Barclays boss 'to get US$4.7m bonus'

LONDON: Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond is to receive a bonus of up to £3 million pounds (US$4.7 million, 3.6 million euros) for his work in 2011, reports said yesterday. Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said the head of the British bank could expect a bonus of £2 million, while the Sunday Telegraph said the figure would likely be between £2.5 million and £3 million.

Micron names Mark Durcan interim CEO

NEW YORK: Semiconductor maker Micron Technology has named Mark Durcan its interim chief executive officer to replace Steve Appleton, who had died in a plane crash. The company's board of directors also announced Saturday the appointment of Robert Switz as chairman of the board and Mark Adams as president.

Spanish economy to shrink 1.5% in 2012

MADRID: The Spanish economy will shrink by around 1.5 per cent this year as a contraction that began last quarter deepens, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said in an interview published yesterday. "The first quarter of the year is going to be hard, even harder than the last quarter of 2011, with a decline in GDP of more than 0.3 per cent. I think the second quarter will also be negative," the minister told daily newspaper El Pais.

IMF to let Ireland invest privatisation cash

DUBLIN: Ireland's EU/IMF lenders have agreed to let it invest much of the cash it gets from privatisation rather than use it to pay down debts, if the proceeds are substantial, the Irish prime minister said yesterday. Ireland's troika of lenders, the European Central Bank, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, has earlier indicated that privatisation proceeds should be used to cut Ireland's national debt.!

Glencore, Xstrata iron out final deal details

CAPE TOWN/LONDON: Top executives at trader Glencore and miner Xstrata are hammering out the final details of an US$80 billion tie-up to seal the industry's largest ever takeover, which could be announced as early as tomorrow. Xstrata, in which Glencore already has a 34 percent stake, announced last week it had been approached by the world's largest diversified commodities trader and was in discussions over an all-share "merger of equals", a deal that would be the largest in the sector since Rio Tinto's takeover of Alcan in 2007.!

Agencies