG,” Bunch said. “David’s detailed understanding of PPG‘s global businesses and deep financial management expertise are invaluable, as demonstrated recently in his role supporting our strategic initiatives to separate PPG‘s commodity chemicals business and to acquire AkzoNobel’s North American architectural coatings business.

“Frank, David and I will work closely together with PPG‘s global finance organization and the entire leadership team as we carry out this important senior leadership succession,” Bunch said.

Most recently, Sklarsky was executive vice president and chief financial officer, Tyco International, Ltd., a global provider of security, fire protection and flow control solutions with revenues that exceeded $17 billion. Prior to joining Tyco, Sklarsky served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at both Eastman Kodak Co. and ConAgra Foods, Inc. Previously, he spent 20 years with Chrysler in a series of senior financial leadership roles. He also held finance positions with Dell, Inc., after beginning his career with Ernst & Young. Sklarsky is a member of the board of directors of Harman International Industries, Inc., and of Rochester Institute of Technology. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and he is a certified public accountant.

PPG: BRINGING INNOVATION TO THE SURFACE.(TM)

PPG Industries’ vision is to continue to be the world’s leading coatings and specialty products company. Through leadership in innovation, sustainability and color, PPG helps customers in …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Men Who Run the Weir Group

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By Tony Reading, The Motley Fool

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LONDON — Management can make all the difference to a company’s success and thus its share price.

The best companies are those run by talented and experienced leaders with strong vested interests in the success of the business, held in check by a board with sound financial and business acumen. Some of the worst investments to hold are those run by executives collecting fat rewards as the underlying business goes to pot.

In this series, I’m assessing the boardrooms of companies within the FTSE 100 (UKX). I hope to separate the management teams that are worth following from those that are not. Today I am looking at Glasgow-based pump-maker Weir Group .

Here are the key directors:

Director

Position

Lord Smith of Kelvin

(non-exec) Chairman

Keith Cochrane

Chief Executive

Jon Stanton

Finance Director

Another chairmanship
Lord Smith of Kelvin has been chairman since 2002, and has also chaired the bigger FTSE 100 member SSE since 2005. A chartered accountant, he is a former chairman of the BBC and CEO of Morgan Grenfell Asset Management.

In addition to sitting as a crossbench life peer and holding a slew of public service appointments, he is also chairman of the new Green Investment Bank. If I were a Weir shareholder I’d be concerned whether the company gets his full attention.

Results at this job better than the last
Keith Cochrane is also a chartered accountant, and was finance director from 2006 to 2009, when he was elevated to CEO.

Cochrane started his career with Arthur Andersen in Glasgow, and moved to Perth-based Stagecoach after working on its flotation. He rose to become finance director and then CEO of Stagecoach under executive chairman and founder Brian Souter.

This was a turbulent time for Stagecoach, with Cochrane spending half his time in the U.S. trying to turn around its troubled acquisition Coach USA, and he resigned in 2002 after disappointing results.

He joined Scottish Power in 2003 and was effectively deputy finance director, having been passed over for the top job in favor of Simon Lowth, now AstraZeneca‘s finance director. Cochrane’s leadership of Weir has been more fruitful, with the shares tripling during his tenure as CEO.

First FD role
Jon Stanton is in his first finance director role, having joined Weir in 2010 from Ernst & Young. Staunton had joined Ernst & Young in 1988, becoming a partner in 2001, and was in charge of the audit of FTSE 250 engineer Invensis.

Weir has six non-execs. They are an impressive bunch for such a small FTSE 100 constituent, led by senior independent director Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the former defense secretary and NATO Secretary General. Weir is remarkably well-represented in the House of Lords.

Notably there are non-execs with backgrounds in each of Weir’s three main markets, mining, oil and gas, and power.

I analyze management teams from five different angles to help work out a verdict. Here’s my assessment:

1. Reputation. Management CVs and track record.

Inauspicious.

Score 2/5

2. Performance. Success at the company.

Excellent.

Score 4/5

3. Board Composition. Skills, experience, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Computers

HP quashes investor unrest, looks to servers for salvation

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Shareholder meetings are almost boring affairs, but today, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, HP’s Board quietly prevailed in several intense battles, including the preservation of its very own membership. The overall message: Let’s look foward to the future, and leave our checkered past behind.

HP
HP‘s shareholder meeting seemed design to project stability.

There’s plenty the Board would no doubt like to put behind it, including six quarters of declining profit and revenue . Though HP isn’t doing quite as badly as expected, sales of its bread-and-butter PCs, workstations, and printers, continue to fall. As a result, shareholders have agitated to oust two of HP’s Board members along with its outside auditing firm, Ernst & Young. And many continue to question the company’s 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, and a Department of Justice investigation isn’t helping. Meanwhile, back at the garage, HP is embroiled in a lawsuit with Oracle over server support.

Against this ragged backdrop, HP’s Board seemed extra-determined to project both sober responsibility and immense excitement. It made no mention of its declining businesses, instead pointing to new opportunities in IT and servers for the burgeoning big-data revolution. In addition, none of the controversial shareholder proposals prevailed.

Shareholder drama fizzles

The biggest flap concerned a campaign by CtW Investor Group to vote down two of HP’s current Board members. CtW blamed John H. Hammergren for his role in the extremely expensive Autonomy acquisition. It also targeted G. Kennedy Thompson for his role in maintaining the high non-audit fees paid to Ernst & Young, which it saw as a conflict of interest with the firm’s role as the company’s financial auditor. When the shareholders voted, however, each Board member received over 50 percent of the votes needed to stay on team HP, and the retention of Ernst & Young as HP’s outside auditor was favored by a very high margin of over 84 percent.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

News, Politics, Government

Ernst & Young Pays $123 Million, Avoids Tax Shelter Prosecution

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By Janet Novack, Forbes Staff

In a deal with the government signed this week, accounting firm Ernst & Young agreed to pay $123 million to the government and admitted to wrongful conduct by some of its partners and employees in connection with the firm’s  participation, from 1999 to 2004,  in the promotion of abusive tax shelters to rich individuals.  In return, the firm itself won’t face criminal charges. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Nothing For Nothing: HP Pays Dearly For Ernst & Young Tax Testimony

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By Francine McKenna, Contributor Last September Senator Carl Levin’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations called auditor Ernst & Young to Washington DC to explain how its client HP moves profits offshore to avoid taxes. Beth Carr, the partner responsible for the tax-related services provided to audit client HP, testified on behalf of Ernst & Young. Ernst & Young’s testimony cost HP almost $2 million dollars, according to HP‘s latest proxy. All other fees included reimbursement of approximately $2.0 million in costs relating to responding to a request for EY information from, and EY providing testimony before, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations relating to taxation of earnings generated outside of the United States as well as fees for advisory services relating to HP’s services business. The $2 million paid to Ernst & Young for showing up is shown as “Other” advisory fees, not audit-related or even tax services, in the proxy. For that much walking around money, I’m sure the firm, and Ms. Carr, are more than willing to sit through some grilling by Levin. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

5 Ways to Supercharge Your Matching Grant Program

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By Ryan Scott, Contributor Companies like financial services firm Ernst & Young understand that matching gifts programs aren’t just a perk for your staff. Indeed, Ernst & Young doesn’t see these programs as a perk at all: rather than a side project, their matching gifts program is an integral part of Ernst & Young’s overall strategy.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

What Firepower? Why Big Drugmakers Can't Do Big Deals

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By Ed Silverman, Contributor The largest drugmakers lack the so-called firepower to undertake big deals right now since they have too much debt and not enough cash. But big biotechs do have firepower, as do specialty pharma and generics, which may push up the cost of acquiring assets between $5 billion and $20 billion, according to a new Ernst & Young report.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest