GlaxoSmithKline appoints Emma Walmsley as CEO

GlaxoSmithKline on Tuesday appointed Emma Walmsley, its head of consumer healthcare, to lead the British drugs giant and develop new treatments in a fast-consolidating sector.
Walmsley, 47, succeeds outgoing chief executive Andrew Witty, who is retiring early next year after almost a decade at the helm.
Walmsley, who joined GSK from French cosmetics giant L’Oreal six years ago and has a background in marketing, will take up her new post at the end of March.
She will join six other women who currently head one of the 100 companies listed on London’s benchmark FTSE index but will oversee the largest of the seven, which include EasyJet, led by Carolyn McCall.
The global pharmaceutical sector has undergone major consolidation in recent years as companies battle competition for generic versions of their drugs.
In the past month, US giant Pfizer announced a deal to purchase biotech firm Medivation, which specialises in cancer treatments, for $14 billion (12.5 billion euros).
Google and French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi have meanwhile agreed a joint venture focused on diabetes care.
For its part, GSK agreed in 2014 to sell its oncology business to Novartis for $16 billion, while buying the Swiss group’s vaccines division in return.
The pair also formed a joint venture for consumer health products, headed by Walmsley.
“Emma is an outstanding leader with highly valuable experience of building and running major global businesses and a strong track record of delivering growth and driving performance in healthcare,” GSK chairman Philip Hampton said in a statement.
“Under Andrew’s leadership, GSK has successfully developed into a company with market-leading positions in pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer healthcare. These provide excellent platforms for sustainable, long-term growth,” he added.
Alongside the Novartis deal, the latter part of Witty’s tenure was clouded by Chinese authorities fining GSK the equivalent of almost half a billion dollars in 2014 over alleged bribery.
The firm’s former head of China operations, Mark Reilly, and four other ex-officials were handed suspended prison sentences over the incident.
– ‘R&D the beating heart’ –
Looking ahead, Walmsley said in the statement that GSK has “the potential to create meaningful benefits for patients, consumers and our shareholders” thanks to a rise in “medical innovation and trusted healthcare products”.
In an interview posted on the firm’s website, the married, mother-of-four added that research and developement of new products would remain GSK’s priority under her stewardship.
“R&D is absolutely the beating heart of our company and our success is and will continue to be defined most fundamentally by the strength of our pipeline,” she said.
The Oxford University graduate pointed also to challenges that lay ahead for her company and the sector as a whole.
“Pricing is a key area of focus, government and household budgets are under pressure, the regulatory environment is extremely tough and unpredictable and of course society wants big business and big pharma to continue to close the trust deficit that has been widening,” she said.
GSK’s shares were down 0.6 percent at £16.36 in late morning deals following the announcement, underperforming the wider FTSE 100, which gained half a percent.
“The GSK business, including pharma, is in stronger shape than the market realises and this ‘don’t upset the apple cart’ appointment is consistent with this view,” brokers Liberum said in a note to clients.
GSK said details of Walmsley’s salary would be disclosed next year. The company employs around 100,000 people worldwide, of which one-tenth work in R&D.

Lufthansa signs joint venture with Air China

German airline Lufthansa and Air China said on Tuesday they had signed a deal to jointly operate all the groups’ connections between Europe and China.
“The Chinese aviation market is one of the most important growth markets worldwide. We want to profit from this growth together,” Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said in a statement.
The Chinese flag carrier and Lufthansa, Europe’s largest airline, have had a joint venture in their sights since signing a memorandum of understanding in 2014.
The move is “another major step of Air China’s globalisation strategy,” chairman Cai Jianjiang said.
Added to Lufthansa’s other co-operations, including with Japan’s ANA and Singapore Airlines in Asia, and United Airlines and Air Canada in north America, the joint venture means around half of the German giant’s long-haul flights are now covered by such agreements.

FG must channel money into infrastructure – ICAN president

The President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Mr. Titus Soetan, said financial institutions and government at all levels must play the lead role in the effort to steer the nation’s economy out of recession.
The ICAN president spoke at the 60th anniversary of an accounting firm, HLB Z.O. Ososanya and Company, in Ibadan at the weekend, where he called on Nigerians to curb their taste for imported items and embrace local content.
Soetan explained that one of the ways to tackle the economic recession was for the Federal Government to channel money into the economy by developing infrastructure, thereby creating jobs for Nigerians and gradually reviving the ailing economy.

Lagos floats fresh initiative to tackle youth unemployment

The Lagos State government has commenced the empowerment of 500 youths under its Ready Set Work (RSW) scheme as part of its efforts at curbing youth unemployment in the state.
The scheme is executed in collaboration with the First City Monument Bank plc, (FCMB) among others stakeholders in job creation initiatives.
RSW is an entrepreneurship and employability initiatives of the Lagos state Ministry of Eduaction that is focused on final year students in high institutions.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony of RSW students in Lagos recently, the Special adviser for Education in Lagos state, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said the objective of RSW is to equip student with the critical skills and the know-how necessary to either become employable or employers of labour.
He added: “The need for this programme was underlined by the apparent gap between the

BOI earmarks N10bn for Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programme

The Bank of Industry, said on Tuesday it had set aside N10bn this year for the Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) Programme of the Federal Government.
Malam Aliyu Umaru, North East Regional Head of the bank, made the disclosure in Maiduguri at the opening of a five-day capacity building workshop for participants under the programme.
Umaru said the bank would engage 25,000 youths quarterly for the programme nationwide.
“We had about 71,788 applications based on the two online registration batches that we did.
“Based on this, we are envisaging that we will be getting 25, 000 participants every quarter and that makes it about 100,000 participants in a year,” he said.
He said the participants were selected based on their business proposals and how workable their plans are.

Nokia returns to Nigeria, opens office in Lagos

Nokia, the Swedish telecoms, which hitherto left the country some months ago has returned and opened its office in Lagos for business.
In a statement issued on its re-opening of business office in the country, the company restated its constructive and collaborative engagement with the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
Nokia disclosed that its business operations and support to its customers in the country were not negatively affected by the brief office closure.
“Nokia has operated in Nigeria for over a decade, and as in all other markets where we have a

MAN back Adeosun’s call for interest rate cut

Frank Jacobs

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to lower interest rate so that the government can borrow domestically to boost the economy without increasing debt servicing costs.
While reacting to the minister’s call, the President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Dr. Frank Jacobs, said that a cut in interest rate would be the best thing to happen to the economy.
“He said, “It will be the best thing that has ever happened to the economy, particularly the manufacturing sector.
“It is what we have been agitating for since and if the interest rate is brought down, it will be the best decision in the current economic dispensation.”
The government is also planning an “immediate large injection of funds” through asset sales, advance payments for licence renewals and infrastructure concessions, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, said.

Sell national assets to stimulate economy – Abuja Chamber tells FG

Tony Ejinkeonye

Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ACCI, yesterday expressed support for the call on the Federal Government to sell some national assets and use the proceed to get the country out of its current recession.
The Chamber’s President, Mr Tony Ejinkeonye, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Ejinkeonye said Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote’s recent advice to the Federal Government to sell some national assets, instead of borrowing to get the country out of the recession, was apt.
He said the advice was a veritable option which would be able to stimulate the economy. The chamber’s boss said for countries that had experienced economic recession, some fiscal measures were taken to drag them out during the period.
“The fiscal tools can be in form of tax cut for low income earners, business incentives, federal spending cuts, provision of market exchanges or support for faster movement of goods.
“Increase in trade, selling-off of national assets, increasing government spending to absorb