| Preliminary 2006 Provident Financial plc Earnings Presentation - Final
JOHN VAN KUFFELER, CEO, PROVIDENT FINANCIAL PLC: Right, welcome everybody to our presentation on the 2006 preliminary results. As one of you remarked to me, I gather we've got a marathon session this morning and that is true. It is a fairly full presentation and that is because we've not just got the results, but also details of the de-merger and so on. And also we want to set the scene so that particularly all of you as analysts start off with the right sets of figures and so on, for looking forward as opposed to looking back. This just gives the order of play for today that I'm just giving a quick overview to start off with, followed by a financial review by Andrew Fisher here on my right, our Finance Director. That's followed by the UK business, UK home credit, Vanquis Bank and Provident Insurance being given by Peter Crook, on the far right who you know.
Russia's Good Fortune: The Flat Tax Reform
Jon Hellevig, a Finnish citizen currently practicing business law in Moscow, sends us this article about the tremendous success of the supply side tax reforms implemented in Russia since 2002. In addition to a better climate for investors and businesses, these changes have given millions of Russians the freedom to travel, to communicate instantly via email and cellphones, and greater access to Western media networks. The social and political consequences of all of this for Russia are now being vigorously debated, but no one can deny that Russia's economy has surged forward in the last six years. -The Editors Putin's efforts to pull Russia out of political and social anarchy and strengthen statehood are starting to pay off transforming Russia into one of the best investment climates in the world while rewarding the nation with unprecedented increases in living standards.
Special report: Inside the Kebble forensics
Even hardened cynics would concede that Investec, the investment bank, has been placed in an invidious position in the wake of the late Brett Kebble scandal. But litigation has silenced Investec. The key piece sits in the hands of London-based lawyer and entrepreneur Monty Koppel, who speaks for 20% of shareholders in JCI. Koppel is suing JCI and Investec over the legitimacy of a profit sharing fee, now running around R500m, that JCI agreed to pay Investec. The fee stems from the Investec loan agreement (ILA), dated to late August 2005, when Investec bailed JCI out with loans of around R460m. Investec was separately attacked last Friday by Johann Blersch and Tom Dale, simultaneous with their ousting (as independent directors) from the board of Randgold & Exploration (R&E).
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