In Short

A round-up of today's other business news in brief

Pfizer to cut up to 240 jobs at UK base

Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer is to cut up to 240 jobs from its UK workforce.

The company said it planned to reduce its global research staff by between 5 per cent and 8 per cent over the next few months.

Pfizer employs 3,000 to 3,500 staff at its European research and development base in Sandwich, Kent, including some contracted staff. It is understood the cuts could affect between 150 and 240 jobs. Pfizer said the move followed its decision to focus research on six areas: oncology; Alzheimer’s disease; schizophrenia; pain; inflammation; and diabetes.

Steep fall in US retail sales

US retail sales fell at a steeper than expected rate in December, government data showed yesterday, as a deteriorating economic environment forced consumers to cut back on spending during the key Christmas period.

The US commerce department said total retail sales fell 2.7 per cent to a seasonally adjusted $343.2 billion (€261 billion) last month following a revised 2.1 per cent drop in November, previously reported as a 1.8 per cent fall.

December’s drop was the biggest since October last year when sales fell 3.4 per cent. Sales eased 0.1 per cent overall in 2008.

Excluding motor vehicles and parts, sales were down a record 3.1 per cent after a revised 2.5 per cent decline in November, previously reported as a 1.6 per cent drop. – (Reuters)

UK confirms end to shortselling ban

The UK’s market regulator said a temporary shortselling ban on Barclays, HSBC Holdings and 32 other financial companies will be lifted as planned and investors can begin shorting the shares from tomorrow.

Formal confirmation by the UK financial services authority follows a preliminary announcement last week.

It goes against moves by regulators in Ireland, Germany and France, which have extended similar halts until March. – (Bloomberg)

RBS sells £1.6bn Bank of China stake

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold its entire stake in Bank of China for £1.6 billion (€1.78 billion).

RBS sold its 4.3 per cent stake, about 10.8 billion shares, for 1.71 Hong Kong dollars per share.

The bank had been seeking recently to sell off some of its operations to boost its balance sheet.

The UK government has a 57 per cent stake in the lender.

IFSRA looking into funds exposed to Madoff

The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority is looking into two investment funds with exposure to Bernard Madoff (above) and work is ongoing, a spokeswoman has said.

US prosecutors say Mr Madoff ran a $50 billion (€38 billion) Ponzi scheme, paying off earlier investors with money from later ones.

The Financial Regulator said one of the funds it was looking into was a pan- European fund, known as Ucits, with the other administered under Irish law. “Our work is ongoing,” the spokeswoman said, without giving details about the size of the funds.

The regulator said last week the funds had suspended dealings with investors. – (Bloomberg)