A new survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the world's largest employee benefits consultancy, shows that employment costs in western European countries are more than four times higher than those in the east. At the extremes, costs in the most expensive countries are over ten times those in the least costly countries.

Close Brothers Corporate Finance ("Close Brothers") has today warned that the volume of mergers and acquisitions in the UK in 2005 could be held back because of a reluctance by private equity firms to work with companies that have pension shortfalls. There are also separate concerns that there is a 'knowledge deficit' amongst company bosses of the future role of the new Pensions Regulator.

Morgan Stanley announces that Dante Roscini will join the firm as a managing director, effective July 1, 2005.

NAC Aviation Ltd, the sole UK distributor for the Raytheon Aircraft Company, one of America's largest general aviation manufacturers, has chosen to outsource its entire finance function to Vantis Outsource. The partnership with Vantis will allow NAC's directors to free themselves of day-to-day finance issues, such as management accounts, VAT and credit control, in order to stay focused on sales, marketing and business development.

Two very different companies, Time Warner Telecom and The Singing Machine Company, have both this week made internal CFO appointments, promoting members of the finance team who have made significant contributions over recent months. Time Warner Telecom has appointed its treasurer and acting CFO Mark Peters as permanent CFO with immediate effect.

Bank of America has appointed Patrick Baune as Head of European Sales for its Global Foreign Exchange business. Baune is based in London and spearheads the firm's Foreign Exchange (FX) sales initiatives within Europe. He reports jointly to Alain Delelis, head of Global Spot & Emerging Market Trading and overall head of Europe, Middle East & Africa Foreign Exchange, and Robert Gotelli, global head of Foreign Exchange Sales.

Have you refinanced this quarter's maturing bonds early? If so, well done. If not, you may be in trouble. The largest amount of US debt for five years is due to mature this quarter, and spreads are only going to widen.

Hedge fund Aspect Capital has gone live with SimCorp's IT/2 treasury management system, enabling it to increase cash control and flow of management information. The system is in use both to manage cash within fund portfolios and for treasury control in the corporate entity.

Investors and analysts outside the US are not well informed about Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and are concerned about the potential impact of negative disclosures, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of investors and analysts in North America, Europe and Asia who cover US-listed companies.

CFO resignations at Fortune 500 companies went up 21% during 2004 and overall turnover rose 23%, according to a study by Russell Reynolds Associates.

CFO changes are underway in sectors as diverse as mining, communications and consulting.

Figures just released by Dealogic show that DCM volume in the first quarter of this year was 9% lower than in the same period last year.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has recommended that the credit rating agencies should not be regulated by the European Commission for the time being, a view CF espoused in its October 2004 cover story.

New accounting standards requiring pension deficits to be recorded on the balance sheet could result in a £100 billion ($188 billion) hit to UK companies this year, says professional services firm Deloitte. Whether the change will result in a downgrading of companies' share prices will depend on the extent that pension deficits have already been factored in by the markets. Under new accounting standards*, UK companies will record the total deficit for final salary pension schemes in full on the balance sheet. For example, Deloitte actuaries estimate the total pensions deficit of FTSE 100 companies to be around £50 billion at the current time, whereas less than around £10 billion is currently booked in the accounts. Therefore, the FTSE 100 may need to provide for an extra £40 billion. Across all UK companies, the total hit could be as much as £100 billion.

The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a standard yesterday that could help companies convince investors of the strength of their financial controls, without having to call in the auditors for a full report.

Last year saw an unprecedented number (56) of M&A transactions in Central & Eastern Europe valued over $100 million, totalling $27.8 billion. Out of these "mega" deals, 27 occurred in Russia and represented almost 40% of total estimated transactions in the region.

Siemens Financial Services (SFS) is expanding its financing business into the Chinese market. The company today announced the launch of a proprietary leasing company in China, the Siemens Finance and Leasing Ltd (SFLL). SFLL has been awarded the leasing license by relevant government bodies and is one of the first 100% foreign owned lessors in the financial services sector in China.

Following a roaring performance in terms of new admissions and

Corporate Finance Magazine Archive

The relationship between management and boards of directors at U.S. multinational companies has been changed dramatically through an array of corporate governance initiatives begun in response to corporate scandals, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and other requirements. According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Barometer: