Business round up
• Prudential has admitted that its Internet banking arm Egg will run up
bigger losses than predicted after the insurer announced plans to float the
operation on the stock market this year.
Egg is expected to break even in the "latter part of 2001". The
City had originally expected it to move into profit in the early months of next
year.
The insurance and banking group, which is used by one in six of the adult
population, reported a 10 per cent slide in operating profits for last year to
£776m. The company said Egg is again expected to make losses of £150m this
year. Excluding Egg, "re-engineering costs" and amortisation of
goodwill, operating profits were £996m, up 6 per cent. Guardian Online
Unilever restructure sees 100 closures
Unilever is to shed 25,000 jobs and close 100 factories worldwide as part of
a huge restructure to improve the company’s competitiveness.
Most the jobs will go in Europe and North America along with the ditching of
1,200 of its 1,600 brands, including household names such as Pear’s soap,
Radion washing powder and Jif lemon. Guardian Online
4,000 UK jobs to go in insurance merger
Approximately 4,000 UK jobs will be lost as a result of the merger between
insurance firms CGU and Norwich Union, the companies announced last week.
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It is not yet known where the jobs will go or whether any HR jobs will be
affected.
A total 5,000 jobs are expected to be cut worldwide out of a combined
workforce of 70,000.
