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Demand for interim managers is at its highest since 2001, with average daily fees by up to 7.5% at £513 compared with December 2003. A new industry survey carried out by Russam GMS end-December 2004 reveals that engineering and manufacturing are the leading sectors to use interim managers accounting for 19%.

The US healthcare sector saw the most private equity activity in 2004 with firms investing a total of $20.6 billion, according to data from Dealogic.

MeadWestvaco, the US packaging, paper and office products producer, has announced it has reached a definitive agreement to sell its papers business and associated assets for $2.3 billion to a new company controlled by Cerberus Capital Management L.P., a buyout firm based in New York.

Following on from yesterday's news that hedge funds now dominate the market for US distressed debt, making the market far more aggressive and volatile for companies in trouble, a report has revealed that the Americans are planning to target Europe this year.

Honda Finance Europe has started live treasury management operations using Richmond's Odyssey system. Honda Finance Europe is using the system to support its pan-European funding operations, which use the issuance of commercial paper and bills of exchange as their primary vehicles. The issuance programs are supported by bank facilities, and the system performs the arbitrage calculations, FX and cash management functions required by the financing operation. The second phase of the project is delivering extended integration and analytical processes, to enhance the core solution.

Recent accounting regulations appear to be improving the accuracy of companies' earnings forecasts. The percentage of companies among the Standard & Poors 500 stock index that missed analysts' earnings-per-share projections by at least 10% fell to 29.7% in the 2004 third quarter. That's the lowest level since financial management consultancy, Parson Consulting, began the quarterly study in the 2003 first quarter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Google with failing to register the issuance of option grants to employees or provide required financial information to the option recipients. The Silicon Valley-based company, according to the SEC, issued over $80 million in stock options to its employees in the two years preceding its IPO, yet failed to register the securities or make financial disclosures mandated by federal securities law.

Hedge funds now account for 82% of US trading in companies' distressed debt, threatening to destabilise yet more companies on the brink of insolvency, according to a new survey by Greenwich Associates.

A third of mid-market venture capitalists will not invest in a company with a pensions deficit from a defined benefit scheme, according to a survey conducted by Grant Thornton Corporate Finance. Whilst every venture capitalist questioned said they had completed at least one deal involving a company with a pensions liability over the past twelve months, over 80% of respondents said this was not the case in the majority of their new investments.

David Blain is joining UK operations management provider eg Solutions as financial director. His previous role was financial director and company secretary of Drew Scientific Group where he spent 11 years. Blain trained as a chartered accountant at Hartlepool firm WT Walton and Son, before becoming an audit senior manager at PwC, where he worked from 1984 until 1993.

Research by market analyst Datamonitor and outsourcing advisory firm Everest Group reveals the global outsourcing sector is increasingly being driven by mid-size contracts - particularly in the fast-growing business process outsourcing space.

CF this month brought news of a survey showing that, over the last year, CFOs in the US have become more burdened by company pension schemes. Meanwhile, analysis of Fortune 100 companies by Towers Perrin, the human resources consulting firm, has found that, while funding has increased over the last year, deferred pension costs have continued to rise.