Troubled Raju turns to employees for support

Under attack from investors and many of the Board members over the Maytas acquisition fiasco, Satyam Computer Chairman Ramalinga Raju solicited support of employees on Tuesday, saying everything possible was being done to get the company back on track.

At the same time, he hit out at the detractors, including four directors who quit the Board over corporate governance issues, saying: "The Board arrived at its decision to bid for Maytas by following all required processes and procedures and while there was a spirited discussion among members, their vote to approve the motion was unanimous."



Breaking his silence on the embarrassing developments over the last two weeks, Raju said in an open letter to employees that "please be assured that the Board and the leadership team are doing everything that's possible to get Satyam back on track.



"We cannot do this without your help... I ask for your continued faith in Satyam and for your steadfast focus on your customers, specially in the face of wild speculation and unchecked rumours."



The letter comes amid reports of uneasiness among the over 50,000 employees of the company, even as speculation was rife that a chunk of its talented employees was already looking for other options

Firms to pipe Burma gas to China

Burma's military government has signed a deal with a consortium of four foreign firms to pipe natural gas into neighbouring China, state media report.

The firms - from South Korea and India - will pipe the gas from fields off Burma's north-western coast.

The deal was signed in a ceremony in Rangoon on 24 December, the New Light of Myanmar state newspaper reported.

Campaigners complain that the deals will threaten local people's human rights and enrich Burma's ruling junta.

The US and Europe maintain economic sanctions against Burma - also known as Myanmar - for its human rights record and long detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But their impact has been diluted by energy investments from nearby countries, including China, India and Thailand, all hungry for its reserves of oil and gas.

30-year deal

Now Burma's state energy firm has signed a deal with South Korea's Daewoo and Korea Gas Corporation, and India's ONGC Videsh and GAIL. Daewoo holds the leading 51% stake in the deal.

The deal will see gas from Shwe reserves in waters off the Burmese state of Rakhine piped to China to supply China's National United Oil Corporation. China's Xinhua state news agency says it is a 30-year deal.

Oil rises on Middle East tensions

Crude oil prices have climbed on concerns that Israel's attacks on Hamas could disrupt oil production and threaten supplies from the Middle East.

Light, sweet crude rose $1.22 to $37.89 a barrel in New York, below a session high of $42.20.

Meanwhile London Brent added $1.39 to $38.70 a barrel, after reaching a high of $43.18.

Oil has fallen more than $100 from its peak of $147.27 a barrel on 11 July as slowing economies have dented demand.

"Geopolitics had disappeared from the oil scene for the last couple of months but will regain some price premium with the latest Israeli attack in Gaza," Olivier Jakob, of consultants Petromatrix, said in a research note.

Meanwhile upgraded figures from the US Energy Information Administration showed that US demand in October was down by 833,000 barrels per day (bpd) from a year earlier.

The demand of 19.643 million bpd was 4.07% less than the demand of 20.476 million bpd a year earlier.

Russian rouble slides to new low

The Russian rouble has hit a low after its central bank allowed the currency to devalue for the twelfth time - including nine falls this month.

It fell to 41.6 against the euro - an all time low - and to 29.3 against the dollar, the lowest level since 2005.

The currency has lost more than 20% of its value against the dollar - largely due to the slumping price of oil on which Russia's economy heavily relies.

The Kremlin has been using reserves to try and support the currency.

However concern that Russia is pumping too much cash into supporting the rouble prompted ratings agency Standard and Poor's to cut the country's credit rating earlier this month for the first time in nine years.

Borrowing plans

The rouble has also touched a new low of 34.8 roubles against the basket of euros and dollars which is its official measure within the country.

Russia's central bank, which sets the official exchange rates, does not normally allow the currency to lose more than 1% percent of its value in one day against the basket of currencies.

But it has gradually been devaluing the rouble by allowing deeper falls, with it sliding 1.5% on Monday.

Oil revenues have been the main driver of the boom enjoyed by the Russian economy in recent years.

But the sharp declines in the price of crude oil means Russia is facing economic challenges.

Its budget has been calculated on the basis if it getting at least $70 a barrel for its Urals crude - the country's main export blend. It is currently worth about $32 a barrel.

Last week the economic adviser to President Dmitry Medvedev said that the country would probably draw on further reserves and borrow from abroad to bridge the shortfall.

The central bank's first deputy chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said last week that it had opted to allow the rouble to devalue gradually instead of allowing a single, much larger devaluation.

The worsening economic outlook and the fall in the price of oil has left the government with little option.

Further falls

Russia's central bank has spent more than $100bn (£68bn) defending its currency since the summer.

Despite the fall in oil revenues, Russia possesses the world's third largest reserves of gold and foreign exchange reserves.

And the central bank is prepared to continue to defend the rouble in order to avoid a repeat of the 1998 financial crisis, when Russians rushed to withdraw their savings as the currency plummeted.

The Kremlin has warned that the global economic slowdown is continuing to take its toll - predicting that the number of people registered as unemployed would rise to about 2.2 million by the end of 2009, from the current level of 1.5 million.

Pound hits new low against euro

The pound has hit a new record low against the euro as the grim outlook for the UK economy continues to put downward pressure on the currency.

Weak house price data and figures showing that homeowners are choosing to repay their mortgages rather than spending, pushed the currency lower.

Low trading levels in the foreign exchange markets also helped to force sterling down to 1.0198 euros.

Many analysts believe parity with the euro is now only a matter of time.

The rate for tourists buying their currency before they travel has almost reached parity, where one pound buys one euro. At one major High Street currency exchange, 100 euros currently costs £99.11.

Downward pressure

Property consultants Hometrack predicted a 12% fall in UK property prices in 2009, while figures from the Bank of England showed that households were more keen to pay off their mortgages than borrow money against the value of their homes for spending.

Towards the end of October, one pound bought 1.287 euros. But a string of bad news about the prospects for the UK economy caused sterling to fall.

In December last year, a pound would have bought more than 1.4 euros. At its peak in 2000, the pound was worth more than 1.7 euros.

There are two main factors putting downward pressure on the pound, analysts suggest.

First, interest rates in the UK are lower than those in the eurozone, which makes the pound less attractive to foreign investors.

Analysts believe the economic slowdown in the UK will be more severe than in the eurozone, which means the Bank of England could be forced to lower interest rates from their current level of 2%.

Interest rates in the eurozone currently stand at 2.5% and the European Central Bank has hinted that further rate cuts are unlikely early in the New Year.

Second, trading levels over the holiday period are low, which means that any moves in exchange rates are exaggerated.

"Actual liquidity levels are painfully thin," said Daniel Baker at Informa Global Markets.

He believes parity with the euro is almost inevitable.

"The path to parity is self-fulfilling," he said.