Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
AUDIO – Staying the course at CAT — But it’s a rough row to hoe
Caterpillar Inc Group President Ed Rapp knows that 2009 has been a tough one for his company, but he still thinks they can hit their numbers on revenue and earnings per share.
Speaking at the Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation Summit, Rapp (who, incidentally, has been with Caterpillar for almost 30 years and is still considered something of a “youngster” there!!) said that while there are still many hurdles for the company to avoid in the short term, he thought CAT’s previous guidance was within reach.
Rapp said he remains worried about the state of the credit markets and said government efforts to stabilize banking had yet to cut the cost of borrowing for captive finance companies. But his optimism comes from the sometimes painful steps the company has made in the past few months to cut costs and realign their business thinking.
Rapp is one of a team of six executives under CEO Jim Owens who run CAT’s day-to-day operations.
AUDIO – Gazprom: “We are mutually dependent”
A quarter of the gas that heats European homes and powers European industry is piped in thousands of kilometres from the Russian tundra. By 2015, Russia’s share of European gas supplies will rise to at least one third. That powerful lever of influence over Europe’s economy raises the stakes in its confrontation with Russia over its invasion of Georgia.
But Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive of Russia’s state gas export monopoly Gazprom, opened the Reuters Russia Investment Summit on Monday with a reminder that even the mighty Gazprom is not invulnerable to Europe and the West, relying as it does on foreign revenue and capital.
