Sales at the auto parts and tyre maker in the January-March quarter fell slightly more than the projected drop between 1 and 3 percent, Schaefer was quoted by the weekly newspaper as saying in an interview.
First-quarter operating profit declined below very strong year-ago levels, but stayed within expectations the CFO told Euro am Sonntag, without being more specific.
Despite the decline in European car markets, Continental trusts that group business will steadily improve following a first-quarter low to help achieve a targeted 5-percent increase in 2013 sales to over 34 billion euros ($44.53 billion), according to Schaefer.
The CFO reiterated ambitions to grow overall business by making purchases outside of Europe. Continental's reduced debt would allow the Hanover-based group to shoulder possible acqusitions worth about 1 billion euros, he said. (Reuters)
An OMV spokesman confirmed media reports about the sale but gave no financial details. RWE also confirmed the stake was transferred on March 1 but gave no price or other details.
"You can be pretty sure that this is not going to be the final (Nabucco) shareholder structure as it is today," the OMV spokesman added.
OMV Chief Executive Gerhard Roiss had said in December that talks with RWE on a sale were under way. Both companies own 16.67 percent stakes in the project.
A decision on which pipeline project will get the contract of delivering Azeri gas to Europe is due within months. Nabucco is competeing against the Trans Adriatic Pipeline group.
RWE had said in May it was reviewing the Nabucco project.
OMV and its partners have proposed a scaled-down version of the project called Nabucco West that would run from Turkey's western border to Austria.
Nabucco West foresees the construction of a 1,300 km pipeline from the Bulgarian/Turkish border to Austria.
Original plans were for a 4,000 km pipeline. Critics said estimated costs of more than $12 billion would make it too pricey and there would not be enough gas available to fill the pipeline with non-Russian supplies.
Nabucco West's owners, in the long term, will be countries and companies with gas reserves bound for Europe, Roiss has said, noting RWE had no gas of its own in the Black Sea region.
Nabucco's other four shareholders are Bulgarian group BEH, Turkish firm Botas, Hungarian company MOL, and Romanian group Transgaz. (Reuters)
He also told al-Shorouk newspaper that Egypt could still request to increase the loan by $1 billion if the maturity period was extended to more than 30 months from the 22 months envisaged in the original deal initialled last November. (Reuters)
In a statement by the spokesman of the apex regulator it was stated that SECP will not budge to attempts to malign it.
It said that recently, the SECP has initiated various actions on account of security market frauds and market manipulation, as well as finalisation of long-standing proposed prosecutions against brokers and some large business groups.
The statement maintained that there have been consistent attempts to pressurise the senior management of the SECP into not taking action. However, ECP will continue to take corrective measures, it said. (APP)
His pay was unchanged at $2 million, but both his cash bonus and stock award almost doubled to $5.7 million and $13.3 million, respectively.
But a summary compensation table in Goldman's proxy - the standard format for reporting executive pay - tells a different story because Blankfein's stock awards were not granted until January 2013.
That calculation shows Blankfein receiving $13.3 million in compensation last year, an 18 percent drop from 2011. The figure includes stock awards from prior years that were paid out in 2012, as well as $323,514 in benefits and other perks.
Additionally, Goldman's board decided to extend the period of time that top executives have to capitalize on long-term incentive awards from 2011 by five years, from December 2013 to December 2018. Under those long-term plans, executives can get up to 150 percent of such awards if Goldman's average return on equity over the time period reaches at least 15 percent.
In explaining its bonus awards, Goldman's board called Blankfein a "strong leader" who demonstrated commitment to the bank and its clients, and understood nuances of its business strategy.
The Wall Street bank's earnings nearly tripled last year, due in large part to a major cost-cutting effort as trading and dealmaking volumes remained muted. Its shares rose 41 percent in 2012 and are up a further 17 percent this year, based on Thursday's closing price of $149.07.
Compensation for other named executives in Goldman's proxy Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn, former Chief Financial Officer David Viniar and Vice Chairmen J. Michael Evans and John Weinberg showed similar trends: higher pay awarded for their work in 2012 but pay cuts according to technical calculations.
In addition to compensation, Goldman's proxy outlined distributions made to executives from investment funds managed by the Wall Street bank. Blankfein received $29.8 million and other senior executives received anywhere from $125,000 to $28.3 million.
The proxy filing also included a shareholder proposal from a Chicago attorney named Eric Fogel who owns $2,000 worth of stock and argues that Goldman ought to pursue a merger or outright sale to increase shareholder value.
Other shareholder proposals suggest the bank disclose more information about its lobbying activities, create a human rights committee and allow shareholders to nominate new board members. Goldman recommended that shareholders vote against those proposals. (Reuters)
