National Savings & Investments is selling a guaranteed equity bond (Geb) which promises returns of up to 50% of any rise in the FTSE 100 over five years and guarantees to protect the investor's original capital if stockmarkets fall.

Such bonds have soared in popularity during the past 18 months as banks tap into public fears about the recession, credit crunch and yo-yoing stockmarkets. But the capital protection comes at the cost of a reduction in any potential returns. These are calculated by comparing the start level of the FTSE 100 index (averaged over the first five days of the investment term) to the end level (averaged over the final six months).

If the averaged index end level is 20% greater than the averaged index start level at the end of the five-year term, £10,000 invested in this NS&I bond would earn a gross return of £2,000 at the end of the term.

If the index end level was 55% greater than the index start level at the end of the term, £10,000 invested would earn a gross return of £5,000, because the maximum return is 50%.

The bond, which is available online at nsandi.com, by phone with a debit card on 0500 500 000 or by post using an application form that can be requested by phone or downloaded from the website, went on sale last week. Although the offer is set to run until 23 November, NS&I's last Geb sold out very quickly.

Gebs are technically part of the family of so-called structured products, where an offer to get your money back usually involves a behind-the-scenes counterparty – usually a separate company – that invests your cash, often in complex derivatives markets.

Gebs from NS&I are backed by HM Treasury, which has never defaulted on its debts.

Tesco Personal Finance rebrands as Tesco Bank

• Story by: Rob Langston
• Magazine: FTAdviser
• Published Tuesday , October 06, 2009

Tesco Personal Finance has been rebranded as Tesco Bank as it continues its assault on the retail banking market with plans to offer a range of banking and insurance services for customers.

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The move comes as parent group Tesco PLC reported trading profit in its banking division had reached £115m in its half-yearly report.

In his report Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, said the bank had delivered "good performance in a challenging retail banking market".

He said rising bad debt had grown to £92m and had incurred increased operating costs as it moved onto its own infrastructure and prepared for faster rate of growth.

Mr Leahy said customer accounts had risen by more than 300,000 over the past year, growing the number of accounts across all products to more than six million.

Last month the bank signed an agreement with insurer Fortis to help build its operational platforms and technical expertise to develop its insurance business.

Tesco Bank to gain market share
	Published : Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:48 By : financemarkets.co.uk Print this Story

Supermarket finance is set to make significant gains in market share over the coming months, lovemoney.com said this week.

The financial advice site made the claim after Tesco Personal Finance re-branded as Tesco Bank.

Ed Bowsher, lovemoney.com’s head of personal finance, said the renaming signals the beginning of a marketing offensive by Tesco on financial products.

“I think Tesco is going to become a bigger and bigger player in the UK personal finance market,” he said.

“It’s very clear that Tesco wants to grow and I’m sure it will.”

Bowsher also welcomed the introduction of the Tesco Clubcard credit card.

“With all your purchases on that card, even if they are not at Tesco, you’ll be earning Clubcard points,” he said.

“Even without the Clubcard angle, you can get zero per cent.”

In related news, research by Sainsbury’s Finance found 70% of Brits would consider taking out a financial product with a supermarket if they felt they were being suitably rewarded.

Memphis Business Journal

FedEx Express named “Business Superbrand”

Business Superbrands has named FedEx Express as one of the UK’s top twenty business-to-business brands in the Business Superbrands 2009 list.

 

FedEx Express was ranked 19^th on the list based on its exceptional commitment to both its customers and its staff, making it the highest-placed express transportation company.  The ranking takes into account quality, reliability and distinction, proving the strength of the FedEx Express brand and brand values.  FedEx Express was chosen following a selection process which included interviewing an independent and voluntary council of experts and more than 1,500 business professionals, the latter surveyed by research agency YouGov.

“Customer service is paramount to FedEx Express, and we ensure we constantly endeavour to exceed expectations,” said Adam Psarianos, vice president, Operations, Northern Europe.  “This ranking is a testament to making the FedEx Express experience outstanding. It is what we as a company and as individuals do every day, and will always continue to do.”

Now in its seventh year, Business Superbrands identifies and pays tribute to the country’s strongest B2B brands. The 2009 Business Superbrands rankings reflect the views of a panel of experts and over 1,500 business professionals. The process is administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis on behalf of the Superbrands organisation.

“We congratulate all the B2B delivery brands for achieving top 500 status, and particularly FedEx Express for leading its sector,” said Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the Business Superbrands Council for 2008.

Orange UK and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year. Orange globally now offers iPhone in 28 countries and territories.

Orange, which has the largest 3G network covering more people in the UK than any other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange direct channels including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesales channels, as well as selected high street partners. A pre-registration site for customers to log their interest has been launched at www.Orange.co.uk/iPhone

More information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released in due course.

By Rupert Neate
Published: 9:42AM BST 29 Sep 2009

Vodafone's appointment on Tuesday makes it the third mobile phone operator to become an official seller of the iPhone in Britain.

It comes the day after rival Orange became the first operator to break into O2’s previously exclusive deal.

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British mobile phone operators have been locked in highly secretive talks over the new deal for about a year, but it is understood Vodafone’s deal was only signed last night.

The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS will go sale at Vodafone outlets in the UK and Ireland in early 2010. Beginning today, Vodafone UK and Vodafone Ireland customers can register their interest in iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, the company said.

Without securing the rights to the iPhone, Vodafone faced the prospect of losing hundreds of thousands of its customers to rivals O2 and Orange.

Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s chief executive, has said that not having the iPhone was a key reason why the operator lost 159,000 customers in its latest quarter.

Opening up the phone to a third operator will almost certainly result in a price war that will see more than £100 knocked off the price of the iPhone.

"There will be a price war," said Steven Hartley, analyst at technology research house Ovum. "Research shows that in every country where there is more than one operator selling it, it is cheaper.

"It could be very disruptive, but it depends how Orange play it. If they get really aggressive O2 will have to respond and a full-on price war could start."

Mr Hartley said he expects the contract tariff for the iPhone to come down by about £4 to £5 a month, which would cut up to £120 off the price of the phone on a 24-month contract.

The 16GB iPhone 3GS costs £96.89 on a £44.05-a-month contract with O2. Orange refused to give details of its contract terms but indicated that it would be cheaper than O2's deals.

The iPhone has transformed the British mobile phone market since it was launched in November 2007. O2 has sold more than 1m of the devices and credits it with enabling the operator to increase its market dominance.

Virgin Mobile is also understood to be desperate to secure the right to sell the iPhone.

BERLIN, Germany, September 14, 2009 - HP today introduced a new Managed Print Services offering that helps enterprise customers look beyond printing devices to navigate the current explosion of information and content while reducing costs and improving productivity.

In a typical enterprise printing environment, industry experts estimate that for every dollar spent on hard costs, another $9 is spent managing the printed documents over their life cycles.(1) Considering that global enterprise companies will spend more than $172 billion on printing this year,(2) the costs associated with managing this information can be staggering.

HP has introduced this new offering to help enterprises cut printing costs:

• HP Printing Payback Guarantee - If qualified enterprise customers do not reach their projected savings goals within 12 months of implementation of HP Managed Print Services (MPS), HP will make up the difference.(3)

With this offer, HP is taking aim at the $18.7 billion MPS(4) market, which is growing at a compound annual growth rate of four percent in a tough economy.(5) The company also is seeking to accelerate its growth - currently twice the rate of the MPS market(5) - by offering outsourced alternatives that demonstrate measurable results.

"In today's tough economic times, companies want a partner who understands their business and is willing to share the risks," said Bill DeLacy, senior vice president, Imaging & Printing Group, EMEA, HP. "It may seem counterintuitive that a printing company like HP wants to help customers print more efficiently but that's exactly our focus and intent - to help our customers print more responsibly and intelligently."

The new offer enables businesses to accelerate printing cost savings by optimizing their infrastructures, managing their printing environments and improving workflows.

"The economic recession presents a golden opportunity to manage office printing," said Ken Weilerstein, vice president research, Print Markets, Gartner Inc. "Organizations that fail to rein in their office printing risk seeing costs spiral higher. Even recently optimized printer fleets may slip out of alignment with the organization's true needs as the economy reduces the workforce and results in changes to roles and processes."

HP Printing Payback Guarantee for enterprise customers
For enterprise customers looking to operate more efficiently and cut costs, the HP Printing Payback Guarantee is a risk-free way to save. For new, qualified MPS customers, HP will complete a detailed assessment of a company's imaging and printing environment and calculate an overall printing cost savings. One year after a customer's implementation, HP will complete a second assessment and if customers haven't saved the projected costs, HP will make up the difference.(5)

Additionally, as part of the presales assessment, HP is offering tools and services from its recently announced Eco Solutions printing practice to help customers save paper and printer energy usage to reduce costs and environmental impact. Through its MPS offerings and multifunction printers, HP has helped companies save up to 30 percent in overall printing costs; one company estimates it saved more than 75 percent in printing energy usage.(6)

To support the Printing Payback Guarantee, HP has launched the next wave of its Hit Print campaign. Graphically rich print and banner ads as well as a micro site, www.hp.com/guarantee, debut today and highlight the cost and printer energy usage savings that enterprises can experience with HP while touting the company's payback guarantee.

 

More information on HP's expanded imaging and printing offerings is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/go/HPMPSAcceleration2009 and on Twitter through the HP_IPG handle and #HPMPS hashtag.

Availability
Please contact an HP sales representative for eligibility with HP Printing Payback Guarantee. This offer is currently available in the following countries:

 

 

Austria Belgium Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany Greece

Hungary Ireland Israel Italy Luxembourg Norway Poland Portugal Russia

Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland The Netherlands Turkey UK

About HP
HP, the world's largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.

^{Note to editors: More news from HP, including links to RSS feeds, is available at www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom.}

(1) All Associates Research, EDAM White Paper, 2009.
(2) "IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, U.S. Printer Page Volume 2009-2013 Forecast" (Doc No. 218522), and "U.S. MFP Page Volume 2009-2013 Forecast" (Doc No. 218528), IDC, June 2009.
(3) HP will credit the difference between projected and actual cost savings against future invoices.
(4) "IDC Worldwide and U.S. Outsourced Print and Document Services 2008-2013 Forecast and Analysis" (Doc No. 215289), IDC, December 2008.
(5) Data based on a combination of top MPS market analysts' data and HP internal research.
(6) The HP Managed Print Services Printing Payback Guarantee includes hardware, supplies, replacement parts, service and labor, repair costs, paper and kilowatt usage. Customers receive a unique assessment tailored to their businesses. Paper and printing energy savings are estimates and results are dependent upon a unique business environment, HP products and services used and other factors. Overall printing costs are unique to each company and should not be relied upon for savings you may achieve. According to industry analysts, savings of up to 30 percent are typical with managed print services.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services; any statements regarding anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the achievement of expected operational and financial results; and other risks that are described in HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2009 and HP's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2008. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

Editorial contacts:

Giorgia Giacobbe
Hewlett Packard
+39 02 9212 4822
Giorgia.Giacobbe@hp.com

Roger Darashah
Edelman for HP
+34 93 488 1290
roger.darashah@edelman.com
 
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