Ireland Bailout Exit 'Not End Of The Road'

Ireland's finance minister has warned of continuing pain ahead as the country prepares to officially exit its bailout.

At a news conference in Dublin ahead of Sunday's milestone, Michael Noonan told reporters "this isn't the end of the road" but pledged there would never be a repeat of its financial collapse because of the measures taken to prevent such a crisis.

He acknowledged the sacrifices made and losses suffered by ordinary people since the nation went cap-in-hand to the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a €85bn rescue package in 2010.

He said: "The real heroes and heroines of the story are the Irish people.

"They have had their taxes increased, they have had their services cut drastically - some of them including public servants have had very serious pay cuts.

"Everybody has had cuts in their pensions as well. But they have continued to support the government."

Mr Noonan said those who had suffered the most were the hundreds of thousands who lost their jobs and homes.

Cutbacks and tax rises led to protests as the Celtic Tiger economy crashed

More than 200,000 people were forced to emigrate in the wake of the collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy - brought about by the bursting of Ireland's property bubble which crippled the banking sector.

The country will officially exit the bailout programme on December 15, allowing it to properly re-enter the money markets after raising just €5bn in the past year.

The money it was loaned by the so-called troika - made up of the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission - will start to be paid off in 2014.

Mr Noonan was speaking on the day the European Commission released its final tranche of bailout funding to the country while the IMF was to follow suit.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated the Irish government and people for the achievement.

"Thanks to their efforts and sacrifices, Ireland will now be able to finance itself through its own efforts," Mr Barroso said.

"Today's result would not have been possible without the solidarity and significant financial support of the other EU member states." Those countries also include the UK, as it provided separate bilateral loans.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said the bailout exit would give "much greater control over our own destiny into the future" but he cautioned there would be no spending spree.

Both he and Mr Noonan warned there will be no cause for the country to "go mad" on Monday following the exit, insisting the government will have to remain committed to making "prudent" economic and social decisions.

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Ireland's Bord Gais Energy Sold To Centrica

British Gas owner Centrica is in line to take over the energy supply arm of Ireland's state-owned Bord Gais as part of a £1bn deal.

The group is part of a consortium that would pick up a business with more than 700,000 Irish household and business customers in the sale, as well as a gas-fired power station in Cork.

The consortium has been named preferred buyer in a sale of Bord Gais assets, in a deal struck as Ireland prepares to end its international bailout.

The announcement came hours after Centrica said it was quitting its planned £2bn Race Bank wind farm scheme off the Norfolk coast, selling the project to Denmark's DONG Energy for £50m.

Centrica has shifted from renewable energy investment to gas

The Irish deal saw the Dublin government pushing for a £1.2bn sale but eventually accepting the lower price.

Ministers said the international investment was a strong vote of confidence in the market and the Irish economy and would provide additional funding for investment in infrastructure and jobs.

As part of the deal, Brookfield Renewable Power is understood to be in line to pick up existing onshore wind farms and others being developed, while iCON Infrastructure will take on a gas pipeline network in Northern Ireland.

The sum being paid by each member of the consortium has not been disclosed.

Talks will now begin on finalising the sale, which is expected to complete early next year.

Bord Gais's assets were offered to international investors as part of the disposal of state assets under Ireland's EU-IMF bailout programme, which it is expected to exit within days.

Centrica sees the Irish deal as a growth opportunity in an adjacent market to the one currently served by British Gas, which has 12 million residential customers in the UK.

Its exit from Race Bank, announced on Thursday, was part of a broader strategy shift which includes focusing more on gas investments.

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Versace: Italian Fund Steps Off £900m Catwalk

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Italy's sovereign wealth fund is close to bowing out of the race to buy a stake in Versace as a trio of international private equity firms battle to invest in one of the world's best-known fashion houses.

Sky News understands that Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI) is expected to miss out on the shortlist to acquire 20% of family-owned Versace in a deal likely to value the company at about £900m.

Blackstone and CCMP Capital, two New York-based firms, and Investcorp of Bahrain were informed on Friday that they were being considered as Versace's new investment partner.

A final round of bidding is expected before the end of the month.

The elimination of FSI, which is run by a former Merrill Lynch banker, is surprising after it was reported to have tabled the highest bid for the shareholding.

The Italian fund also has a joint venture with the Gulf state of Qatar, which last year bought the rival Italian fashion brand Valentino as well as luxury properties in Milan and Sardinia.

A person close to the Versace stake sale said it was now likely that FSI would miss out although it remained possible that it could re-enter the process.

It is unusual for some of the private equity firms left in the bidding to pursue a minority stake in a company so vigorously.

The global prestige of Versace, however, has proved to be a significant attraction. The opportunity to expand the business aggressively is said to have encouraged a belief among the bidders that its profitability can be grown rapidly.

The family, led by the largest shareholder Allegra, is understood to be open to the idea of a stock market listing in Milan in 2016 or later.

Donatella Versace, the designer behind the brand since the murder of her brother Gianni in 1997, and who owns 20% of the company, is playing a leading role in the negotiations over the stake sale.

Closely-held Italian companies such as Versace have been forced to open themselves up to external investment by the long stagnation in Italy's economy.

Versace was itself close to going under when Gian Giacomo Ferraris joined as chief executive from Jill Sander in 2009.

The private equity bidders all have experience of investing in luxury goods. One of CCMP's senior advisers, Robert Singer, is already a board member at Versace, which recorded sales of nearly £400m last year.

None of the firms shortlisted for the Versace stake would comment on the process.

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Cameron Holds Airport Summit As Row Looms

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

David Cameron has held a secret summit with the head of a panel reviewing options for expanding Britain's airport capacity as he braces for a major row to erupt on the issue next week.

Sky News has learnt that the Prime Minister met Sir Howard Davies on Wednesday to discuss the Airports Commission's interim report, which will be published on December 17.

Political tensions are running high ahead of the report amid speculation that it will shortlist just three favoured options, each of which includes the construction of at least one new runway at Heathrow Airport.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has expressed fury over reports suggesting that his idea for a new four-runway hub airport in the Thames Estuary has been sidelined.

People close to the Commission's work said that Sir Howard had been irritated by the speculation, suggesting that much of it had been inaccurate.

The panel is understood to have outlined three Heathrow-centric proposals: a third runway at the UK's biggest airport; a bigger expansion comprising two new runways there; and an additional runway there alongside a second runway at Gatwick.

That could mean only two viable proposals would be taken forward, since the owners of Gatwick have insisted that they will not build a second runway if Heathrow is also allowed to expand.

Mr Cameron is understood to have urged Sir Howard to include in next week's report an alternative option that does not involve a new runway at Heathrow.

That could mean a revival of the London Mayor's proposal or an expansion focused on London's third airport, Stansted.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Airports Commission is independent of Government and its work is a matter for it. It will deliver its interim report next week. The final report to Government is due in 2015.

"Part of the Airport Commission's remit is to engage with representatives from across the political spectrum. As the Airports Commission have made clear, Sir Howard Davies has met with political representatives in all parties, which includes the Prime Minister, as part of this process, but they have not been given a copy of the draft report."

Sir Howard met George Osborne, the Chancellor, earlier this week while Sky News understands that Mr Johnson met the Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, on Thursday to discuss a range of issues including the Airports Commission's review.

A Whitehall official pointed out that Mr Johnson had consistently said that he would assist the Commission's work but would "not necessarily be bound by its conclusions".

A spokesman for the Mayor declined to comment on his meeting with Mr McLoughlin, although Mr Johnson said publicly on Wednesday that if only three options remained after next week's report, each of which included expanding Heathrow, "that would be scandalous".

The publication of an interim report, which will set out several options meriting further analysis ahead of a formal recommendation after the 2015 general election, was supposed to defuse political tensions over Britain's future aviation capacity.

However, Sky News understands that the Government will publish an official response in the new year, underlining the difficulty it faces in navigating an issue that will feature in the manifestos of all the main parties in 18 months' time.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's chief executive, said: "Gatwick's case for a second runway is compelling. Compared to Heathrow we are cheaper, quicker, have a significantly lower environmental impact and we are the most deliverable solution.

"Heathrow's answer for passengers is to re-establish their monopoly which will mean high fares forever, and huge environmental damage to their local communities."

The requirement for new runway capacity has become more pressing as the south-east's airports reach bursting point.

Rival European hubs in Frankfurt and Paris are growing rapidly, while Dubai is expected to overtake Heathrow as the biggest airport by international passengers within two years.

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House Approves Budget Deal In Bipartisan Vote

The House has given sweeping bipartisan approval to a budget bill backed by both President Barack Obama, his Democratic allies and a big majority of the chamber's Republicans.

The 332-94 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where Republicans are more skeptical.

The Democratic-led chamber appears sure to adopt the measure next week and send it to Mr Obama for his signature.

Mr Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, hailed the vote, saying it "shows Washington can and should stop governing by crisis and both sides can work together to get things done".

The package was drafted by a congressional odd couple of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray.

The agreement would set overall spending levels for the current budget year and the one that begins on October 1, 2014.

That straightforward action would probably eliminate the possibility of another government shutdown and reduce the opportunity for the periodic brinkmanship of the kind that has flourished in the current three-year era of divided government.

The measure would erase $63 billion in across-the-board cuts set for January and early 2015 on domestic and defence programmes, leaving about $140 billion in reductions in place.

On the other side of the budget ledger, it projects savings totaling $85 billion over the coming decade, enough to show a deficit reduction of about $23 billion over the 10-year period.

Supporters of the measure easily beat back attacks on it from conservative activists.

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Ireland Struggles On Brink Of Bailout

There's a recurrent question that's hard to bat off when you visit Ireland and speak to the families who have had to bear the burden of austerity over the past five years: if this is what success looks like, what on earth would constitute failure?

Ireland is on the brink of becoming the first of the troubled eurozone nations to bring its formal bailout to an end this weekend.

For those who have backed the so-called Troika plan (the three Troika members are the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank) it's an opportunity for quiet satisfaction - if not triumph.

The currency is still intact, despite real fears, culminating last summer, that it would face implosion.

And the economic numbers are starting, finally, to turn in Ireland's favour.

But it's hard to revel in this when you take even a moment to examine the plight of the country.

Whether you view it in statistical or human terms, Ireland has faced a genuine depression over the past six years.

Between 2008 and the end of 2010, the country's economic output - in other words the amount of income its entire economy generated - shrank by a tenth.

House prices halved since 2007 - a bigger fall than has been seen in any developed economy in recent memory.

If the property market was the engine for the economy before the crisis, it is now essentially non-existent.

A construction worker at a housing development in the town of Swords

Consider this: between 2004 and 2006, about 77,000 homes were being built every year. Last year the comparable figure was 4,000.

But the human toll is greater still. The country is facing an exodus of young people, with more than 200,000 of its 4.8 million population leaving since 2008.

We talked to university students who say the end of the bailout will do little to stem the flow. 

Those who have stayed have suffered wage cuts of almost unprecedented proportions, with public sector workers seeing their salaries slashed by a fifth.

There are commonplace tales of middle-class households having to resort to soup kitchens to keep their families fed.

Conor McDonald, a public service worker, became so short of cash that for a period he struggled to afford paying for his children to visit the doctor when they were ill.

They are stories common to many of the struggling eurozone nations - Greece, Portugal and Spain among them, as are the statistics showing unemployment (particularly youth unemployment) at worrying highs.

But Ireland's problems were not quite the same as those other nations.

The Mediterranean problem nations suffered from a serious lack of competitiveness, due in large part to their sclerotic regulatory systems and unreconstructed state sectors.

Ireland, by contrast, had a relatively lean economy.

In 2006 its government's net debt was a mere 11.5% of national income, compared with 107% of GDP in Greece and 38% in the UK.

Public spending was lower than the EU average; the country had already carried out most of the efficiency reforms the Troika urged on the rest of the bailout nations some years previously.

People walk past a discount store in Dublin last month

But, like Spain, Ireland did have a property and banking crisis of enormous proportions.

Banks lent out enormous sums to property developers and homeowners which, when prices suddenly collapsed, left them nursing major balance sheet problems.

The government took the decision to stand behind its banks, which is a large part of the explanation for why it now has net debts approaching 107% of GDP (which in turn encourages many to lump it in with Greece and Portugal).

The different nature of the crisis explains why Ireland has managed to recover quicker than its Mediterranean counterparts.

The economy has been growing these past couple of years, partly off the back of an enormous pick-up in exports.

The country's hard-fought battle to maintain its low corporation tax rate meant most international companies remained there.

More recently, there has been a pick-up in domestic economic activity, and even house prices have started to turn around.

There is even the expectation now that NAMA, the bad bank into which the state put its most toxic assets, may actually turn in a profit.

However, none of this can heal the scar left by the ordeal.

It is tempting, once the economic figures are back in positive territory, to presume that the news is suddenly all good.

As Ireland shows us, the numbers, shocking as they are, hardly begin to tell the story.

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RBS Fined $100m For Breaking US Sanctions

The Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to pay $100m (£61m) after US investigations into illegal transactions with Iran, Sudan, Burma and Cuba.

The bank has entered into agreements with the US Federal Reserve, the US Treasury Department and the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Earlier on Wednesday it emerged that Lloyds Banking Group has been fined £28m over a new mis-selling scandal.

In a statement, RBS said it "acknowledges and deeply regrets" the failings.

The bank also said it has committed almost $490m (£300m) since 2010 to improve its sanctions controls.

Several UK banks have entered into settlements in recent years over continuing financial transactions with Iran despite US laws against them, and for removing information from payments to get them processed.

Former City Minister Lord Myners told Sky's Jeff Randall Live that the breaches made by RBS and other UK banks were an embarrassment.

"It's embarrassing, to put it at its mildest, that the UK seems to be at the heart of so many of these failures," he said.

"It's not good that these problems arise in the UK, and reading this RBS statement it sounds very wilful and intentional.

"What was going on in these banks? How was this allowed to happen?"

Lord Myners said there are likely to be more fines to come for RBS.

"This isn't closure for RBS with the US regulators. This isn't the end of the story ... There's a lot more that's going to come over the next year or so."

RBS said criminal authorities at the US Justice Department and the District Attorney of New York have closed their related investigations and will not bring charges.

From 2005 to 2009, the bank removed references to sanctioned locations from payment messages to US financial institutions, the Treasury Department said.

RBS instructed employees to list the name of the Iranian financial institution rather than its identifying codes on wire transfers, the department said.

This prevented the bank's payment system from automatically including references to Iran in the cover messages sent to US clearing banks.

Lloyds TSB Bank Plc became the first bank to settle in the US, forfeiting $350m (£213m) in 2009.

Others to pay penalties include Credit Suisse, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and ABN Amro, now part of RBS.

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Govt Losing A 'Staggering' £55bn A Year In Taxes

The UK is losing a "staggering" £55bn a year due to fraud, error and unpaid taxes, MPs have warned.

The scale of the losses was described as "worryingly high" and the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) expressed concern about the impact on the deficit in the public finances.

The whole of government accounts drawn up by the Treasury show that in 2011-12 about £13.2bn had to be written off due to fraud and error.

However, the figures do not include local government or public corporations and the National Fraud Authority estimates the true cost of fraud to the public sector was £20.6bn.

At the same time HM Revenue and Customs has calculated the "tax gap" - the difference between the taxes it is supposed to receive and those it actually manages to collect - was £35bn.

PAC chairman Margaret Hodge said: "It is staggering that, in one year, the public sector was defrauded of over £20bn and the tax gap rose to £35bn."

The committee called on the Treasury to develop, publish and implement an action plan setting out a co-ordinated strategy for tackling fraud and error throughout the public sector.

It also voiced concern about the way the figures in the whole of government accounts (WGA) were complied and presented.

The WGA - which was published for the first time last year and now covers the combined financial activities of 3,000 bodies - is intended to provide the most comprehensive accounting picture of the public sector in the UK.

However the committee said its credibility had been undermined by the "poor quality" of some of the data and the Treasury needed to do more to explain the discrepancies between some of the figures in the WGA and those produced by the Office for National Statistics.

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Economy 'To Pass Pre-Recession Peak In 2014'

The UK's economic recovery is tipped to recover enough momentum next year to surpass its pre-recession peak.

The latest forecast from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) brings forward the likely date to the third quarter of 2014, following earlier revisions.

It would mark the first time that UK gross domestic product (GDP) has climbed back to the peak it reached in the first quarter of 2008, meaning it had taken more than six years just to return the economy to the position it was in before it tumbled in the wake of the financial crisis.

A year ago, amid a much gloomier picture for the economy, the BCC predicted the pre-recession peak would not be reached until 2016.

This was brought forward in August to the first quarter of 2015 but has now been revised again.

The BCC expects the housing market to drive growth

John Longworth, BCC director general, said: "It is really great that next year the UK economy is finally expected to bounce back from the deepest recession in modern times.

"British businesses have remained determined to compete and grow in the face of difficult circumstances, and the upgrading of our short-term forecast is testament to their sheer hard work, resilience and creativity."

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, at its lowest point, the economy fell to 7.2% below the peak.

Latest data suggest that in the third quarter of this year it remained 2.5% off the 2008 level.

The BCC now expects GDP growth of 1.4% for this year (up from 1.3%) and 2.7% next year (from 2.2%), driven by household consumption, boosted by the buoyant property market.

However, it expects the rate to slow to 2.4% (down from 2.5%) by 2015 as consumption moderates amid high personal debt levels.

Mr Longworth said long-term challenges were still looming, with the need to find ways of boosting business investment and exports as household spending wanes.

Small businesses were still struggling to obtain finance, he added.

"Politicians must not take their eye off the ball in the run-up to a general election, and must ensure that the economy remains front and centre at all times.

"If we make important decisions to fix the long-term structural failure in business finance, continue to deliver a major infrastructure upgrade and do more to support exports, it is possible to achieve not just a good recovery, but a truly great and sustainable economy."

BCC chief economist David Kern added: "We believe that in 2014 UK GDP will at long last move above its 2008 pre-recession level.

"But long-term trends show we can do much better, and with the right policies in place we can expect a much stronger recovery in the second half of the decade."

A Treasury spokesman said: "Britain's economic plan is working: growing the economy, creating over 1.4 million new private sector jobs and cutting the deficit by a third.

"But the job is not done, and the Government will go on taking the difficult decisions needed to support business and secure a responsible recovery for all."

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GM Appoints Mary Barra In Carmaker's Top Job

General Motors has confirmed its global product development chief Mary Barra is to become the first woman to lead a major US carmaker.

The company said chief executive officer Dan Akerson would step down next month and be replaced by Ms Barra.

The announcement comes a day after the US Treasury said it had sold the last of its GM bailout shares.

At one point the US government owned 61% of the vehicle firm.

US taxpayers lost around $10bn of the investment in the share sale on Monday.

The company said that Mr Akerson, who is also the chairman, would leave on January 15, pulling his planned departure ahead by several months.

His wife was recently diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer.

Ms Barra, 51, GM's executive vice president for global product development, purchasing and supply chain, was elected by the board as the next CEO and will become a director.

The firm said Theodore Solso, 66, will succeed 65-year-old Mr Akerson as chairman.

Mr Akerson was appointed CEO just before GM re-entered public markets on November 2010, following its $49.5bn (£30bn) government bailout and bankruptcy reorganisation.

Speculation on his exit gained steam last April, when GM disclosed in a securities filing that his compensation plan had changed.

The CEO did not receive any restricted stock units last year "in acknowledgement of the possibility of his retirement before the completion of the three-year vesting period," which would be in 2015.

Shares in GM were down fractionally in early trading on Tuesday.

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RBS Finance Chief Bostock Quits After Ten Weeks

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The new chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) suffered a huge blow on Tuesday when his finance chief quit less than 10 weeks after he joined its board.

Sky News can exclusively reveal that Nathan Bostock, who was appointed as RBS' finance director on October 1, has resigned to join the Spanish bank Santander UK as its chief risk officer and deputy chief executive.

The timing of Mr Bostock's prospective exit from RBS is unclear, while his move to Santander is understood to be subject to regulatory approval.

Both banks were attempting to keep Mr Bostock's defection under wraps on Tuesday, until Sky News's disclosure of his move forced RBS into an after-hours announcement.

"The Royal Bank of Scotland Group can confirm that Nathan Bostock has this evening informed the Board of his intention to resign from his role as Group Finance Director," it said in a statement.

"His formal resignation is expected soon, but he will remain in his position to oversee an orderly handover of his responsibilities. Details on arrangements for his successor will be announced in due course."

Mr Bostock's exit will cause a significant headache for Ross McEwan, the taxpayer-backed bank's chief executive, who is conducting a comprehensive review of the bank's operations.

Mr McEwan is wrestling with a succession of IT problems which last month caused hundreds of thousands of the bank's customers to be left stranded after a computer systems failure.

He has pledged to overhaul RBS''approach to customers, strengthened by a new management team, of which Mr Bostock was supposed to become an integral part.

"(The) systems failure was unacceptable," Mr McEwan said in a statement. "(It) was a busy shopping day and far too many of our customers were let down, unable to make purchases and withdraw cash.

"For decades, RBS failed to invest properly in its systems. We need to put our customers' needs at the centre of all we do. It will take time, but we are investing heavily in building IT systems our customers can rely on."

Given his background as RBS' restructuring chief, Mr Bostock was expected to play a particularly prominent role in the creation of a £38bn internal 'bad bank' announced last month.

His defection represents the second time in as many years that Mr Bostock has left the board of one of Britain's major banks in the lurch after agreeing to take a senior new role.

In 2011, he was due to leave his position as the head of restructuring and risk at RBS to run the wholesale operations of Lloyds Banking Group, but changed his mind after Antonio Horta-Osorio, the Lloyds chief executive, took a period of sick leave.

Mr Bostock, a former Abbey National executive, was then promoted to the finance director's post at RBS after the bank announced that the incumbent, Bruce Van Saun, was leaving the UK to run Citizens, its US retail bank.

As part of a review of RBS' operations ordered by George Osborne, the Chancellor, RBS has agreed to accelerate the sale of Citizens.

It is unclear whether the Prudential Regulation Authority will look dimly on Mr Bostock's move, given the juxtaposition of the significant size of RBS' balance sheet and relative inexperience of its senior team.

Mr McEwan only joined RBS last year after a career spent in retail banking, while Mr Hester's recent departure as well as that of John Hourican, the investment bank chief, has left RBS' executive ranks thin on top-level banking experience.

A person close to the situation said that Mr McEwan's review of RBS' operations was likely to entail significant change at the bank, and that the recruitment of an outsider as his finance director looked logical in that context.

Mr Bostock's appointment as deputy chief executive of Santander UK is understood to have been accompanied by an assurance that he will be in line to replace Ana Botin as the bank's chief executive when she steps down.

Santander is expected to float its UK arm in the next couple of years.

Santander declined to comment.

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GM Pulls Plug On Australia Car Production

Australia's auto industry has taken another step towards extinction following confirmation General Motors (GM) is to shut its Holden manufacturing plants by 2017 with the loss of 2,900 jobs.

The Holden brand - which is GM's Australian equivalent of Vauxhall in the UK - currently operates two plants in Adelaide and in Melbourne.

The move leaves Toyota as the only major car manufacturer in Australia but the Japanese firm confirmed after GM's announcement that it was now reviewing its own future in the country.

Holden's decision to move to a national sales company comes after Ford said in May it would stop making vehicles at its unprofitable Australian factories in 2016, with the loss of 1,200 jobs.

With Mitsubishi closing its Adelaide plant five years ago, only Toyota Australia - which employs more than 4,000 workers - will be left making cars in the country.

"The decision to end manufacturing in Australia reflects the perfect storm of negative influences the automotive industry faces in the country," GM chief executive Dan Akerson said in a statement.

"This includes the sustained strength of the Australian dollar, high cost of production, small domestic market and arguably the most competitive and fragmented auto market in the world."

He made the announcement following confirmation he was to be replaced by life-long GM employee, Mary Barra, who was to become the company's first female CEO.

Holden, maker of the iconic Commodore car, said 2,900 jobs would be axed over the next four years - 1,600 from its Elizabeth vehicle manufacturing plant in Adelaide and approximately 1,300 from Holden's workforce in Melbourne.

It spells the end of a long association with Australia, beginning as a saddlery in 1856 before manufacturing cars in 1948.

Unions have warned of a multi-billion-dollar hole in the economy and the loss of up to 50,000 automotive industry-related jobs if car manufacturing in Australia ends altogether.

Toyota said of GM's decision: "This will place unprecedented pressure on the local supplier network and our ability to build cars in Australia."

"We will now work with our suppliers, key stakeholders and the government to determine our next steps and whether we can continue operating as the sole vehicle manufacturer in Australia."

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said it expected Toyota to follow Holden's lead.

"It's now highly likely that Toyota will leave Australia. In fact it's almost certain," AMWU national vehicles division secretary Dave Smith told reporters.

"It's a very bleak day indeed."

Treasurer Joe Hockey said the government would work closely with the state governments and unions to ensure Holden's departure "does not lead to a significant economic downturn in South Australia or Victoria".

"We will do everything to help in this transition," he told parliament.

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Independent Scots 'Will Pay More For Food'

The cost of the weekly shop will be pushed up for Scottish consumers if they choose independence in next year's referendum, supermarkets have warned.

Morrisons told Sky News the increased cost was down to a number of taxes to be imposed on Scottish retailers which would not apply to those in England.

CEO Dalton Philips said: "If the regulatory environment was to increase the burden of the cost structure on business, that would potentially have to be passed through to consumer pricing.

"Why should the English and Welsh consumer subsidise this increased cost of doing business in Scotland?"

Morrisons cited the higher costs of transport and distribution as well as the imposition of the public health levy by the Scottish government.

UK supermarkets currently absorb the extra costs in the interests of fairness to customers across the UK, but may rethink that policy that if Scotland becomes independent.

One executive told The Financial Times "We would treat it as an international market and act accordingly by putting up our prices."

Andy Clarke, chief executive of Asda, told the FT: "We believe in fairness, so the price the customers pay for a pint of milk or loaf bread is the same regardless of where they live in the UK.

"However, the cost of doing business in different parts of the country does vary.

"A 'Yes' vote in 2014 could result in Scotland being a less attractive investment proposition for business and put further pressure on our costs."

The Scottish government, however, says there is "no reason" for retail prices to rise.

A spokesman told the FT that plans for lower corporation tax and fuel duty would make Scotland "more competitive and less costly" than at present.

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Air Steward Sues Qantas Over Insect Spray

A Qantas air steward who believes he developed respiratory problems and Parkinson's disease after repeated exposure to pesticide spray is suing his former employer.

In a case that could have global implications for airlines worldwide, Brett Vollus instructed lawyers after his neurosurgeon revealed "a lot" of flight attendants had similar problems.

Mr Vollus, 52, worked for Australia's national carrier for 27 years before an early onset of Parkinson's forced him to take redundancy in May.

Now he has engaged specialist lawyer Tanya Segelov who won a case in 2010 against East-West Airlines on behalf of an attendant who claimed engine fumes caused their respiratory damage.

Ms Segelov said: "He has no family history of Parkinson's which he believes has been caused by exposure to insecticide he sprayed as a long-haul flight attendant on at least a fortnightly basis over a period of 17 years.

The airline said it complies with the law on the use of pesticides

"There is a link in the medical literature between Parkinson's and other motor neurone disease and insecticide, and that link is well established," she added.

Australia's Transport Workers' Union (TWU) said it would consider filing a class action on behalf of the nation's aircraft workers if a health link could be established with insecticides, urging anyone with such concerns to come forward.

"Imagine spraying household insecticides in a small room each day, then spending the day working in that room," said TWU secretary Tony Sheldon.

"When you're flight crew or cleaners, you have no choice. You're sucking these chemicals into your lungs every working day."

Ms Segelov said Mr Vollus' case would hinge on whether the government knew of the potential risks to cabin crew, or should have known.

She said it was now customary to allow spraying to take place once the aircraft was empty, in a hangar, and for the personnel carrying it out to wear protective gear.

"As I understand it from looking at the World Health Organisation (WHO) requirements that option has always been available," she said.

"From the research I've done I think (the Australian government) were the ones that made the decision to spray on board the planes and they did it in such a way no protection was offered to my client - he had a can in each hand; he couldn't even cover his mouth."

Qantas said it complied with the law and the issue was a matter for the government.

Australia's health department said its disinsection programme was in line with WHO requirements and all products used had been assessed as safe, both internationally and by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.

"The WHO has found no evidence that disinsection sprays, when used according to their guidelines and manufacturers' instructions, are harmful to human health," a spokesman said.

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Gulf Keystone: Oil Firm Plots Board Shake-Up

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The London-listed oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum is plotting a fresh boardroom shake-up that could jeopardise a fragile truce between the company and leading investors.

Oil industry and headhunting sources told Sky News on Monday that Gulf Keystone was in talks about appointing two new non-executive directors which would take the size of the board to 13 members.

Two of the new candidates are understood to be: Joseph Stanislaw, the founder of an energy sector consultancy and a member of the advisory boards of Climate Change Capital and Dana Gas; and Maria Richter, a non-executive at National Grid and former Morgan Stanley investment banker.

The appointments would be sensitive because of a deal struck between Gulf Keystone and unhappy investors earlier this year which restricts the board's membership to a dozen people.

"The Board has agreed with M&G that the size of the Board should be limited to a maximum of twelve Directors in the future," Gulf Keystone said in July.

The company could still conform to the agreement with shareholders led by M&G Investments and Capital Research Global Investors by appointing only one of the candidates to its board, or by asking one of the existing non-executives to step down.

The company is in the process of arranging a transfer from the junior AIM exchange to the main London stock market, although it will miss a self-imposed deadline announced in September of doing so by the end of this year.

Investors have long been unhappy with standards of corporate governance and executive pay at Gulf Keystone, which specialises in exploring for oil in Kurdistan but which has seen its share price slump from its peak level.

Todd Kozel, the chief executive, has been a divisive figure although investors had hoped that the appointment of Simon Murray, former Glencore chairman, as Gulf Keystone's new chair, would pave the way for a more constructive relationship.

Mr Kozel's £8.8m award for 2012 represented a decline on his pay in the previous year, which topped $22.2m (£14.4m). He has sought to defend his remuneration by arguing that Gulf Keystone has delivered more than £1bn of value to shareholders and a return of more than 4,000% since the company's listing.

An ally of Mr Kozel said earlier this year that the chief executive's pay reflected an "overall balanced mix of remuneration and reflects exceptional performance for the year and confidence in future cash flows".

However, Gulf Keystone's shares have fallen sharply from highs triggered by takeover speculation, while it has also been embroiled in legal action brought by a former adviser which has claimed it is owed roughly £1bn in compensation.

The company saw its shares jump by around 8% on Monday after announcing that Excalibur had decided not to appeal against a court judgement in Gulf Keystone's favour.

Gulf Keystone, which has a market value of nearly £1.5bn, declined to comment.

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US Jobless Rate At Lowest For Five Years

The unemployment rate in the United States dropped to 7% in November, the lowest figure for five years.

The sharp drop in the rate, from 7.3% in October, was unexpected and raised the odds that the Federal Reserve could soon begin moving away from its huge stimulus plan.

Meanwhile, the number of non-farm jobs in November went up by a net total of 203,000, which beat analysts' expectations.

The strengthening job market is likely to fuel speculation that the Federal Reserve may scale back its bond purchases when it meets later this month.

The economy has now generated an average of 204,000 jobs from August through November. That is up from 159,000 a month from April through July.

Many of the November job gains were in higher-paying industries. Manufacturers added 27,000 positions, the most since March 2012. Construction firms gained 17,000. The two industries have created a combined 113,000 jobs in the past four months.

Another month of robust hiring follows other positive economic news.

The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.6% in the July-September quarter, the fastest growth since early 2012, the government said.

Still, nearly half that gain came from businesses building their stockpiles. Consumer spending grew at the slowest pace since late 2009.

Greater hiring could support healthier spending as job growth has a dominant influence over much of the economy.

If hiring continues at the current pace, a virtuous cycle starts to build. More jobs usually lead to higher wages, more spending and faster growth.

Roughly half the jobs that were added in the six months through October were in four low-wage industries - retail, hotels, restaurants and entertainment, temp jobs and home health care workers.

The Fed has pegged its stimulus efforts to the unemployment rate and chairman Ben Bernanke has said the Fed will ease its monthly purchases of $85bn (£51bn) in bonds once hiring has improved consistently.

The bond purchases have kept long-term interest rates low.

The recent economic upturn has been surprising. Many economists expected the government shutdown in October to hobble growth, yet the economy motored along without much interruption.

Early reports on holiday shopping have been disappointing.

The National Retail Federation said sales during the Thanksgiving weekend - probably the most important stretch for retailers - fell for the first time since the group began keeping track in 2006.

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NatWest Website Hit By A 'Surge Attack'

The NatWest personal banking website has been hit by a cyber attack in the wake of its IT woes earlier this week, Sky News has confirmed.

Some customers trying to log on to the website found it impossible to enter the site.

NatWest, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, said there had been a deliberate swamping of its site.

An RBS spokesperson told Sky News: "Due to a surge in internet traffic deliberately directed at the NatWest website, customers experienced difficulties accessing some of our customer web sites today.

"This deliberate surge of traffic is commonly known as a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.

"We have taken the appropriate action to restore the affected web sites. At no time was there any risk to customers. We apologise for the inconvenience caused."

The bank stressed that the problems on Thursday night and Friday were not connected with its banking blackout which began on Cyber Monday - the biggest online retail day of the year - and stretched into Tuesday.

Some technical problems continued until Wednesday and thousands of customers who were unable to use the banks' websites or card services vented their fury online.

The group chief executive Ross McEwan described the earlier glitch as "unacceptable" and added: "For decades, RBS failed to invest properly in its systems.

"We need to put our customers' needs at the centre of all we do. It will take time, but we are investing heavily in building IT systems our customers can rely on.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience we caused our customers. We know we have to do better.

"I will be outlining plans in the New Year for making RBS the bank that our customers and the UK need it to be.

"This will include an outline of where we intend to invest for the future."

As well as this week's problems, a glitch in May left RBS and NatWest customers using mobile apps unable to access their accounts online.

That followed a major fiasco in June last year which saw payments go awry, wages appear to go missing and home purchases and holidays interrupted - and cost the group £175m in compensation.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602 and Freeview channel 82

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Ex-Mutual OneSavings Eyes Stock Market Float

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

A British bank backed by one of Wall Street's most prominent financiers is preparing for a stock market flotation that would augment a glut of high street lenders planning to go public.

Sky News has learnt that OneSavings Bank, whose Kent Reliance and other trading brands have hundreds of thousands of customers, has begun talks with investment banks about a listing during 2014.

A public offering of shares could offer an exit route for Christopher Flowers, the American tycoon whose JC Flowers investment vehicle helped to devise a rescue plan for the struggling Kent Reliance Building Society in 2010.

JC Flowers injected £50m of new capital in exchange for roughly 40% of OneSavings, which describes itself as part of a "unique mutual hybrid arrangement", under which the bank is a subsidiary of an industrial and provident society called the Kent Reliance Provident Society (KRPS).

The restructuring was designed to allay members' fears about the loss of its mutual ethos when it agreed the deal with JC Flowers, one of Wall Street's most prominent investors in financial institutions.

By listing its shares, OneSavings would be pursuing a similar route for raising future capital as that being adopted by the Co-operative Bank, which has been forced to fill a £1.5bn capital hole by the banking regulator. The Co-op has pledged to enshrine ethical principles in its constitution as part of its recapitalisation.

In a statement issued to Sky News, a spokeswoman for OneSavings Bank said: "I can confirm that OneSavings Bank is reviewing various options to continue to build the business for the long term benefit of all its stakeholders whilst maintaining the bank's mutual ethos - to make any further comment would be premature."

If it does float, it would herald a return to the stock market in the banking sector for Sir Callum McCarthy, the former boss of the Financial Services Authority, who is among OneSavings' non-executive directors. Stephan Wilcke, the bank's chairman, was one of the architects of the improved deal won by the Co-op Bank's private investors last month.

Since injecting funds into Kent Reliance in 2010, JC Flowers has sought to acquire other lenders in order to create a much larger organisation. However, it has been thwarted in its efforts to buy the Principality Building Society and more than 300 branches being offloaded by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

It did succeed earlier this year in snapping up a package of performing loans from Northern Rock Asset Management, the taxpayer-owned "bad bank", which added 70,000 customers to its ranks.

OneSavings discloses some information about its financial performance because it has subordinated debt instruments which trade on the London Stock Exchange.

In August, it announced that it made a post-tax profit of £12.4m during the first half of the year, against a post-tax loss of £1.8m during the same period a year earlier.

There is an unprecedented pipeline of British banks waiting to list their shares publicly, including branch networks being sold under European state aid rules by both RBS and Lloyds Banking Group.

Metro Bank, which is raising £385m to fund its expansion, has said it may float in 2016. Aldermore, a specialist lender to small and medium-sized companies, and Santander UK are also likely to pursue listings at some stage.

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