英文部分及图片来自“经济学人”杂志。译文是个人学习、欣赏语言之用,谢绝转载或用于任何商业用途。本人同意简书平台在接获有关著作权人的通知后,删除文章。
The chief executive of Barclays, Jes Staley, was rapped for attempting to uncover the identity of a whistle blower who had written anonymous letters raising concerns about a senior executive at the British bank. Regulators are investigating Mr Staley for breaking rules that protect whistle-blowers. The bank’s board has concluded that he “honestly, but mistakenly” believed his actions were permissible, but issued Mr Staley with a formal reprimand and said he would take a significant pay cut.
巴克莱银行行政总裁杰斯·斯塔利(Jes Staley)因试图透漏一位举报者的身份而受到严厉谴责。告密者写匿名信从而引发了对一名英国银行高管的关注。由于违反了保护举报人的规定,斯塔利正在接受监管机构的调查。银行董事会作出结论,斯塔利“诚实地,但错误地”认为他的行为是被允许的。董事会正式发出了对斯塔利的谴责函,并表示将大幅降低他的薪酬。
A report for the board of Wells Fargo into the account misselling scandal that engulfed the American bank last year heavily criticised its former chief executive, John Stumpf, and its former head of retail banking. The report also blamed the bank’s decentralised management structure.
一份提交给富国银行董事会的报告严厉谴责了前任行政总裁约翰·斯坦普夫(John Stumpf)和前任零售银行业务负责人。去年该行的账户不当销售丑闻几乎吞没了这家美国银行。报告还批评了该行分散的管理结构。
Formal notice 正式通知
The Bank of England asked all firms with cross-border activities between Britain and the EU to detail their contingency plans following Brexit. Hoping to mitigate the risk to financial stability, Mark Carney, the bank’s governor, highlighted the fact that financial services are Britain’s most important export, with a trade surplus of £60bn ($75bn).
英国央行要求那些和欧盟之间有跨境业务的英国公司详细列出脱欧之后的应急计划。此举旨在希望减轻金融稳定的风险。央行行长马克·卡尼(Mark Carney)强调金融服务是英国最重要的出口项目,年贸易顺差达600亿英镑(750亿美元)。
Toshiba filed an unaudited version of its twice-delayed quarterly accounts, after failing to get auditors to approve the books. The troubled Japanese conglomerate issued a warning about its “ability to continue as a going concern”. Its nuclear power-plant business, Westinghouse, recently filed for bankruptcy. One way it hopes to survive is by selling its semiconductor division,which Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturer, has reportedly offered to buy for $27bn.
东芝公司提交了未经审计的季度报表,该报告未能通过审计人员的认可并已经延期了两次。这家多灾多难的日本企业集团对自己“持续经营能力”发出了预警。其核电站业务西屋公司最近申请破产。销售其半导体部门是该公司希望能生存下去的办法之一。据报道,台湾电子合约制造商富士康公司愿意为此出价270亿美元。
Tesla briefly overtook General Motors in terms of market capitalisation, meaning that for the first time, America’s most valuable carmaker was not based in Detroit.
特斯拉的市值暂时超过了通用汽车,意味着美国最有价值的汽车制造商首次来自底特律之外。
Britain’s annual inflation rate stood at a three-and-a-half year high of 2.3% in March. The weakness of the pound has put increasing pressure on the price of everyday goods and food; alcohol and clothing were the biggest contributors to last month’s figure. A drop in transport costs, notably airfares, offset other price rises.
3月份英国的年通胀率达到2.3%,这是3年半以来的最高点。疲软的英镑对日用品和食品的价格造成越来越大的压力; 酒类和服装价格上涨是上月通胀数字最主要的原因。运输成本特别是机票价格的下降,部分抵消了其他物价的上涨。
Trouble in store 存在麻烦
Whole Foods Market, the favoured supermarket of the organically minded, faced calls for a shake-up in its management.Jana Partners, an activist hedge fund, revealed that it had accumulated a 9% stake in Whole Foods, alongside a slate of individuals it may nominate to sit on the company’s board.Whole Foods was a pioneer of green retailing, inspiring many mainstream rivals to sell environmentally sound produce.
Whole Foods Market是一家具有有机理念,被大众喜闻乐见的超市。该公司收到呼吁,要求对其管理进行大幅调整。Jana Partners是一家激进的对冲基金公司。它透露说已经累计取得Whole Foods公司9%的股份,一些合适的人选可能被提名在董事会任职。Wood Foods是绿色零售的先驱,它促使许多主流竞争对手开始销售环保健康产品。
Whole Foods was not the only company to face calls from an activist hedge fund to reform.BHP Billiton rejected a proposal from Elliott Advisers to restructure and spin off its American oil business, which Elliott wants the miner to do in order to increase shareholder value. In a busy week for Elliott,it also put pressure on Akzo Nobel to sack its chairman.Elliott wants the Dutch chemical company to enter talks with PPG, an American rival that is seeking to take it over.
Whole Foods不是唯一一家被激进的对冲基金要求变革的公司. 必和必拓公司拒绝了Elliott顾问公司提出的,重组和分拆其美国石油业务的建议。Elliott顾问公司希望这家采掘企业为提高股东价值采取上述建议。在这忙碌的一周,Elliott还向阿克苏诺贝尔公司(Akzo Nobel)施加压力要求解雇其主席。Elliott希望这家荷兰化工公司与其美国竞争对手PPG进行谈判。PPG正在寻求收购前者。
In an effort to placate investors after rejecting a takeover from Kraft Heinz, Unilever set out plans to restructure, which includes rethinking its dual legal structure and getting rid of its spreads business.
联合利华拒绝了Kraft Heinz的收购。为安抚投资者,该公司制定了重组计划,包括重新考虑双重法律结构和不再从事套利交易。
A joint offer from Bain Capital and Cinven won the bidding process for Stada, a German drugmaker. The deal is worth around €5.3bn ($5.7bn), making it the biggest private-equity purchase of a European company in recent years. To secure their bid Bain and Cinven agreed to protections of Stada’s workers from forced redundancy and assured the status of its production sites.
Bain Capital和Cinven的联合报价赢得了德国制药公司Stada的招标。这笔交易价值约为53亿欧元(57亿美元),是近年来欧洲最大的私募股权投资。为保证投标成功,Bain Capital和Cinven同意保护Stada的工人免受强制遣散,并保证维持其生产基地的状态。
American employers added just 98,000 jobs to the payroll in March, half of what had been expected.
美国雇主三月份增加了9.8万个工作岗位,是预期的一倍。
Jaeger, a British fashion house and retailer, was put into bankruptcy protection. Founded in1884, Jaeger flourished during the 1960s, but sales have withered as its customer base has grown older.
英国时装商店和零售商Jaeger申请了破产保护。 Jaeger成立于1884年,兴盛于20世纪60年代。但由于客户群老化,其销售已经枯竭。
Police in Mumbai arrested the alleged mastermind behind a scam in which call-centre operators posed as officials from America’s Internal Revenue Service and duped 15,000 Americans into paying unpaid taxes that they didn’t owe.Sagar Thakkar, AKA“Shaggy”,had fled to Dubai, but returned to India fearing that he would be handed over to America,where he faces charges, and the ire of swindled taxpayers.
孟买警方逮捕了涉嫌诈骗犯罪的幕后策划者。呼叫中心运营商冒充美国国税局官员,欺骗15,000名美国人缴纳了子虚乌有的未付税款。Sagar Thakkar又名“Shaggy” 曾逃到迪拜,后因担心被移交美国又返回了印度。在美国,他面临多项指控以及被骗纳税人的愤怒。
The unfriendly skies 不友好的航空公司
A video clip of a bloodied passenger being forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight because it was overbooked turned into a PR disaster.People used social media to complain that United should be beating the competition,not its customers.
一段视频变成了公关灾难。由于超额预订,一位受伤乘客被美国联合航空公司强行赶下飞机。人们在社交媒体上抱怨美联航应该和对手竞争而不是和客户搏斗。