RTC Director

BP appeal over 'absurd' Gulf oil spill payouts

Oil giant BP is taking legal action in the US to limit payouts by a fund set up to compensate those affected by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP said some of the claims being paid by the scheme's administrator were "fictitious" and "absurd".

BP set aside $7.8bn (£5.2bn) when it agreed to pay compensation in 2012, but it now expects a much higher total.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster released an estimated four million barrels of oil into the Gulf.

An explosion on an offshore rig killed 11 workers and ruptured a deep-sea well head, which took 84 days to seal.

Last year BP agreed to pay compensation to around 100,000 people and companies - including fishermen and restaurant owners - who claimed the oil spill had harmed their livelihoods or their health.

But it says the lawyer administering the compensation fund is misinterpreting the terms of the agreement and making pay-outs that are too generous.

'Underestimate'

BP highlights companies far from the coast that were given payments despite earning higher profits in the year of the spill than in previous years.

The examples given include $21m to a Louisiana rice mill 40 miles inland and $9.7m to an Alabama construction company nearly 200 miles (320km) from the sea.

"BP did not agree to pay what is already hundreds of millions of dollars, and potentially billions, to claimants with 'losses' that do not exist in reality," the company said in papers filed at the court in New Orleans.

In response, lawyers representing the claimants said BP had "undervalued the settlement and underestimated the number of people and businesses that qualify under the objective formulas that BP agreed to".

BP is appealing against a ruling earlier this month that upheld the way compensation is being paid. It says it could be "irreparably harmed" by the payouts.

The same judge is also presiding over a separate trial of BP and other companies on civil charges over the oil spill, which was one of the worst in US history.

If it loses that case it could face a further huge fine, despite having already agreed in 2012 to pay $4.5bn to settle criminal charges.

by RTC Director

Caribbean tourism to keep its piece of the pie

0
0
1
675
3853
Tripple M FM
32
9
4519
14.0

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
JA
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

The Caribbean is not expected to carve out a larger piece of the travel and tourism industry over the next 10 years.

The region is expected to maintain a less than two per cent share of the sector even while its contribution to GDP is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 4.2 per cent through to 2022, according to the World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013

Travel and tourism currently accounts for nine per cent of the world's GDP, earning countries globally US$6 trillion last year and employed 120 million direct jobs and another 125 million indirect jobs in related industries.

North East Asia is expected to move from 20 to 24 per cent of tourism earnings by 2022, while Europe's and North America's share are projected to decline to around 22 per cent each. Latin America is expected to maintain its six per cent share.

Nevertheless, there are some bright sparks for the Americas.

Traveling to the region, 31 per cent of the world's population are not required to obtain a traditional visa prior to departure, making it more accessible than many other destinations.

The figure does vary widely across the subregions of the Americas.

Whereas North America is one of the most restricted subregions, where only 11 per cent of the world's population can enter without a visa, the Caribbean is the third most open subregion in the world: 39 per cent of the world's population have visa exemptions and eight per cent have the ability to obtain a visa on arrival.

"Destinations in the two other subregions--Central and South America-- also abolished visas for comparatively many source markets, making the Americas the leading region in visa exemptions," said the report.

East Africa and Southeast Asia are the most open, with 67 per cent and 65 per cent of the world, respectively, not requiring a visa to visit those locations.

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which aims to measure the factors and policies that make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector in different countries, showed some positives for the region.

For the Americas, Barbados ranked third, after the US and Canada, and 27th in the world, up one place since the last assessment in 2011.

The country's high affinity for Travel and Tourism, with a positive attitude toward tourists and toward the value of tourism in the country, placed in second in the world, although its ranking for the degree of customer orientation ranked it at 64th wroldwide.

Barbados places significant importance on prioritising hte industry, with emphasis put on the sector's development by the government and high spending on the sector, ensuring effective destination marketing campaigns and collecting relevant sector data on a timely basis.

Panama witnesses one of the most marked improvements in this year's TTCI, moving up from eighth to fourth in the region and from 56th to 37th overall.

"The country's most important competitive advantage is its rich endowment of natural resources, with its diverse fauna, significant protected land areas, and a number of World Heritage sites," said the report.

But the movement was primarily due to improvement in infrastructure.

The country's tourism infrastructure has seen the number of available rooms increase, the quality of ground transport improve across all modes, with port infrastructure now ranked fourth and railroads ranked 32nd in the world. Air transport also improved, and is now ranked 16th.

"The expansion of stadium capacity and creative industries exports is also notable," added the report.

Dominican Republic's air transport and tourism infrastructure was not ranked as high as Jamaica, but its quality of roads ranked it at 62nd compared to Jamaica at 82nd.

Jamaica's ranking for transparency of government policy making fell dramatically, from 64th to 115th, but Governemnt expenditure as a percentage of total budget was ranked fourth worldwide -- higher than Barbados at sixth -- even though overall prioritisation of the industry was ranked lower than Barbados at seventh.

The cost of rooms in Jamaica based on the hotel pirce index (HPI) -- which is calculated by using the average room rate achieved by first-class hotels in each country over a 12-month period from January through December -- was US$176.30, or well below the US$329.40 average in Barbados.

But it was still above regional counterparts like Panama (US$130.10) and Puerto Rico (US$168.10), while Dominican Republic's HPI of US$92 placed it at 17th in the world.

by RTC Director

SAC Capital fund pays $614m over insider trading

A major hedge fund has agreed to pay a record $614m (£406m) to US regulators to settle charges of insider trading.

SAC Capital, run by Steve Cohen, did not admit or deny the charges.

A unit of the business was accused of profiting from secret information about a drug trial from a doctor before it was made public.

The Securities and Exchange Committee described the settlement a "sharp warning" to any fund that would break the law.

The settlement "does not preclude any such charges against any person, including Steven Cohen", said George Canellos, the SEC's acting director of enforcement.

"We can't tolerate a market rigged for the benefit of insiders and their cronies," he added.

SAC Capital runs a hedge fund worth $15bn and Mr Cohen is well-known character in the industry.

Criminal trial

The $614m settlement was for two different incidents at SAC Capital.

CR Intrinsic Investors settled for $600m. The former SAC trader, Mathew Martoma, is still facing a criminal trial and has pleaded not guilty.

He is accused of illegally obtaining confidential details about a negative clinical trial for an Alzheimer's drug. He then allegedly shared the information with SAC affiliates and sold $960m worth of shares in the company that made the drug, Elan and Wyeth.

And $14m was for a separate incident at the Sigma Capital affiliate for insider trading in the shares of tech firms Dell and Nvidia.

"This settlement is a substantial step toward resolving all outstanding regulatory matters and allows the firm to move forward with confidence,'' SAC said in a statement.

``We are committed to continuing to maintain a first-rate compliance effort woven into the fabric of the firm."

by RTC Director