US Turns To Crowdsourcing To Fight Ebola

By Pete Norman, Sky News Business

The United States has issued an urgent plea for internet crowdsourcing to fight the deadly ebola outbreak, Sky News has learned.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) wants radically new anti-contamination suit designs to stop health workers and airport screeners suffering from heat stress.

USAID said it wants "crowdsourcing, competition and breakthrough innovation" to fight the West African epidemic and any "future outbreaks".

Each successful design accepted by the agency is capable of being awarded $1m (£622,000), ahead of any production run.

It intends to partner novel suit designs with companies capable of producing the new kit within two months.

Video: How Effective Are Anti-Ebola Suits?

Several days ago, USAID announced a desire for innovative ideas to overcome tropical heat stress and contagion risks when de-suiting, but it did not offer detailed requirements.

It has now issued further clarification, saying it wants "entirely novel" personal protection equipment (PPE).

It also wants new suit designs for people working at airports, security checkpoints and for burials.

Video: Ebola Crisis: On The Front Line

Ideas suggested to overcome heat stress are portable cooling devices, next-generation stress detectors, along with thinner suits with increased vapour permeability or breathability.

USAID also suggested full-face cooling shields and reusable suits.

Earlier this week, Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford reported on the difficulties of wearing existing, disposable PPE in affected areas.

Many of the PPE suits can only be worn briefly before being thrown away, heightening the risk of accidental contamination.

USAID also revealed it wants to launch psychological operations into affected regions in Africa.

It wants companies to develop "behaviour change approaches to encourage - and dispel myths and misconceptions that discourage - care-seeking or interacting with health care authorities".

Video: How Can The UK Stop Ebola?

The agency said part of this will involve improved dissemination of information about care offered to citizens, and availability of beds in community care and emergency treatment zones.

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Lego Drops Shell Over Greenpeace Spill Video

Lego has ditched a long-standing partnership with Shell, after a Greenpeace video used its toys to illustrate an Arctic oil spill.

The decision comes after the slick parody video by the environmental group went viral online, garnering more than 5 million YouTube hits, over the oil giant's plan to drill in the Arctic.

Using Lego blocks, the video starts by showing animals in pristine snowy wilderness before moving on to a scene of heavy machinery drilling for oil.

To gentle background music a Shell branded road tanker and petrol station are brought into view - before it zooms in on a pin-striped businessman smoking a cigar on a Shell offshore drilling rig.

The video had a pin-striped businessman smoking a cigar on a Shell oil rig

A crude oil slick then starts spreading before the Arctic 'drowns' in a black morass.

The video ends with two captions: "Shell is polluting our kids' imaginations.

Video: Greenpeace Defends Targeting Shell

"Tell Lego to end its partnership with Shell".

Lego products are currently sold at Shell petrol stations in more than two dozen countries, in a deal estimated at £68m.

In response to the campaign Lego CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp said the current deal with the Anglo-Dutch Shell, negotiated in 2011, would not be renewed.

"We want to clarify that as things currently stand we will not renew the co-promotion contract with Shell when the present contract ends," the company said in a statement.

"A co-promotion like the one with Shell is one of many ways we are able to bring Lego bricks into the hands of more children and deliver on our promise of creative play."

Lego, the world's biggest toy manufacturer, added: "The Greenpeace campaign uses the Lego brand to target Shell.

"As we have stated before, we firmly believe Greenpeace ought to have a direct conversation with Shell.

"The Lego brand, and everyone who enjoys creative play, should never have become part of Greenpeace's dispute with Shell."

The oil company would not be drawn into the exact business dealings it has with the Danish toy firm.

A Shell spokesman told Sky News: "Our latest co-promotion with Lego has been a great success and will continue to be as we roll it out in more countries across the world.

"We don't comment on contractual matters."

Greenpeace said that within the last three months Lego was swamped with more than 1 million complaints.

Its Arctic campaigner Ian Duff said: "This is a major blow to Shell. It desperately needs partners like Lego to help give it respectability and repair the major brand damage it suffered after its last Arctic misadventure.

"Lego's withdrawal from a 50-year relationship with Shell clearly shows that strategy will not work."

Greenpeace previously targeted Lego's US-rival Mattel, over Asian pulp and paper used as packaging for its Barbie dolls.

Founded in the interwar period, wood-based Lego was replaced by plastic components around 1947. Petroleum by-products are used as feedstock for plastics and as an energy source in their manufacture.

Naomi Klein, author of global warming book This Changes Everything, told Sky News Business Presenter Ian King that the capitulation by Lego is part of a wider trend.

"A lot has to do with carbon bubble research showing these companies have five times more carbon in their reserves than our atmosphere can safely absorb," Ms Klein said.

"Since that research has come out it has been a game-changer and this is one more sign of that."

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Old Mutual Sweetens £650m Bid For Wealth Firm

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Old Mutual, the London-listed South African financial services group, is in advanced talks about a £650m takeover of the UK's second-biggest independent wealth manager.

Sky News has learnt that Old Mutual is closing in on an agreement to acquire Quilter Cheviot after sweetening its offer for the company by approximately £50m.

A deal could be struck within a few weeks, continuing a shake-up of the City's wealth management landscape at a time of substantial regulatory change.

Quilter Cheviot, which is owned by the private equity firm Bridgepoint, was the subject of an earlier bid from Old Mutual during the summer.

People close to the situation said that a deal between the two companies was not certain, adding that Bridgepoint was continuing to progress its plans for a stock market listing that would catapult Quilter Cheviot into the ranks of London's 350 largest listed companies.

Other prospective buyers, including Investec, are said to have examined a takeover of Quilter Cheviot although it was unclear whether any other formal offers have been tabled.

In a statement issued last month, Bridgepoint said:

"Inevitably when IPO plans are being prepared there is parallel speculation and rumours about alternatives. We never comment on such rumours."

The addition of Quilter Cheviot to Old Mutual's wealth management arm would create a more powerful platform for serving affluent clients at a time of consolidation across the sector.

Another big player, Bestinvest, was sold to Permira, another buyout firm, last year, with a follow-on deal taking the firm's assets under management to approximately £9bn.

A flurry of deals has been accelerated by regulatory reforms known as the Retail Distribution Review, which have altered the way that wealth managers are remunerated for their work, shifting from a largely commission-based system to one based on the volume of assets under management.

Quilter Cheviot, which manages approximately £16bn in assets, was formed in 2012 from the merger of Quilter & Co and Cheviot Asset Management.

The company traces its roots back to 1771, making it one of the UK's oldest financial services firms.

Evercore, an investment bank, is advising Bridgepoint, while Old Mutual is being advised by bankers at Rothschild on the talks, insiders said.

Old Mutual, which declined to comment, is interested in expanding its wealth management business at a time when it is also reshaping parts of its business.

On Thursday, the Anglo-South African group priced the New York listing of its US asset management business slightly below its target range.

Bridgepoint also declined to comment.

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Counting The Cost Of The Ebola Outbreak

The impact of the deadly ebola virus may cost West Africa £20bn, experts have warned.

The World Bank said the worst case scenario would see the wider region's lost GDP amount to 3.8%, with Liberia at risk of losing almost 12%.

Sierra Leone, which was forecast to have one of the top 10 growth economies globally in 2014, is also expected to see significant impact.

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said: "The international community now must act on the knowledge that weak public health infrastructure, institutions and systems in many fragile countries are a threat not only to their own citizens.

"They are also to their trading partners and the world at large."

The spread of the deadly virus is the worst health scare since the outbreak of AIDS in the 1980s, according to a US official, overtaking the SARS crisis a decade ago.

"I would say that in the 30 years I've been working in public health, the only thing like this has been AIDS," US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention director Thomas Frieden said.

"It's going to be a long fight," he told the heads of the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund gathered in Washington DC for an emergency summit.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) also said the ebola crisis may impact food security.

This comes despite continuing price decline for most food items globally, bumper wheat production and huge rice stockpiles.

Tour companies and airlines have already been hit over Ebola fears

The FAO said the outbreak was a "hot spot" of concern since it was disrupting markets and farming activities "affecting food security and large numbers of people".

Meanwhile, the cost to other countries is yet to be accurately calculated.

Tour firms and airlines have already seen share prices fall as fears spread.

But specialist firms providing goods and services to help overcome the outbreak have seen benefits.

Phoenix Air Group, the world's only specialised highly contagious air transport service using Gulfsteam III jets, has been swamped with exclusive-use bids.

The UK, Canada, Mexico, Japan and the UAE have all tried to establish exclusive contracts, according to a US Department of State briefing document seen by Sky News.

The UN and World Health Organisation also tried to secure deals with Phoenix, the document revealed.

In response, the US offered Phoenix a $5m (£3m) six-month contract for medevac services for American government employees who may become infected.

And suppliers of white anti-contamination suits have seen orders spike as governments increase their response.

Britain's Department for International Development has boosted suit orders from a Hull-based contractor, from 50,000 a month to 100,000.

The suits cost around £25 each and are worn for about one hour, before the contamination risk becomes too great.

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FTSE Slips To One-Year Low On Growth Fears

The FTSE has closed at its lowest level in nearly a year with a crisis of confidence over the global recovery.

It came as there were warnings about a triple-dip recession in the Eurozone at the IMF's annual conference in Washington.

Data from Europe's biggest economy, Germany, points towards a serious slowdown, with exports falling 5.8% in August - the biggest monthly fall in five years.

The FTSE 100 Index ended the week 91.9 points lower at 6340.

It leaves London's top 100 listed companies worth £140bn less than they were just over a month ago, and at their lowest ebb since last October.

Video: The Week's Big Business Stories

Worries about the global economy, particularly in Europe and Asia, have been accompanied by a wave of selling in energy and commodity stocks due to a sharp fall in the price of oil.

The Ukraine crisis and spread of the deadly ebola virus have also added to fears.

Wall Street saw its worst week since May 2012, with the Dow Jones industrial average down to 16,544.

Germany's Dax was down 2%, extending its losses for the week to 4%, and France's Cac 40 fell by more than 1% on Friday.

On Wednesday, the IMF downgraded global growth for this year and next, and lowered its assessments of Germany, France and Italy.

However, it kept its UK growth estimate for this year static at 2.7%.

That prompted Chancellor George Osborne to warn: "I'd be the first to say we're at a critical moment because the Eurozone risks slipping back into recession and crisis and that is already having an impact on the UK."

Around 50% of UK exports go to the EU.

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Energy Firms' Profits Drops To 2009 Level

By Poppy Trowbridge, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

Profits at the so-called big six energy suppliers are at their lowest since the regulator began collecting data in 2009, according to the regulator.

Ofgem said that between them, they made £2.8bn in profit last year, down 20% from £3.5bn in 2012.

The fall is largely due to lower profits in generation, because of costs from the closure of previously profitable plants.

Rachel Fletcher, senior partner for Ofgem's markets division, said: "Our proposed reforms are providing increased transparency on company profits.

"This is important to inform public debate, encourage competition and to help suppliers rebuild customer trust."

The Ofgem figures also show that each customer paid an average bill of £1,225 last year.

After wholesale and other costs are taken off, that works out at around £48 profit per customer - down from £53 profit for suppliers the previous year.

Recent research from YouGov in partnership with provider SSE showed bill-payers believe suppliers make 26% profit - six times more than Ofgem figure.

Since 2009, Ofgem has required the six large energy companies to produce annual statements showing the actual revenues, costs and profits of their generation and supply businesses.

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Chinese Poised To Snack On 40% Weetabix Stake

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

One of China's biggest food companies is poised to take full control of Weetabix, the UK's second-biggest breakfast cereal producer, in a deal worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Sky News understands that Bright Food, which bought a 60% shareholding in Weetabix in 2012, is preparing to acquire most of the 40% of the company it does not already own.

If it proceeds, the transaction will hand full ownership of brands such as Alpen, Ready Brek and Weetos to Bright Food, underlining a growing trend of takeovers of prominent Western brands by Chinese companies.

The majority of the remaining shares are held by Lion Capital, a private equity group, which took control of Weetabix a decade ago, ending seven decades of family ownership.

As part of the deal that saw Bright Food become the cereal maker's majority investor, Lion and the Chinese company agreed put and call options allowing the transfer of the rest of the shares two years after the original deal completed.

Although Bright Food's investment was announced in May 2012, it did not legally complete until November that year, meaning the window for the remainder of the takeover will open next month.

Bankers said that Lion was likely to pursue the sale of its Weetabix shares shortly after that window opened, although they cautioned that it had not yet been formally agreed.

Weetabix is one of the most popular food brands in the UK, having been founded in 1932 and subsequently expanding to more than 80 countries around the world.

Run by Giles Turrell, its chief executive, the 2012 takeover by Bright Food valued Weetabix at £1.2bn.

Employing around 1,800 people, the Northamptonshire-based company made a pre-tax profit of £68m in the last year for which results are available.

Its backing from Bright Food has spurred plans for the launch of product variants such as green tea-flavoured Weetabix targeted at Chinese consumers for who breakfast cereals are not part of a conventional daily diet.

Although the company is performing well, it told employees earlier this year that it planned to scrap a planned 2.5% pay rise amid a cost reduction drive triggered by pressure from supermarket own-brands and discount rivals.

Bright Food and Lion have continued to work together on other prospective partnerships, exploring a £2bn bid for United Biscuits earlier this year before deciding not to proceed.

One of the remaining bidders for UB is Kellogg, the US cereal producer which is Weetabix's only bigger competitor in the UK market.

Weetabix and Lion Capital declined to comment.

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Microsoft CEO Links Women's Pay Rises To Karma

The newly installed boss of Microsoft has come under fire for telling women they do not need to ask for pay rises, relying instead on "karma".

The comments were made by CEO Satya Nadella while he was speaking in Arizona at an event for women in computing.

Mr Nadella was asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a salary raise.

He replied that women should have faith that the system will give them the right raises as they go along.

"It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along," Mr Nadella told the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

"Because that's good karma... It'll come back because somebody's going to know that's the kind of person that I want to trust."

The comments by India-born Mr Nadella, who has a remuneration package of around $7m (£4.3m), sparked a torrent of criticism on social media.

"Truly horrified that Satya Nadella could tell women at Grace Hopper not to ask for raises," tweeted Julie Bort.

"Wow Microsoft, That's a new low for you," Isik Mater tweeted in response.

Mr Nadella (l) helped oversee the merger of Finland's Nokia into Microsoft

"I'll wait for Karma to lower my #xboxlive price too," tweeted Chuck Granade.

Several hours after his comments, Mr Nadella tried to patch up the damage on Twitter.

"Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise," he tweeted.

"Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias."

Microsoft also posted an all-staff memo from the CEO on its website.

In it, Mr Nadella said he answered the question posed by interviewee Maria Klawe "completely wrong".

"Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programmes at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap," Mr Nadella wrote.

"I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work.

"And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it's deserved, Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."

Mr Nadella's remarks at the Grace Hopper conference have the potential to harm both sales of Microsoft products and the appeal for female tech workers in Silicon Valley to work for the IT giant.

Of more than 100,000 employees at Microsoft, only 29% are female, according to data released by the firm recently.

The controversy comes just days after reports of the deteriorating relationship between Microsoft founder Bill Gates and its former CEO Steve Ballmer.

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Fears UK Will Be Hit By New Euro Recession

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor, in Washington

The euro crisis is back. But this time it's different.

That's the general gist of the discussions at the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington this week.

For this time around the meetings - a key opportunity for policymakers to catch up on the state of the global economy - have coincided with a fresh bout of fear over the euro area.

This isn't the same kind of crisis the single currency faced a couple of years ago, when there were genuine worries that it might break up.

Instead, the concern is that it simply hasn't recovered fully from the recessions of recent years. Worse: it may soon slump back into another recession.

Leaders are looking to the European Central Bank to take action

Why? In large part because of long-term problems in the continent: weak growth, poor demographics and unreformed regulatory systems.

The problem is that this time around there is even less clarity about what to do about it.

Video: IMF's Delicate Dancing Act

The French are determined to borrow and spend more to try to boost growth.

So are the Italians. The problem is that doing so will mean they will break the supposedly iron-clad fiscal rules laid down by eurocrats in the teeth of the crisis.

The Germans are determined to keep control of their public finances, but are being urged by most of their neighbours to spend a bit more and boost demand. Though no-one is courageous enough to tell them to their face.

That's the real reason why the IMF has spent most of the past week telling European countries to spend more on infrastructure.

You only have to watch our interview with IMF deputy managing director David Lipton to see how delicate a dancing act the Fund is having to perform here.

Meanwhile everyone, including George Osborne, has been looking towards the European Central Bank, indicating that they might be wise to consider going all in and doing full-scale quantitative easing.

Except that the ECB and central banking insiders insist they have already done enough - and that it's up to the politicians to do more.

Video: Economic Issues Linked To Conflict

In other words, it's all a bit of a mess. Europe is sliding towards a possible triple-dip recession and no-one seems to be able to decide what to do about it.

Now, to be fair, this episode doesn't have the same level of fear as the 2008 financial crisis or the subsequent euro malaise.

There are no rioters on the streets in Greece and Madrid.

But in another sense this is a far deeper problem: another recession in Europe could be contagious, knocking a serious chunk off Britain's growth prospects.

There is no fix - and no easy answer.

This comes as the world faces a whole barrage of other issues: ebola, which World Bank president Jim Yong Kim has focused on this week; the rise of IS, Islamic State, which IMF Middle East head Masood Ahmed warns has economic as well as social root causes.

All of which helps explain why markets are so jittery at the moment.

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Singapore's SMRT Steers £800m Addison Lee Bid

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

One of Singapore's largest transport groups is examining an £800m takeover bid for Addison Lee, London's biggest minicab operator.

Sky News has learnt that SMRT Corporation, which is listed on the Asian city state's stock exchange, is at the early stages of considering an offer.

Addison Lee's owner, the private equity group Carlyle, has kicked off an auction of the company for which it paid £300m just 18 months ago.

Credit Suisse, the investment bank handling the sale, has asked bidders to lodge initial proposals next week.

SMRT, which runs bus, train and taxi services in Singapore, is expected to be joined in the bidding by up to half a dozen buyout firms, including BC Partners, Charterhouse and CVC Capital Partners.

Addison Lee, which was founded by former cab driver John Griffin with a single car in 1975, now handles 10m passenger journeys annually, with more than 4,000 drivers on its books.

Its rapid ascent has not been without controversy, however.

The company's boss enraged rivals when he suggested that its drivers should use bus lanes, and accused cyclists of causing many of the road accidents in London which have prompted concern among safety groups.

Addison Lee has dismissed suggestions that the emergence of new economy companies such as Uber will diminish its growth prospects, arguing that the two companies serve separate customer bases.

If SMRT does proceed with an offer, it would represent the second offer from a Singaporean entity for a Carlyle-owned motoring business in as many months.

In September, the private equity group sold a 50% stake in the RAC, Britain's second-largest roadside recovery group, in a transaction valuing the company at more than £2bn.

Bidders for Addison Lee are likely to be attracted to the prospect of international expansion, although one private equity firm suggested there was some anxiety about the encroachment of so many technology-based start-ups.

News of SMRT's interest in Addison Lee comes just a month after it announced a joint venture agreement with Hailo, the London-based taxi mobile application developer.

Carlyle declined to comment.

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