■ Philips
Female managers to rise
Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest consumer-electronics maker, plans to double its quota of senior women managers to cast off its "male, Dutch" image, the Financial Times said, citing a Philips director. "We recognize that our company is too male, too Dutch and too gray, particularly at senior management level, and we don't like it," said Arthur van der Poel, the board member in charge of the plan, according to the newspaper. Philips will tell its annual shareholders' meeting tomorrow that the proportion of women in its 780-strong executive group will rise to at least 10 percent from 4 percent, the newspaper said. Low representation of women at the top of large Dutch companies is a concern among the country's political and business leaders, according to the newspaper.
■ PC Displays
Shipments up 54% in Q4
Shipments of flat-panel liquid crystal computer displays rose by 54 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago after lower prices tempted consumers to replace bulkier glass-tube-based monitors, a market researcher said. Shipments totaled 9.9 million units, a gain of 30 percent from the preceding quarter and broadly in line with the 29 percent forecast by suppliers, Austin, Texas-based DisplaySearch said in an e-mailed report. Price declines of up to 30 percent and promotion by Dell Computer Corp and other sellers persuaded more PC users to switch to the screens, which measure up to 30 inches diagonally but are thinner than a cigarette packet. "Driving the fourth-quarter growth was strong seasonal demand, stand-alone cathode-ray tube replacement demand and lower prices," the researcher said in its report.
■ Easy money
Chain letters hit e-mail
Consumer-protection organizations are warning about an increase in e-mail chain letters which make promises of quick money. Some letters lure people with promises of 250,000 euros in less than six months, says the Consumer Center in Berlin. To make this sort of money, participants are required merely to be "consistent" and faithfully follow the requirements. The center warns that behind the mails is a snowball system in which is is almost impossible to make money. Participants are required to, for example, pay 30 euros for six books of supposedly great value which are then to be sold on to other people. The large amounts of money can be made by using a list of links which the Internet user can download free of charge.
■ ReinsurerS
Munich Re profit rises
Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, said Thursday its net profit more than quadrupled last year after the year-earlier figures were hit by the effects of the Sept. 11 attacks in the US. Munich Re booked net profit of 1.1 billion euros (US$1.2 billion) compared with the 250 million euros in 2001, the group said in a statement. The figure was partly boosted by the sale of a number of assets, but was not quite as high as analysts had been expecting. Despite the sharp rise in earnings, Munich Re said it would pay shareholders an unchanged dividend of 1.25 euros per share. Gross premium income rose by 10.8 percent to 40 billion euros last year, the statement said. Munich Re said that business is good after the renegotiation of its reinsurance contracts this year.
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