"DEATH TO BANKERS" scream Paris walls as crisis looms

1 of 2. A man walks past a graffiti message written on the pavement next to the former Bourse (Stock Exchange) in Paris December 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

By Alexandria Sage

PARIS | Wed Dec 7, 2011 10:20am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's politicians can drone on about solutions to the euro zone crisis as much as they like, but the popular sentiment is clearly spelled out on the streets of Paris: "DEATH TO BANKERS."

That message scrawled on a mail box in the fashionable Marais district of the French capital is part of a growing commentary cropping up on walls and streets, revealing deep-seated distrust and simmering disquiet as a euro zone crisis threatens to wreak yet more havoc with France's economy.

As France gets sucked deeper into the crisis, Paris is catching up with Athens, where bankruptcy woes and austerity measures have spurred waves of graffiti and the finger of blame is pointing firmly in one direction.

"Thanks, bankers, for the loss of a few more billions," says another scrawl near the Paris stock exchange.

Anger at budget cuts, concern over violent swings in financial markets and fear that the euro zone could disintegrate have all trickled down to the street level.

"Did you elect your banker?" read a stencil spray-painted on the seat of a public bench near the Bastille, a key target of the 18th century revolutionaries who chopped off the heads of a French elite that spent too much and paid too little heed to trouble brewing among the lower orders.

"Because the masses aren't productive enough, France will lose its triple-A," reads a sarcastic message on the side of the church which provided the religious tools needed for Louis XVI's last Mass before his execution at the guillotine in 1793.

That graffiti appeared this week as a warning on euro zone ratings by Standard & Poor's fanned fears that markets could put the single currency to the sword.

The company hired by the city to remove graffiti, HTP, said it is seeing 25 percent more of it this year than last, with a notable rise in scrawlings about economic malaise.

City hall tries to have graffiti removed within 10 days of it being reported but backlogs mean the wait is often longer.

One large message spraypainted in red block letters on the side of an HSBC bank branch in central Paris -- "Guilty for the crisis!!!" -- was removed within days, however.

The messages now popping up throughout Paris are a more topical contrast to the more common variety of graffiti, namely initials or nicknames that taggers leave to mark territory.

Political graffiti is an act of rebellion tantamount to "an alarm signal," said graffiti artist Antonio de Oliveira, 33, saying it showed people are fed up with the disconnect between politicians and the masses.

"When you have political graffiti, the situation is dire."

REBELLION WRITTEN ON WALLS

France is gearing up for an election where President Nicolas Sarkozy faces possible defeat by Socialist rival Francois Hollande as three years of economic gloom, stubborn unemployment and dwindling purchasing power demoralize voters.

Youth unemployment is stuck at 21.6 percent.

"Young people have pretty precarious lives," said de Oliveira. "Our only way of rebellion is graffiti."

A recent example in a working-class neighborhood read, "Full employment died of a work stoppage."

HTP says it scrubs off 500,000 square meters of surface each year to the tune of several tens of millions in euros.

HTP's sales manager, Etienne Kiraly, said this year's rise in graffiti was sparked by a number of influences, including the Arab Spring uprisings, the overthrow of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and the sex scandal of former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

"There are elections, there's everything on TV, young people see that and write it on the walls," said Kiraly.

The city of revolt has a long history of graffiti. Catacombs dug below the surface of Paris still yield a glimpse of scribblings from the time of the 1789 Revolution, when France's enormous debt woes triggered massive social upheaval.

In the late 19th century, the walls of public urinals were a target for the dissemination of political insubordination, and the 1968 student-led riots featured memorable graffiti such as "Boredom is counterrevolutionary" and "Your boss needs you. You don't need him."

An outlet for expression is the driving force behind most graffiti, says Marion Haza, a professor of psychology at the University of Poitiers who has studied young urban taggers.

The goal of spraypainting on walls is intended to "bother or to shock," she said, as it forces passers-by to take note.

"Even if there isn't any real impact it gives the sense of not being passive," she said. "It's all about not being passive."

(Editing by Catherine Bremer and Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

REFILE-UPDATE 2-Olympus ex-CEO steps up campaign for old job as deadline looms

* Olympus to file Q2 results, past earnings statements

* Failure to file Q2 would mean automatic delisting

* Auditors to sign off on documents, some qualifications-Nikkei

* Ex-CEO Woodford in Tokyo to court shareholders, employees

By Tim Kelly and Linda Sieg

TOKYO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The former British CEO of Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp called on its disgraced board on Wednesday to make way for his return to the top job, as the firm faced a make-or-break deadline to iron out its crooked accounts.

The maker of cameras and medical equipment, engulfed by a $1.7 billion accounting fraud, one of Japan's worst corporate scandals, must meet a Wednesday deadline to file its second quarter earnings or be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

It also plans to submit revised accounts for past years.

Delisting would cut Olympus off from equity capital markets, putting it under pressure to sell core assets and marking a humiliating low for the 92-year-old firm, which two months ago triggered the crisis by sacking its CEO, Michael Woodford.

Woodford immediately blew the whistle on the firm's accounting problems after he was fired and is now waging a campaign to be reinstated, appealing to shareholders to support his comeback as part of a complete renewal of the board.

The board has committed to resigning over the scandal, but wants to choose its own successors before quitting, setting up the prospect of a proxy war between its own candidates and those being assembled by Woodford as part of his campaign.

"The shareholding balance is such that there is a realistic chance we could win a proxy fight," Woodford said. But he added that such a battle would cause a split between foreign and Japanese shareholders and that he hoped it could be avoided.

Some big foreign shareholders back Woodford's bid but Japanese institutional investors, although reticent, appear worried about whether he can win over the company's employees as well as his plans to turn around the once-proud firm.

Woodford said he was willing to meet Olympus President Shuichi Takayama at any time but added incumbent directors were too discredited to be in a position to choose their successors.

Woodford, who was a rare foreign CEO in Japan, also sought to soothe concerns about his plans to restore trust in Olympus.

"I want no part in selling Olympus or breaking it up," he said, adding he would not close down the firm's struggling camera business.

"People say the 'gaijin' president would shut it," Woodford said, using the Japanese word for foreigner. "I wouldn't."

Analysts have said Olympus' big and profitable medical business could be bought by a rival or private equity if it became clear the firm could no longer effectively run it.

BALANCE SHEET BLUES

Investors poring over Olympus' financial statements later on Wednesday will be looking for the scale of changes to its balance sheet and whether it will need to raise fresh equity, as well as whether auditing firms KPMG AZSA LLC and Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC will sign off on the financial documents.

The Nikkei daily said Olympus' ex-auditor, KPMG AZSA, would give qualified approval to restated accounts for the three years to March 2009, with the qualification based on factors such as the auditor's inability to completely confirm money flows.

Ernst & Young ShinNihon would approve without qualifications all statements for periods from March 2010, the newspaper added.

Olympus shares at one point lost more than 80 percent of their value after the scandal broke in October.

Since then, an outside panel commissioned by Olympus to probe the scandal has found that the deals were part of a fraud carried out by a few executives to hide losses stemming from risky securities investments in the late 1980s. Some of these losses were disguised in the accounts as acquisition payments.

The panel found no evidence of rumoured involvement by organised crime syndicates in the scheme, although Olympus remains under investigation by police, prosecutors and regulators, who are expected to step up their joint probe after the revised financial statements are announced.

Olympus shares have rallied from their lows in recent weeks on expectations that while some former executives face harsh punishment, the firm itself will avoid a delisting.

Now at about half its pre-scandal value, the stock last traded down 2 percent at 1,343 yen.

View the original article here

Olympus ex-CEO steps up campaign for old job as deadline looms

Olympus Corp's former CEO Michael Woodford (2nd L) speaks to a reporter upon his arrival at Haneda airport in Tokyo December 13, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai

By Tim Kelly and Linda Sieg

TOKYO | Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:21pm EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - The former British CEO of Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp called on its disgraced board on Wednesday to make way for his return to the top job, as the firm faced a make-or-break deadline to iron out its crooked accounts.

The maker of cameras and medical equipment, engulfed by a $1.7 billion accounting fraud, one of Japan's worst corporate scandals, must meet a Wednesday deadline to file its second quarter earnings or be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

It also plans to submit revised accounts for past years.

Delisting would cut Olympus off from equity capital markets, putting it under pressure to sell core assets and marking a humiliating low for the 92-year-old firm, which two months ago triggered the crisis by sacking its CEO, Michael Woodford.

Woodford immediately blew the whistle on the firm's accounting problems after he was fired and is now waging a campaign to be reinstated, appealing to shareholders to support his comeback as part of a complete renewal of the board.

The board has committed to resigning over the scandal, but wants to choose its own successors before quitting, setting up the prospect of a proxy war between its own candidates and those being assembled by Woodford as part of his campaign.

"The shareholding balance is such that there is a realistic chance we could win a proxy fight," Woodford said. But he added that such a battle would cause a split between foreign and Japanese shareholders and that he hoped it could be avoided.

Some big foreign shareholders back Woodford's bid but Japanese institutional investors, although reticent, appear worried about whether he can win over the company's employees as well as his plans to turn around the once-proud firm.

Woodford said he was willing to meet Olympus President Shuichi Takayama at any time but added incumbent directors were too discredited to be in a position to choose their successors.

Woodford, who was a rare foreign CEO in Japan, also sought to soothe concerns about his plans to restore trust in Olympus.

"I want no part in selling Olympus or breaking it up," he said, adding he would not close down the firm's struggling camera business.

"People say the 'gaijin' president would shut it," Woodford said, using the Japanese word for foreigner. "I wouldn't."

Analysts have said Olympus' big and profitable medical business could be bought by a rival or private equity if it became clear the firm could no longer effectively run it.

BALANCE SHEET BLUES

Investors poring over Olympus' financial statements later on Wednesday will be looking for the scale of changes to its balance sheet and whether it will need to raise fresh equity, as well as whether auditing firms KPMG AZSA LLC and Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC will sign off on the financial documents.

The Nikkei daily said Olympus' ex-auditor, KPMG AZSA, would give qualified approval to restated accounts for the three years to March 2009, with the qualification based on factors such as the auditor's inability to completely confirm money flows.

Ernst & Young ShinNihon would approve without qualifications all statements for periods from March 2010, the newspaper added.

Olympus shares at one point lost more than 80 percent of their value after the scandal broke in October.

Since then, an outside panel commissioned by Olympus to probe the scandal has found that the deals were part of a fraud carried out by a few executives to hide losses stemming from risky securities investments in the late 1980s. Some of these losses were disguised in the accounts as acquisition payments.

The panel found no evidence of rumored involvement by organized crime syndicates in the scheme, although Olympus remains under investigation by police, prosecutors and regulators, who are expected to step up their joint probe after the revised financial statements are announced.

Olympus shares have rallied from their lows in recent weeks on expectations that while some former executives face harsh punishment, the firm itself will avoid a delisting.

Now at about half its pre-scandal value, the stock last traded down 2 percent at 1,343 yen.

(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo and James Topham; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

View the original article here

"DEATH TO BANKERS" scream Paris walls as crisis looms

1 of 2. A man walks past a graffiti message written on the pavement next to the former Bourse (Stock Exchange) in Paris December 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

By Alexandria Sage

PARIS | Wed Dec 7, 2011 10:20am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's politicians can drone on about solutions to the euro zone crisis as much as they like, but the popular sentiment is clearly spelled out on the streets of Paris: "DEATH TO BANKERS."

That message scrawled on a mail box in the fashionable Marais district of the French capital is part of a growing commentary cropping up on walls and streets, revealing deep-seated distrust and simmering disquiet as a euro zone crisis threatens to wreak yet more havoc with France's economy.

As France gets sucked deeper into the crisis, Paris is catching up with Athens, where bankruptcy woes and austerity measures have spurred waves of graffiti and the finger of blame is pointing firmly in one direction.

"Thanks, bankers, for the loss of a few more billions," says another scrawl near the Paris stock exchange.

Anger at budget cuts, concern over violent swings in financial markets and fear that the euro zone could disintegrate have all trickled down to the street level.

"Did you elect your banker?" read a stencil spray-painted on the seat of a public bench near the Bastille, a key target of the 18th century revolutionaries who chopped off the heads of a French elite that spent too much and paid too little heed to trouble brewing among the lower orders.

"Because the masses aren't productive enough, France will lose its triple-A," reads a sarcastic message on the side of the church which provided the religious tools needed for Louis XVI's last Mass before his execution at the guillotine in 1793.

That graffiti appeared this week as a warning on euro zone ratings by Standard & Poor's fanned fears that markets could put the single currency to the sword.

The company hired by the city to remove graffiti, HTP, said it is seeing 25 percent more of it this year than last, with a notable rise in scrawlings about economic malaise.

City hall tries to have graffiti removed within 10 days of it being reported but backlogs mean the wait is often longer.

One large message spraypainted in red block letters on the side of an HSBC bank branch in central Paris -- "Guilty for the crisis!!!" -- was removed within days, however.

The messages now popping up throughout Paris are a more topical contrast to the more common variety of graffiti, namely initials or nicknames that taggers leave to mark territory.

Political graffiti is an act of rebellion tantamount to "an alarm signal," said graffiti artist Antonio de Oliveira, 33, saying it showed people are fed up with the disconnect between politicians and the masses.

"When you have political graffiti, the situation is dire."

REBELLION WRITTEN ON WALLS

France is gearing up for an election where President Nicolas Sarkozy faces possible defeat by Socialist rival Francois Hollande as three years of economic gloom, stubborn unemployment and dwindling purchasing power demoralize voters.

Youth unemployment is stuck at 21.6 percent.

"Young people have pretty precarious lives," said de Oliveira. "Our only way of rebellion is graffiti."

A recent example in a working-class neighborhood read, "Full employment died of a work stoppage."

HTP says it scrubs off 500,000 square meters of surface each year to the tune of several tens of millions in euros.

HTP's sales manager, Etienne Kiraly, said this year's rise in graffiti was sparked by a number of influences, including the Arab Spring uprisings, the overthrow of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and the sex scandal of former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

"There are elections, there's everything on TV, young people see that and write it on the walls," said Kiraly.

The city of revolt has a long history of graffiti. Catacombs dug below the surface of Paris still yield a glimpse of scribblings from the time of the 1789 Revolution, when France's enormous debt woes triggered massive social upheaval.

In the late 19th century, the walls of public urinals were a target for the dissemination of political insubordination, and the 1968 student-led riots featured memorable graffiti such as "Boredom is counterrevolutionary" and "Your boss needs you. You don't need him."

An outlet for expression is the driving force behind most graffiti, says Marion Haza, a professor of psychology at the University of Poitiers who has studied young urban taggers.

The goal of spraypainting on walls is intended to "bother or to shock," she said, as it forces passers-by to take note.

"Even if there isn't any real impact it gives the sense of not being passive," she said. "It's all about not being passive."

(Editing by Catherine Bremer and Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

BAA asks airlines to cut passengers as strike looms

A worker passes luggage trollies at Heathrow Airport in west London August 16, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville

By Rhys Jones

LONDON | Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:24am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Heathrow airport operator BAA has asked airlines to halve the number of international passengers arriving into the UK on November 30, when border staff strike over pensions.

BAA, owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial (FER.MC), on Friday warned of significant disruption to passengers arriving at Heathrow next Wednesday with delays that could last up to 12 hours.

"We will plan for a normal flight schedule, but we are requesting all carriers to reduce load factors on each international flight arriving into Heathrow on November 30 to 50 percent of normal levels," Normand Boivin, Heathrow's chief operating officer said in a letter sent to Heathrow's largest airlines.

"The delays at immigration are likely to be so long that passengers could not be safely accommodated within the terminals and would need to be held on arriving aircraft. This in turn would quickly create gridlock at the airport with no available aircraft parking stands, mass cancellations of departing aircraft and diversions outside the UK for arriving aircraft."

IAG (ICAG.L)-owned British Airways, Heathrow's largest carrier, and Virgin Atlantic are offering alternative dates to passengers due to travel on November 30.

London's second largest airport, Gatwick, has also asked airlines to rebook passengers.

"The UK Border Agency UKBA.L currently expects to perform at less than 50 percent productivity. We have reluctantly concluded that UKBA will be unable to provide a contingency plan to support normal operations," added Boivin.

(Reporting by Rhys Jones, editing by James Davey)

View the original article here