German firms set goals for more women in management


While the political leader of Europe’s largest economy is a woman, corporate management is still heavily dominated by men. There was not a single woman on the management board of a blue-chip firm until 2008, and today only 3.7 percent of top German managers are female.Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet is at odds over whether legislation is the right tool to help women penetrate the commanding heights of business. Both Family Affairs Minister Kristina Schroeder and Merkel have so far rejected the idea of setting a legal quota.Schroeder welcomed Monday’s voluntary targets as serious progress, but Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen called them “insufficient” and suggested a legal quota may be necessary.Some other European countries, such as Norway, France and Spain, require top listed companies by law to ensure at least a third of top management is female.Germany’s blue-chip companies, listed on the DAX index, published striking data on the representation of women at leadership levels as well as the new targets.”We will let ourselves be publicly assessed year by year on what we have actually achieved,” said BMW’s personnel manager Harald Krueger, on behalf of firms in the DAX index.In March, Germany’s blue-chip companies agreed to set voluntary targets to boost the number of women at management levels and on Monday, they published their concrete aims, varying from company to company.Sporting goods maker Adidas set itself the most ambitious target of 32-35 percent leadership positions going to women by 2015. Some 48 percent of its staff are women.Healthcare conglomerate Fresenius was the only company to refuse to set a numerical target, saying it would “continue to make qualification and not gender or other personal attributes the criterion for selecting staff.”Some 71 percent of the company’s German staff are women, while 19.1 percent of its German leadership positions are held by women. The firm said it would continue to raise this level.Von der Leyen noted that the blue-chip firms did not propose targets for raising the proportion of women at the very top executive levels — currently just 3.7 percent.”This is a seriously below-grade number for the 21st century, it just cannot continue like this,” she said.Monday’s data threw up some striking numbers. While 61.2 percent of retailer Metro’s German staff are women, just 14.9 percent of leaders are women.

Syrian forces kill 4 in restive central city


They added that tanks and armored vehicles were also deployed in other districts, such as Khalidya and Bab Sbaa, where protests demanding the removal of Assad have taken place regularly.”Roadblocks have cut off every neighborhood from another, and random firing by troops manning them is common” said one of the residents, who gave her name as Manal.Tension between the Sunni Muslim majority and members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect have increased in the city of one million, Syria’s third largest, since troops and tanks deployed six months ago to stop pro-democracy protests.The crackdown resumed in mid-September after a lull, with tens of people killed, activists said. The authorities say “armed terrorist groups” are operating in Homs, killing civilians and prominent figures.Foreign reporters, including from Reuters, are largely banned from Syria, making independent confirmation of reports of killing difficult.

Weak markets hit Canada ETF assets in Sept-BlackRock


* ETF assets under management fell 1.8 pct in Q3TORONTO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Assets managed in exchange traded funds in Canada dropped by 3 percent to C$39.1 billion ($38.3 billion) in September due to slumping equity markets, though inflows to the funds were positive, according to a report released on Wednesday.Canadian ETFs overall had net inflows of C$1.1 billion in September, said the monthly report from the Canadian ETF arm of New York-based BlackRock , the world’s largest money manager.ETFs are investment vehicles that own an array of stocks, similar to mutual funds, but which have shares that are traded on public exchanges.For the third quarter, ETF assets in Canada dropped 1.8 percent, largely due to a more than 12 percent slide on the Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index.Net inflows into Canadian ETFs in the quarter were more than C$2.5 billion, BlackRock said.A total of fifteen new ETF were introduced in the three-month period, for a total of 213.Low fees and greater transparency have helped ETFs attract strong investment inflows in recent years. Unlike mutual fund shares, which are re-priced once a day, the price of an ETF is publicly quoted and visible throughout the day.BlackRock’s Canadian iShares business had a market share of 68.4 percent in September, down 0.2 percentage points from its August report. Its assets under management were C$26.7 billion, compared with C$27.70 billion a month earlier.Claymore Investments’ market share held steady at 15.8 percent, with C$6.2 billion in ETF assets under management.Horizon ETF assets were at C$3.09 billion, down from C$3.19 billion, and Bank of Montreal’s fell to C$2.69 billion from C$2.74 billion.Royal Bank of Canada was a new entrant in the Canadian ETF market in the month, with C$32 million in assets. It joins recent entries Invesco Trimark’s PowerShares, with C$340 million, up from C$315 million, and XTF Capital eXchange Traded Funds, with C$50 million, down from C$56 million.Vanguard Group, one of the biggest mutual fund and ETF managers in the United States, also plans to set up shop in Canada.

Using EIB could be one option in EU bank crisis-Sweden


Finance Minister Anders Borg and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in an article in the Financial Times that Europe had a European not a euro zone banking system and as such needed a European solution to the crisis.Speaking to journalists, Borg said Sweden had learnt from its mistakes in handling its own bank crisis in the 1990s.”Exactly which instrument one chooses to use here is not the most important thing. It could be the EIB, it could be some other European institution,” he said, also arguing that it needed to be an existing body that was used.The EIB is the EU’s investment arm and is owned by all 27 members of the bloc.Involving it in resolving the crisis would effectively mean drawing non-euro zone members into paying the cost of a crisis which Britain, for example, has said must be solved by the euro zone’s major states.Borg also argued authorities should go through all the problems and involve an independent outside body to assess the value of assets and deals, pointing to Ireland’s use of private consultancy Blackrock as one example. The authorities had to be ready to recapitalise banks at a market price or with haircuts, they said.”One should not bail out shareholders,” he said. The authorities had to be ready to take over banks so that they cannot make unreasonable profits or payouts to shareholders.He said the European summit was approaching and that decisions were needed to stabilise the situation.He said the EFSF euro zone bailout fund must have enough resources to handle even Italy and Spain and that a solution be found for worries over Greece and its debts. A back stop for the European bank system was also needed which makes clear how it can be recapitalised.

Using EIB could be one option in EU bank crisis-Sweden


Finance Minister Anders Borg and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in an article in the Financial Times that Europe had a European not a euro zone banking system and as such needed a European solution to the crisis.Speaking to journalists, Borg said Sweden had learnt from its mistakes in handling its own bank crisis in the 1990s.”Exactly which instrument one chooses to use here is not the most important thing. It could be the EIB, it could be some other European institution,” he said, also arguing that it needed to be an existing body that was used.The EIB is the EU’s investment arm and is owned by all 27 members of the bloc.Involving it in resolving the crisis would effectively mean drawing non-euro zone members into paying the cost of a crisis which Britain, for example, has said must be solved by the euro zone’s major states.Borg also argued authorities should go through all the problems and involve an independent outside body to assess the value of assets and deals, pointing to Ireland’s use of private consultancy Blackrock as one example. The authorities had to be ready to recapitalise banks at a market price or with haircuts, they said.”One should not bail out shareholders,” he said. The authorities had to be ready to take over banks so that they cannot make unreasonable profits or payouts to shareholders.He said the European summit was approaching and that decisions were needed to stabilise the situation.He said the EFSF euro zone bailout fund must have enough resources to handle even Italy and Spain and that a solution be found for worries over Greece and its debts. A back stop for the European bank system was also needed which makes clear how it can be recapitalised.