Energiser Investments Share Discussion Threads

[divmad] 14/7/2020 13:18

Just take it as a lesson in life to curb your natural enthusiasm mate. You have to work within the rules. You aren't the first to have to learn this lesson and you won't be the last. That's all. Stick to the facts of the investment case and you'll get plenty of followers.

[divmad] 14/7/2020 12:01

I see Naim twitter account suspended. That's one ramper gone.

[florenceorbis] 14/7/2020 09:06

MORNINGSTARONLINE



Engie: low-wage contractors and the NHS

SOLOMON HUGHES looks at the French firm drafted in by the privateers to run security in our hospitals and its empty commitment to the Living Wage

French connection: Engie is expanding its grip on the public sector in Britain

CONTRACTED-OUT security guards at Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester have voted to strike for equal pay with their NHS colleagues in a dispute that shows what is wrong with Britain’s “crony capitalism.”

The guards work at Tameside — but they work for a multinational corporation called Engie. Thanks to both New Labour and Tory privatisation, many workers who run our public services are actually employed by the private sector: the big corporations squeeze their profits out of our NHS, our taxes and their work.

According to their union, Unison, the Tameside guards are paid less than NHS rates. Some are paid only the minimum wage rate of £8.72 an hour, or lower for under-25s.

The lowest rate for security staff employed directly by the NHS is £9.89 per hour. Taking into account overtime payments, most of the Tameside security staff are between £2,000 and £3,000 worse off per year, with one worker almost £6,000 out of pocket.

So they have voted unanimously to strike and will walk out on Monday, July 13 unless Engie settle the dispute. Or unless the hospital management — Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust — step in and force Engie to pay.

But who is Engie? It’s a French multinational, which is growing in Britain: when builder and outsourcer Carillion crashed, it could have been a chance for the country to admit a mistake and take some privatised public services back “in house” — instead, other companies are stepping in to take over, including French giant Engie.

Engie — formerly known as GDF Suez — is a French energy and engineering company. Engie also has a big “facilities management” arm which has been grabbing public-sector contracts for cleaning, janitorial and maintenance services. Since around 2013, Engie has had a strategy of expanding its public-sector work by taking over “facilities management” formerly run by other contractors like Balfour Beatty or Carillion.

With Engie looking for public-sector contracts and working in the highly regulated energy business, the French firm has been busy hiring former senior British public officials to help its expansion.

In November 2016 Engie hired Bob Kerslake, former head of the Civil Service, and Joan McNaughton, a Department of Trade and Industry director-general in the Blair years, to sit on its advisory or “scrutiny̶1; board, which is chaired by former KPMG head Sir Mike Rake. Former Lib Dem energy minister Ed Davey also sat on this Engie board during 2016-2017. In 2016 David Cameron’s former national security adviser Lord Ricketts joined the board of the French parent company, Group Engie.

Getting people like Kerslake to sit on its “scrutiny board” buys Engie some good corporate PR, but does it actually help the workers?

Kerslake says in his latest report for Engie that “the scrutiny board’s purpose is to hold Engie UK publicly to account for the delivery of their Responsible Business Charter.”

So does paying good wages form part of this Responsible Business Charter? Well yes. And no.

Engie’s “responsible business charter” includes a commitment for “promoting the Real Living Wage.” But that is not the same as actually paying a real living wage. Instead it just means Engie should: “Provide 100 per cent of customers with the option to adopt the real living wage.” Engie doesn’t make a real living wage an essential part of their work, it just has it as an “option” contractors might want to consider.

Kerslake simply passes the buck on the “living wage commitment,” saying: “It is ultimately the commissioner’s decision to tender and award contracts which incorporate the living wage. In too many cases the purchaser is unwilling to fund this commitment.” Engie wins its business by pitching low-wage contracts, then blames the hospitals that “commission221; it for the low wages.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Kerslake and all the members of the Engie scrutiny committee are paid well above the “national living wage.” They get highly paid so they can make excuses for Engie, so that it can simultaneously claim to be for the living wage and not pay it to its staff.

It is not surprising that Engie acts in a way that is slippery, if not downright dishonest. The firm has a history for it: in June 2018 the European Commission ruled Engie must pay €120 million in tax — Engie had unfairly avoided tax on income moved through Luxemburg in a breach of state aid rules.

The year before the French Competition Authority fined Engie €100m for uncompetitive behaviour in recruiting French gas and electricity customers. Both fines relate to the energy sectors, but is seems to me Engie are just as capable of acting in a less-than-straight way in other sectors.

[waldron] 13/7/2020 17:43

Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 43.28 +0.09%
Gasoline NYMEX 1.28 +0.01%
Natural Gas NYMEX 1.81 -2.11%
WTI 40.545 USD +1.07%


FTSE 100
6,176.19 +1.33%
Dow Jones
26,475.77 +1.54%
CAC 40
5,056.23 +1.73%
SBF 120
3,979.78 +1.66%
Euro STOXX 50
3,350 +1.70%
DAX
12,799.97 +1.32%
Ftse Mib
20,014.74 +1.25%



Eni
8.66 +1.98%




Total
33.71 +1.17%


Engie
11.115 +1.69%

Orange
10.665 +1.62%



Bp
296.65 +2.01%

Vodafone
124.72 +1.05%

Royal Dutch Shell A
1,279.2 +2.63%


Royal Dutch Shell B
1,217.8 +2.44%

TULLOW OIL
Price (GBX)30.29 +1.10%
TLW

[gasman10] 13/7/2020 16:39

I know hes one of the deramp mob. When he turns up you know a shares going to go up.

[gasman10] 13/7/2020 16:13

Did ages ago he appears shares go up

[gasman10] 13/7/2020 15:46

Good sign your here means we are going up.

[gasman10] 13/7/2020 15:11

Yes very easy hold with 2p plus written all over it

[ariane] 13/7/2020 11:02

GIRLS STOP YER BICKERING

U B ON WRONG THREAD

[ariane] 13/7/2020 10:28

ANDOVERADVERTIZER

Biffa installs electric vehicle charging at sites

By Sophie Day @ChronicleSophie Multimedia reporter
Biffa

Biffa
1 comment

THE waste collection company Biffa has entered into a partnership to install electric vehicle charging facilities across their UK sites, including Winchester.

The business has teamed up with ENGIE in support of its ‘Resourceful, Responsible’ sustainability strategy launched earlier this year.

ENGIE will install an initial 14 Alfen EV chargers (6 single & 8 dual socket) which will be a combination of 22kW twin socket load balanced units as well as some single and dual socket 7kW units. The chargers will all be operated and managed by ENGIE’s GeniePoint Platform, providing Biffa staff, drivers and visitors to site, reliable and easy to use charging facilities to support the transition to electric vehicles.

Mark Robson, Biffa head of procurement, said: “In order to meet the current and future demands for vehicle charging it was essential that Biffa found a reliable, experienced and cost effective partner to deliver an effective solution. In Engie we have found just that partner and we are very much looking forward to working with them to expand our coverage of charging points to support both front line vehicles and other company vehicles.”

Alex Bamberg, managing director of ENGIE EV Solutions, said: “Biffa is clearly demonstrating its commitment to cleaner air and reduced carbon output across all aspects of its business. ENGIE are ideally placed to support these efforts by providing the latest in EV charging technology in a scalable solution to support future growth as it transitions to zero carbon transport in the coming months and years.”

[philjeans] 13/7/2020 08:42

The old KCR REIT is de-listing from Aim. I expect the new directors here will sell their stake in KCR shortly, to invest in a new hi-tec business.

Or await an RTO.

Good new coming either way!

BUY.

[smackeraim] 13/7/2020 08:41

Yeah T. Easy hold from here imo.

[tomboyb] 13/7/2020 08:12

Good start this morning -

[intheknow69] 10/7/2020 22:25

The volcano will erupt when everyone least expects it.

[waldron] 10/7/2020 17:30

Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 42.99 +1.51%
Gasoline NYMEX 1.25 +1.79%
Natural Gas NYMEX 1.86 +2.37%
WTI 40.18 USD +1.45%




FTSE 100
6,095.41 +0.76%
Dow Jones
25,909.21 +0.79%
CAC 40
4,970.48 +1.01%
SBF 120
3,914.62 +1.03%
Euro STOXX 50
3,296.22 +1.00%
DAX
12,633.71 +1.15%
Ftse Mib
19,754.71 +1.28%




Eni
8.492 +0.69%


Total
33.32 +0.48%


Engie
10.93 +1.20%

Orange
10.495 +0.86%



Bp
290.8 +0.28%

Vodafone
123.42 +0.64%

Royal Dutch Shell A
1,246.4 +1.23%



Royal Dutch Shell B
1,188.8 +0.64%

TULLOW OIL
Price (GBX) 29.96 -4.01%

[tomboyb] 10/7/2020 10:21

Vol nearing 0.70p again -

[waldron] 10/7/2020 07:04

Nord Stream 2 pipeline gets Denmark green light, may be completed soon
Jul. 9, 2020 5:23 PM ET|About: Public Joint Stock Company ... (OGZPY)|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

The Danish Energy Agency this week authorized the use of Russian ships to lay the final part of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, potentially clearing one of the last hurdles for completing the project.

Nord Stream 2 petitioned the Danish regulator last month to use anchored vessels, and the agency granted the approval ahead of an anticipated end-of-July time frame.

The remaining construction lies "outside the area where bottom trawling, anchoring and seabed intervention are discouraged due to the risk posed by dumped chemical warfare agents," the regulator says.

Russia's Gazprom (OTCPK:OGZPY) leads the project, with partners Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B), BASF's (OTCQX:BASFY) Wintershall unit, Engie (OTCPK:ENGIY), OMV (OTCPK:OMVJF) and Uniper (OTC:UNPPY).

[grupo guitarlumber] 09/7/2020 21:48

Engie: low-wage contractors and the NHS
SOLOMON HUGHES looks at the French firm drafted in by the privateers to run security in our hospitals and its empty commitment to the Living Wage
French connection: Engie is expanding its grip on the public sector in Britain

CONTRACTED-OUT security guards at Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester have voted to strike for equal pay with their NHS colleagues in a dispute that shows what is wrong with Britain’s “crony capitalism.”

The guards work at Tameside — but they work for a multinational corporation called Engie. Thanks to both New Labour and Tory privatisation, many workers who run our public services are actually employed by the private sector: the big corporations squeeze their profits out of our NHS, our taxes and their work.

According to their union, Unison, the Tameside guards are paid less than NHS rates. Some are paid only the minimum wage rate of £8.72 an hour, or lower for under-25s.

The lowest rate for security staff employed directly by the NHS is £9.89 per hour. Taking into account overtime payments, most of the Tameside security staff are between £2,000 and £3,000 worse off per year, with one worker almost £6,000 out of pocket.

So they have voted unanimously to strike and will walk out on Monday, July 13 unless Engie settle the dispute. Or unless the hospital management — Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust — step in and force Engie to pay.

But who is Engie? It’s a French multinational, which is growing in Britain: when builder and outsourcer Carillion crashed, it could have been a chance for the country to admit a mistake and take some privatised public services back “in house” — instead, other companies are stepping in to take over, including French giant Engie.

Engie — formerly known as GDF Suez — is a French energy and engineering company. Engie also has a big “facilities management” arm which has been grabbing public-sector contracts for cleaning, janitorial and maintenance services. Since around 2013, Engie has had a strategy of expanding its public-sector work by taking over “facilities management” formerly run by other contractors like Balfour Beatty or Carillion.

With Engie looking for public-sector contracts and working in the highly regulated energy business, the French firm has been busy hiring former senior British public officials to help its expansion.

In November 2016 Engie hired Bob Kerslake, former head of the Civil Service, and Joan McNaughton, a Department of Trade and Industry director-general in the Blair years, to sit on its advisory or “scrutiny̶1; board, which is chaired by former KPMG head Sir Mike Rake. Former Lib Dem energy minister Ed Davey also sat on this Engie board during 2016-2017. In 2016 David Cameron’s former national security adviser Lord Ricketts joined the board of the French parent company, Group Engie.

Getting people like Kerslake to sit on its “scrutiny board” buys Engie some good corporate PR, but does it actually help the workers?

Kerslake says in his latest report for Engie that “the scrutiny board’s purpose is to hold Engie UK publicly to account for the delivery of their Responsible Business Charter.”

So does paying good wages form part of this Responsible Business Charter? Well yes. And no.

Engie’s “responsible business charter” includes a commitment for “promoting the Real Living Wage.” But that is not the same as actually paying a real living wage. Instead it just means Engie should: “Provide 100 per cent of customers with the option to adopt the real living wage.” Engie doesn’t make a real living wage an essential part of their work, it just has it as an “option” contractors might want to consider.

Kerslake simply passes the buck on the “living wage commitment,” saying: “It is ultimately the commissioner’s decision to tender and award contracts which incorporate the living wage. In too many cases the purchaser is unwilling to fund this commitment.” Engie wins its business by pitching low-wage contracts, then blames the hospitals that “commission221; it for the low wages.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Kerslake and all the members of the Engie scrutiny committee are paid well above the “national living wage.” They get highly paid so they can make excuses for Engie, so that it can simultaneously claim to be for the living wage and not pay it to its staff.

It is not surprising that Engie acts in a way that is slippery, if not downright dishonest. The firm has a history for it: in June 2018 the European Commission ruled Engie must pay €120 million in tax — Engie had unfairly avoided tax on income moved through Luxemburg in a breach of state aid rules.

The year before the French Competition Authority fined Engie €100m for uncompetitive behaviour in recruiting French gas and electricity customers. Both fines relate to the energy sectors, but is seems to me Engie are just as capable of acting in a less-than-straight way in other sectors.