A.P. Moller Maersk reported 5.2 billion USD profit in 2014, which is strong financial report mostly impacted by the sale of majority share of Danks Supermarked Group for 2.8 billion USD and other divestment gains worth at 600 million USD. Maersk Line also delivered higher than expected profit for the group amounting to 2.3 billion USD with higher volumes as well as lower unit costs and bunker prices. The underlying profit was also higher than expected and amounted to 2.2 billion USD.

“In line with expectations, the underlying profit increased by 33% to 4.5 billion USD compared to 3.4 billion USD from 2013 and the return on invested capital was 11% compared to 8.2% from 2013. We are very satisfied with the result for 2014 where we achieved the highest ever profit of 5.2 billion USD. Despite challenging market conditions we saw good progress in underlying performance across the Group”, commented the CEO of A.P. Moller Maersk Nils Smedegaard Andersen.

The APM Terminals also supported the financial report of the group for 2014, account a profit of 900 million USD, which is 22% higher than the result during the previous reporting period, when the profit was 700 million USD. The company supported their financial results with costs cut and improvement of the fleet. Also should not be negledged that company create an alliance with Mediterranean Shipping Co, which saved millions for the company and decreased the freight costs.

The CEO of HSBC has account of 5 million GBP in Swiss branch of the bank, where hold his bonuses. In response to a question from The Guardian Bank pointed out that Stuart Gulliver has 5 million GBP in the account that controls using a Panamanian company. By HSBC highlighted, however, that the CEO lives in Hong Kong, pay taxes there and owes nothing to the British Treasury. The statement did not mention Panamanian company. The details of the account of Gulliver came the same day that HSBC publishes its annual results.

The article in The Guardian does not indicate any wrongdoing on the part of Gulliver, but the news lead to more questions about the activities of HSBC in business consulting. Earlier this month British bank acknowledged gaps in its Swiss subsidiary in response to media reports that the company has helped wealthy clients hide assets and taxes for millions of dollars.

“We recognize and acknowledge the problems with compliance control”, indicated by HSBC, after influential media, including the French newspaper Le Monde and The Guardian, published materials on its Swiss subsidiary. British newspaper cited documents from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists by Le Monde. By HSBC said in response that its Swiss unit has not been fully integrated after buying it in 1999, allowing the observance of “significantly lower” standards.

The documents showed that 74 related to Bulgaria persons hold accounts in the Swiss branch of British bank. According to 11 percent of the 74 associated with our country people have Bulgarian citizenship, or about eight. The information was disseminated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - an association that includes independent journalists from 45 countries. The organization started a few days to export data from a major investigation codenamed Swissleaks, conducted jointly with the French daily Le Monde. Site of the consortium were published data on more than 106,000 customers in 203 countries evade taxes for deposits worth over 100 billion USD in accounts in HSBC.

The business activity in Eurozone rose in February, showed the preliminary data of Markit Economics, published on Friday. The news is a sign that the region’s economy is improving slightly, while politicians struggle with the dual threat of falling prices and renewed uncertainty about the future of Greece in the Eurozone. The index of purchasing managers for the currency bloc rose to 53.5 points in February from 52.6 points a month earlier. The achieved level is the highest in the last seven months. All values ​​above 50 indicate expansion of business.

The economic growth is increasingly necessary and is likely to receive a further boost in the coming months. The prices of goods and services, however, continue to fall, highlighting the challenge to the European Central Bank (ECB) in its efforts to accelerate the annual inflation in the euro area back to its target of just below 2%. The inflation in the block slowed to 0.6% yoy in January, prompting the ECB to announce the beginning of the program of quantitative easing from May.

Eurozone finance ministers meet in Brussels on Friday for a new attempt to end the impasse between the new far-left government of Greece and its creditors from the Eurozone. Athens holds a position that requires termination of austerity imposed as a condition of the hundreds of billions of EUR in aid. Led Germany creditors, however, are adamant that Greece should press ahead with much needed reforms to revive its economy problem.

Immediately after the presentation of the one EUR was exchanged for 1.1319 USD.

The new Greek government has not discussed plans to privatize the two largest ports in the country - in Piraeus and Thessaloniki, a spokesman for the Cabinet to Greek television on Wednesday.

“We do not discuss any further sale or privatization of the port of Piraeus or Thessaloniki”, said Gabriel Sakelaridis. The move is a big blow to the Chinese company Cosco, which manages two of the piers in Piraeus with a total length of 1.4 km and land area of 180,000 square meters. The port provide services to more than 24,000 cruise and cargo ships every year. The Chinese company Cosco was the main contender to acquire major share of 67% of the company. Beijing plans to turn Greece into a leading logistics portal for Chinese exports to southern countries of the European Union and its largest trading partner on the continent.

In the beginning of the mandate of the new Greek government the Economy Minister George Stathakis attacked the shipowners for tax evasion. Greeks run 43% of European fleet and many of the companies and cargo ships are registered in offshore or other kind of no tax zones. While Greek shipping magnates generally operate from the Athens suburbs or the port of Piraeus, their companies are largely registered in the likes of the Marshall Islands and the Turks & Caicos. The firms are often listed on stock exchanges abroad and their ships often fly foreign flags such as Liberia.

Greece managed to collect only 3.1 billion USD from privatization after being rescued by the the Three creditors (EU, ECB and IMF) five years ago. The amount is significantly less than the original target of about 22 billion EUR. Athens had to privatize various companies and projects in return for financial assistance from international donors. Recently, however, the authorities announced that they terminated their cooperation with the Three creditors.

The Austrian mobile operator Telekom Austria reported a drop in quarterly revenues by 4% on an annual basis for the whole group. For the last quarter of 2014 revenues were 1.03 billion EUR published Wednesday showed financial results for the group. In Austria the main reason for the decline in revenue due to lower monthly bills and fees for traffic by 3.6%. Another negative factor is the new regulatory interventions which have claimed 77 million EUR of the company. Earnings per share decreased by 0.10 EUR for the fourth quarter of 2014 and 0.46 EUR for the year.

In Central and Eastern Europe the main driver of the good results is Belarus. Inflation-linked price increases led to strong operational performance. In 2014, like in the previous telecom market in Bulgaria was negatively influenced by the weak macroeconomic environment and political instability, which reduces power consumption and shrinking revenues of companies. Despite these unfavorable trends Mtel maintain a positive trend growth in customers and mobile TV services.

Despite the positive effect of the steady growth in mobile data revenues for the entire 2014 decreased by 7.1% to 371.3 million EUR negatively affected by price reductions for end customers and termination fees. Although overall cost optimization company, operating profit in 2014 decreased by 9.8% to 143.1 million EUR as a result of adverse economic conditions in the country. Announced on Wednesday data show that Mtel reported overall growth in mobile customers - mobile telephony and the Internet, which grew by 1% to over 4.2 million EUR. Large increases were observed for individual clients using packet voice services mobile Internet. Their number increased by 45% compared with 2013.

Average revenue per user of mobile communications declined from 6.3 EUR to 6.1 EUR in 2014 compared to 2013, largely driven by the decline in average income in the business segment, while average revenue per user for individual customers remains stable. The company reported an increase in revenues and fixed access lines. The average income of a line increased by 6.9% yoy and reached 14.4 EUR. Revenues from fixed services also rose, increasing by 1.4% to 26.6 million EUR. After the successful launch of DTH television, increase was observed in the number of customers using the services of telecom tv, and they increased by 8.2% during the period.

The British bank HSBC Holdings Plc confessed on Sunday gaps in its Swiss subsidiary, in response to media reports that the company has helped wealthy clients hide assets and taxes for millions of USD.

“We recognize and acknowledge the problems with compliance control”, indicated by HSBC on Sunday after influential media, including the French newspaper Le Monde and Britain’s The Guardian, published materials on its Swiss subsidiary. The Guardian cited documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists by Le Monde.

HSBC said its Swiss unit has not been fully integrated after buying it in 1999, allowing compliance “significantly lower” standards. According to information in the media HSBC in Switzerland is allowed customers to withdraw large amounts of cash, often in foreign currency, which probably enabled wealthy clients avoid taxes, thus concealing the existence of any accounts in the country. Detailed accounts of four pages showed that the Swiss unit has undergone a “radical transformation” in recent years. Local lender was acquired as part of the purchase of Republic National Bank of New York and Safra Republic Holdings.

By HSBC indicated that the number of accounts in the Swiss bank has dropped from 30,412 in 2007 to 10,343 at the end of last year. The Bank is cooperating with authorities investigating the case. Contrary to the trend of withdrawal of funds from Switzerland, other data of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists showed that more than 380 million USD from Bulgaria were directed to one of the Swiss banks in the period from 1988 to 2006, the documents published under the name SwissLeaks show a scheme of tax avoidance and evasion of capital totaling 120 billion USD from over 200 countries.

Among the leaders in this ranking are Switzerland, UK, USA, France and Italy, where they were drained billions. It was found that some of the bank accounts belonging to dictators, corrupt politicians, drug traffickers and arms, while others - of stars from the world of cinema, fashion or sports.

In the most difficult years of transition in the country, between the democratic changes and EU membership, in that Swiss bank were opened 95 accounts of individuals and organizations with Bulgarian address. Nearly half of them were anonymous - by number instead of name. Related Bulgaria clients of the bank are 74, only 11% of them, however, had Bulgarian citizenship. The biggest expense of the Bulgarian client was worth over 264 million USD, the investigation shows.

The international rating agency Moody’s Investors Service decreased the credit ratings of eight Russian non-financial companies. The credit rating of Gazprom in foreign currency was reduced from “Baa2″ to “Baa3″ and the rating in national currency was decreased from “Baa1″ to “Baa2″. The short-term foreign currency rating has been reduced from “Prime-2″ to “Prime-3″ and the national level is confirmed “Prime-2″.

Rating of OAO AK Transneft and the rating of unsecured debt securities issued to the subsidiary TransCapitalInvest Ltd were reduced from “Baa2″ to “Baa3″ with a negative outlook. Also the rating of Rosneft and its subsidiaries Rosneft Finance SA, Rosneft International Finance Limited and Rosneft International Holdings Limited were reduced from “Baa3″ to “Baa2″. The same is the situation with Gazprom oil and its subsidiaries GNP Capital SA, OAO Federalynaya passazhirskaya company, OAO LUKOIL and its subsidiary LUKOIL International Finance, GMK Norilyskiy Nikel and its subsidiary MMC Finance Ltd, OAO RZD and subsidiary RZD Capital Plc. The ratings of the Corporation Irkut is dropped from “Ba2″ to “Ba3″, and OAO FSK EЭS from “Baa3″ to “Ba1″. All ratings have a negative outlook, which means that it can be further reduced.

Ratings of non-financial corporations affected by today’s decision are under surveillance because of the review given the downgrading of sovereign debt securities. Finances Wire Journal recall that on Friday, the agency downgraded Russia to the lowest investment grade, after the sharp decline in oil prices and the worst currency crisis of 1998 affected the growth of the Russian economy.

“The severity and likely sustainable oil shock, together with very limited international access to capital due to ongoing sanctions undermines economic fundamentals and increased financial pressure on the public and private sectors”, said Moody’s. “The significant decline in oil prices and the ruble will further erode the already weakened growth prospects in the medium term”.

Russia is on the brink of recession, after oil, the biggest export product of the country fell by more than 50% since June. The ruble depreciated again by 47% in the last six months of funding restrictions and export bans imposed by the US and its allies after annexing of Crimea Putin, led investors to avoid currency. The Russian central bank raised its key interest rate six times since March to 17% and spend 88 billion USD in 2014 to support the currency.

The largest world producer of Intel chips benefit from slowing decline in the PC market and strong business servers. Intel revenue increased by 6.4% in Q4 2014 to 14.72 billion USD, while the profit increased by 39% to 3.7 billion USD. In the post-trading shares initially fell by about 2%. The results show once again the problems Intel’s business with smartphones and tablets. The total calculated Intel revenue for 2014 amounted to 55.8 billion USD, as 49 billion USD from them by the divisions of PCs and servers.

For the last quarter division and mobile telecommunications chips reported unusual negative revenue 6 million USD, as ultimately Intel pays prompting manufacturers to use its processors. The division reported an operating loss of 1.11 billion USD.

The generosity in the mobile business is financed by proven sources of money - PCs and servers for data centers. Intel is a key beneficiary of the generally somewhat better business with laptops and desktops. If sales of PCs declined by 10% in 2013, this year’s market research showed a drop of no more than 2%.

The Intel sales revenue in the chip division increased by 3% to 8.87 billion USD. This division takes care of about 60% of the entire business of Intel. The net operating profit jumped by 18.7% to 4 billion USD. In division server sales revenue rose by a quarter to nearly 4.1 billion USD. The operating profit in the division rose by 39% to over 2.2 billion USD.

The young business with chips for network devices has brought a quarterly operating profit of 185 million USD on revenue of almost 600 million USD. Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, California, however, continues to enjoy a solid financial footing. The company ended the year with 14.1 billion USD in cash, although pay 4 billion USD in the form of dividends and share buybacks over 10 billion USD.

The giant in electronics RadioShack may claim for bankruptcy protection in February. Based in Texas, USA, the company is in talks with another company to acquire a significant portion of the shares by which to avoid bankruptcy. The talks, however, may not lead to a deal that will put RadioShack with the need to seek other options for debt restructuring, which excludes sale. According to the information RadioShack has reached out to potential lenders who could provide loan to finance the action before the case of bankruptcy. Company representatives were not available for comment.

The retailer, which announced better than expected loss for the third quarter of 2014, warned in September there will be a possibility of bankruptcy. Subsequently, the fund Salus Capital Partners said it would provide 500 million USD to support the company to finance its operations. The shares of RadioShack fell by almost 60% since September, when the company announced the possibility of bankruptcy. At the end of trading in the US on Wednesday a security worth 0.41 USD.

Music streaming service Spotify got 2.5 million new subscribers who pay for its services, and total 10 million subscribers in the last two months of 2014. This is despite increasing competition and criticism from the stars to the service. Spotify announced that at the end of 2014 had a total of 60 million active users, 15 million of them using the paid service, who pay a monthly fee of 10 USD.The growth of the company market stake and customers is with 40% compared to 40 million active users in May last year.

Spotify has its own business model that combines paid and free service. It was in the center of the discontent of the musicians on remuneration paid to their company. Last year, Spotify published detailed information about the way in which remuneration is paid to appease the angry artists, but many of them continue the angry communication. Taylow Swift decided to withdraw her catalogue from the music service. Eventually her album “1989” proved to be the best-selling 2014 with 3.66 million copies sold. In turn Spotify continually defend its business model and argues that the expansion will grow and remuneration of performers. In the blog post that the company made in November, the CEO of the company Daniel Ek said that the business model of Spotify e essential for its growth.

Music streaming fast becoming the number one choice for users who want to listen to music. Streaming reported 54% growth from 106 billion listened songs in 2013 to 164 billion songs listened in 2014. The paid music downloads even declined by 12% last year. In 2013 downloaded songs were 1.2 billion, while in 2014 - 1.1 billion.