U.S. personal computer maker HP Inc. said on Thursday it will cut up to 16% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan aimed at cutting costs.
The company will cut about 7,000 to 9,000 jobs through a combination of employee exits and voluntary early retirement, it said in a statement.
HP estimates the plan will result in annual gross run rate savings of about $1 billion by the end of fiscal 2022, it added.
The company had about 55,000 employees worldwide as of Oct. 31, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That would mean up to 16% targeted in the cuts, Reuters calculation showed.
The logo of the 3D printer manufacturer HP is seen during the event. Feria de Barcelona hosts the third edition of the (3D) industry week.
Paco Freire | LightRocket | Getty Images
In connection with the restructuring, HP said it expects to incur an overall charge of about $1 billion, of which $100 million will be realized when it reports its fourth-quarter earnings.
"We are taking bold and decisive actions as we embark on our next chapter," said Enrique Lores, the company's incoming chief executive officer.
"We see significant opportunities to create shareholder value and we will accomplish this by advancing our leadership, disrupting industries and aggressively transforming the way we work."
Lores will take over the CEO position on Nov. 1 from Dion Weisler.
Palo Alto, California-based HP also said its board on Sept. 30 approved an additional $5 billion in share buybacks.
HP expects to generate free cash flow of at least $3 billion in fiscal 2020 and return at least 75% to shareholders through a 10% quarterly dividend increase and share buybacks, it added.
The company said it expects its adjusted earnings in the range of $2.22 to $2.32 per share for fiscal 2020.
For the current fiscal year, it expects adjusted earnings to be in range of $2.18 to $2.22, the company said when reporting its third-quarter earnings.
HP's shares have fallen about 10% this year up to Thursday's close.
British Petroleum (BP) Chief Executive Bob Dudley (R) participates to a conference during the event "Tomorrow in Motion" on October 1st, 2018 on the eve of the first press day of the Paris Motor Show.
ERIC PIERMONT | AFP | Getty Images
BP chief executive Bob Dudley will step down from his current role at the end of March next year, the energy giant announced Friday.
Dudley, who has worked with BP for 40 years and held the position of CEO for almost a decade, will be replaced by BP's current upstream chief executive, Bernard Looney.
The FTSE 100 giant said in a press release that Dudley, who is 64 years old, has decided to step down from his role following the delivery of the firm's 2019 full-year results on February 4, 2020. He will then retire on March 31 later that year.
Looney, 49, will continue with his current role until February 5, at which point he will take the reins from Dudley and join the BP board.
Shares of BP traded up almost 1% on the news.
"It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve this company and work in this industry for the past four decades. I have worked with so many committed people from all over the world — both inside and outside BP — and I am enormously proud of all the things we have achieved together to provide energy for the world," Dudley said in a statement on Friday.
"Bernard (Looney) is a terrific choice to lead the company next. He knows BP and our industry as well as anyone but is creative and not bound by traditional ways of working. I have no doubt that he will thoughtfully lead BP through the transition to a low carbon future," he added.
'Challenging time'
Dudley took over as CEO of BP on October 1, 2010 in the wake of the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe killed 11 people and threatened the company's existence.
His job was to try to restore the company to a position it held before the explosion, managing the company's balance sheet as it faced billions of dollars worth of penalties and clean-up costs.
"Bob has dedicated his whole career to the service of this industry. He was appointed chief executive at probably the most challenging time in BP's history," BP Chairman Helge Lund said in a statement.
"During his tenure he has led the recovery from the Deepwater Horizon accident, rebuilt BP as a stronger, safer company and helped it re-earn its position as one of the leaders of the energy sector. This company — and indeed the whole industry — owes him a debt of gratitude," Lund said.
A BP company logo is displayed on a fuel pump on the forecourt of a gas station operated by BP Plc in London, U.K.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The BP CEO also faced a historic collapse in oil prices in 2014, with the downturn in crude futures ultimately forcing BP to pull back on capital spending plans and delay investment projects.
More recently, BP agreed to a request from shareholders in May for greater detail and transparency on how each capital investment decision would align with the Paris climate agreement — an international accord that seeks to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.
Last month, Dudley said BP would sell some of its most carbon-intensive projects and reduce investment in others to try to improve the firm's environmental footprint.
The energy giant has been targeted by climate activist groups on numerous occasions in recent months, with demonstrators increasingly angry about the lack of progress toward a lower-carbon future.
Shares of BP have increased by about 10% since Dudley came to the helm.
Who is Bernard Looney?
Looney has run BP's upstream business since April 2016 and has been a member of the firm's executive management team since November 2010.
BP's upstream segment includes 17,000 people operating across almost 30 countries and produces around 2.6 million barrels equivalent of oil and gas a day.
An Irish citizen, Looney joined BP in 1991 as a drilling engineer and worked in operational roles in the North Sea, Vietnam and the Gulf of Mexico.
"It has been a great pleasure to work with Bob and it is an honor to succeed him as chief executive. I am humbled by the responsibility that is being entrusted to me by the board and am truly excited about both the role and BP's future," Looney said.
"Our company has amazing people, tremendous assets, and a set of core values that guide our actions, but most of all we have a desire to be better. I look forward to tapping into that desire and building on the strong foundation that Bob has built as we meet society's demand for cleaner, better energy."
New research says job growth from clean energy will dramatically outpace that from fossil fuels over the next decade — as long as future Canadian governments maintain or increase attempts to fight climate change.
“The clean-energy sector is a good-news story that no one’s talking about,” said Merran Smith of Clean Energy Canada, a think tank based at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “There is nothing to fear about moving forward on climate action.”
Earlier this year, the group released research that found Canada’s clean-energy sector — which encompasses renewable energy and energy conservation — had already produced 300,000 jobs by 2017.
Further study made public Wednesday projects job growth in the sector to significantly outperform most other parts of the economy.
Using recognized economic modelling tools, it suggests that direct jobs from clean energy will grow at a rate of 3.4 per cent a year between 2020 and 2030. That’s nearly four times the Canadian average.
The same models suggest fossil fuel industries will slowly lose jobs over that time.
Smith said the data shows clean energy employment could reach nearly 560,000 by the end of the next decade. That’s 160,000 new jobs, more than enough to make up for the 50,000 jobs which fossil fuels are expected to shed.
The study also forecasts money flowing into clean energy will grow 2.9 per cent a year. Fossil fuel investment is expected to shrink.
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Fossil fuels will be bigger than clean energy for years to come. But what the research shows, Smith said, is that new jobs and growth will come from the latter.
“The fast lane is clean energy,” she said. “This is where we’re seeing job growth.”
Her conclusions are in broad agreement with others in the field.
“Deep decarbonization will be job intensive,” said Mark Jaccard, an energy economist at Simon Fraser University.
Fossil fuel alternatives require more labour, he said.
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Kent Fellows of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy agreed. He said studies in British Columbia, which has had a carbon tax for more than a decade, suggest climate measures didn’t cost jobs and may have added some.
“They show that either you’re pretty stable or maybe you’ve got a little bit of an increase in employment,” he said. “The fears of losing jobs everywhere are probably misguided.”
The British group Carbon Tracker has found that while solar and wind provide only three per cent of global energy, they account for one-quarter of all new generation. And few of the world’s cars are electric, but they make up 22 per cent of sales growth.
Automation is removing jobs from the oilpatch. Between 2014 and 2016, Alberta’s production grew by nearly 10 per cent but 39,000 fewer people were employed.
Smith points out the modelling assumes that Canadian climate measures either stay in place or are increased — an assumption which the current federal election campaign has thrown in doubt.
“We’ve got three parties that are not only committing to keep these policies but build on them,” Smith said.
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“We’ve got one party that has been clear: they are going to dismantle the policies which are going to create these jobs.”
Fossil fuel jobs will be around for a long time, she said, but job growth will come elsewhere.
“Canada’s not making the choice — the world is making that choice. Canada is in the game and needs to stay in the game by moving forward on climate action.”
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October 03, 2019 at 01:13PM
The oil market was rocked just weeks ago by a major attack on Saudi Oil infrastructure that saw 5.7 million bpd taken offline, but looking at oil prices, you’d never know it. Oil prices fell early on Thursday to their lowest level since early August as mounting evidence of a global economic slowdown and rising U.S. oil inventories more than offset all the price gains from last month’s attack on Saudi oil infrastructure.
As of 10:23 a.m. EDT on Thursday, WTI Crude was down 2.83 percent at US$51.15 and Brent Crude was trading down 2.27 percent at US$56.38.
Oil prices are now lower than they were just before the September 14 attacks on critical Saudi oil facilities, after the Kingdom was quick to reassure the market in the past weeks that no oil shipment would be skipped and production capacity would be restored. The market, however, turned decisively bearish this week with a string of economic data and forecasts showing that global economic growth is slowing down.
“We see the global economy going through a gradual, synchronized slowdown,” David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, the World Trade Organization (WTO) slashed its trade growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020, citing “escalating trade tensions and a slowing global economy” and macroeconomic risks “firmly tilted to the downside.”
On Wednesday came the weekly inventory report from the Energy Information Administration, which showed an inventory build of 3.1 million barrels for the week to September 27, more than analyst expectations for a relatively modest build of 1.57 million barrels, and contrary to the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimate of a large crude oil inventory draw of 5.92 million barrels.
“The oil market continues to grind lower, with ICE Brent now trading well below US$58/bbl- which is 4.5% below where the market was trading prior to the Saudi attack. Negative macro data this week, with the US ISM manufacturing report falling to a 10-year low, has not helped,” Warren Patterson, ING’s Head of Commodities Strategy and Senior Commodities Strategist Wenyu Yao, said on Thursday.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
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October 03, 2019 at 09:30PM
As some 4,500 Unifor members working at Saskatchewan’s Crown corporations poised to go on strike Friday morning, the union’s national president expressed disbelief the situation had come to this.
“This is a standoff,” Jerry Dias said in a fiery speech Thursday afternoon as media cameras rolled. “If there’s a dispute (Friday) morning — which it appears there will be — Scott Moe’s going to have to look at himself in a mirror and explain to himself how he can take a 2.3-per-cent wage increase and expect our members to take zero.”
Unifor reiterated that its members at seven Crowns were ready to strike on Friday at 12:01 a.m. if a tentative agreement couldn’t be reached. The strike will impact workers at SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskWater, the Water Security Agency, and SaskTel subsidiaries SecurTek and DirectWest, all of whom first began work-to-rule job action on Monday.
Earlier Thursday, Premier Scott Moe said he still hoped a strike could be avoided as the deadline loomed.
“We respect the right of our employees … to exercise their right to strike,” said Moe. “But in saying that, we hope very sincerely that we’ll be able to get to some type of an agreement and avert action.”
No further bargaining had been scheduled before the deadline as of Thursday afternoon, making a full-scale walkout look increasingly likely. Dias said all members — some 3,000 of those employed at SaskTel — will hit the picket line Friday if it comes to that, but he still held out hope Thursday that it wouldn’t be necessary.
“We’re not asking for outrageous increases,” he said. “All we’re asking for are increases consistent with the rate of inflation.”
He said a deal could still be struck within minutes. “This is not complicated.”
The union maintained it has repeatedly tried to find a resolution but has been “rebuffed” by the provincial government and now has “no other option than a strike.”
Dias says the Crown’s hands are tied by the provincial government, despite supposedly being “enthusiastic” about Unifor’s latest proposal.
“They can’t claim a hands off approach while they have their hands all over this dispute,” he said of the provincial government.
Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, centre, speaks to media Thursday at the Hotel Saskatchewan regarding the pending strike of Saskatchewan Crown corporations.BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post
Asked if the government is mandating wage freezes, Moe said the Crowns are negotiating within a framework and that the government feels their current offer — a five per cent increase over five years starting in year three — is fair.
Moe added that the salary increases for MLAs over the last five years have been “much less” than those received by Unifor members during that same time.
In a statement, Unifor said the union had recently offered to accept lump sum payments in lieu of a base wage increase in the expired years of their contract. “In the most recent offer, committees have also made offers to accept wage increases of 2 per cent in 2019, 2020 and 2021.”
The value of the lump sum would be a total of four per cent of a member’s salary over two years, according to Dias.
SaskTel issued a series of news releases Thursday morning saying it would try to minimize the impacton customers by having our management team maintain services. “While SaskTel will do its best to continue to serve our customers, delays may be experienced as the primary focus will be on maintaining the networks and services for our customers,” the release added.
Essential services agreements are in place to ensure critical services like 9-1-1 are maintained.
Dias urged the premier to “get his head around” the situation, given that “for every day we’re on the picket line there will be less revenues to the Crowns and less revenues to the province.”
He contended the lost revenues during a strike would be more than what it would cost to fund the unions current proposed agreement. “So why a government would choose to lose more money and profitability in a day than it would cost to pay the increase makes no sense,” he charged.
“The question is, ‘Why is the premier provoking this dispute?’ ” said Dias who has been negotiating deals for 30 years.
Unifor members follow a “solidarity” chant at a “Stand Up for Crown Workers” rally held at the Delta Hotel on Saskatchewan Drive prior to the start of bargaining efforts in January 2019.BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post
There have only been two Crown sector strikes during the Saskatchewan Party’s tenure in government, at the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Agency in 2011 and Sask Gaming in 2010.SaskTel last voted for a strike mandate in 2016, but job action didn’t result. Workers there did strike in 1996. It lasted three weeks, according to Unifor.
Unifor has long rejected offers that contain two years of flat wages for members at each of the seven bargaining tables, followed by two or three years of hikes. The government offered late last week to add yet another year of two-per-cent salary increases. That too was rejected by the union.
SaskEnergy workers have been without a contract since early 2017, while SaskPower Unifor members saw their contracts expire in December 2016. SaskWater’s agreement was up a year later, in December 2017. SaskTel’s lasted until March of this year.
Finance Minister Donna Harpauer signalled on Saturday, after talks broke down, that the Crown employers are not considering any new monetary requests from Unifor.
Most Crowns reported little impact to services this week as a result of the work-to-rule campaign. But that’s expected to change come Friday in the absence of an 11th-hour deal.
______________________
SaskTel issued the following tips and information Thursday for customers in the wake of the job action since SaskTel stores will be closed during the labour disruption:
Customers can make the following changes online through mySASKTEL:
Change wireless plans and add-ons
Add or change maxTV theme packs, channels, and features
Change Internet plans
For any other service requests not listed above:
Wireless services (new activations and changes) — Visit a SaskTel Authorized Dealer
Home services (changes only) — Call 1.800.SASKTEL (1.800.727.5835)
During this time, SaskTel is unable to activate new home services or transfer services when moving.
For business service requests:
Business wireless service (new activations and changes) — Visit a SaskTel Authorized Dealer
Small Business customers can also change wireless plans and add-ons online through mySASKTEL
Other business services (changes only) — Call 1.844.SASKTEL (1.844.727.5835)
During this time, SaskTel will be unable to activate new business services (excluding wireless).
Equipment returns — for equipment returns, mail to SaskTel from any postal outlet, free of charge, using Priority Post (please don’t drop off equipment). SaskTel Distribution Centre, 2133 1st Avenue, Regina, SK S4R 8G4
Bill Payment — customers can pay their bill online, by mail, or in person at a bank or credit union.
Getting help — view support answers at http://www.sasktel.com/support for help and troubleshooting tips. If a customer still can’t resolve the issue, call 1.800.727.5835 for consumer inquiries or 1.844.727.5835 for business inquiries.
SecurTek — dealers will continue to provide service and support to customers.
Directwest — expect delays in response times.
Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, speaks at a “Stand Up for Crown Workers” rally held at the Delta Hotel on Saskatchewan Drive prior to the start of bargaining efforts in January 2019.BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post
TORONTO -- Shares of Linamar Corp. lost 10 per cent Thursday after the auto parts maker warned that a strike at General Motors in the U.S. was taking a bite out of its bottom line.
Linamar shares closed down $4.23 to $36.74 after falling as low as $35.33 in trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The Ontario-based company says a strike-related decline in GM orders is affecting Linamar's earnings by up to $1 million a day.
The strike by the United Auto Workers at GM began on Sept. 16.
The work stoppage has halted GM production in the United States and cut output in Mexico and Canada.
In addition, Linamar says conditions in its non-automotive markets have softened since the company's second-quarter results were reported in August.
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October 04, 2019 at 05:16AM
Investors unimpressed by the record number of cars Tesla’s (TSLA) produced last quarter sent its stock reeling, which shed over 5% on Thursday as Wall Street questioned the car maker’s valuation and ability to turn a profit.
On Wednesday, Tesla said that it produced and delivered nearly 97,000 cars in the third quarter, its best ever and higher than the comparable year-ago period. The results were bolstered by strong production of Tesla’s flagship Model 3, which spiked 43% year over year.
However, the results fell short of some of Wall Street’s more rosy estimates, and the 100,000 mark CEO Elon Musk reportedly told employees was a real possibility. Although the company has boosted overseas deliveries and incentivized sales, Tesla remains dogged by doubts about its cash flow and ability to sustain production.
Analysts at Bank of America pointed out that “although total Model 3 deliveries increased materially” at a year-over-year rate of 43%, that gain was “much less pronounced on a sequential basis, up just 2.5% from 2Q:19.”
FILE - In this March 14, 2019, file photo the Tesla Model Y is unveiled at Tesla's design studio in Hawthorne, Calif. A Delaware judge is weighing whether to dismiss Tesla shareholders' complaints over a compensation plan that could net CEO Elon Musk more than $50 billion over the next decade. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Warning that “many challenges remain ahead” for Tesla as it burns through cash and misses estimates, the bank added that “this could reflect the still slow production ramp ... but potentially less robust demand (following a traditional spike-and-burnout pattern with new model launches).”
Tesla’s failure to explicitly reiterate earlier guidance for delivering between 360,000 and 400,000 vehicles this year suggests fourth quarter deliveries and production may also fall short of hopes, BofA said. The bank rates Tesla’s stock as an Underperform, with a price target of $225.
The shares, traded on the Nasdaq, shed nearly $17 from Wednesday’s close to trade around $226.
Javier David is an editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow Javier on Twitter:@TeflonGeek
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