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BB-8: set for a starring role at the Davos conference?
BB-8: set for a starring role at the Davos conference? Photograph: Jon Furniss / Corbis/Corbis
BB-8: set for a starring role at the Davos conference? Photograph: Jon Furniss / Corbis/Corbis

Robots rub up with Davos delegates

This article is more than 8 years old

The annual bunfight in the Alps will focus on artificial intelligence this year

Thomas Mann called it The Magic Mountain, but this week it will be more like the Magic Robot. The World Economic Forum at the Swiss resort of Davos sees the great and the good and the not so good gather to discuss the burning issues of the day, and this year’s theme is the fourth industrial revolution. Which means the impact of robots and artificial intelligence.

Of course, the global market meltdown, the collapse in the oil price and concerns about Chinese growth will also be on the agenda. The chairman of BP, various bankers including Jiang Jianqing from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and economists such as Nouriel Roubini will be in attendance.

Other delegates are set to include Leonardo DiCaprio, who will receive an award relating to his foundation’s work on the impact of climate change, rock star Bono (of course), musician will.i.am and prime minister David Cameron. But German chancellor Angela Merkel, a regular attendee, will apparently not be there this year.

Elsewhere, there will be a cello concert “celebrating intercultural dialogue and trust”, a day in the life of a refugee and a chance to learn “how to reach peak performance” with Formula One racing driver Sebastian Vettel at an alpine retreat on the Rinerhorn Mountain.

And back to the fourth industrial revolution, there is a session called Meet the Robots. R2-D2 once turned up at a CBI conference – perhaps Davos will get BB-8?

Gloom at Goldman with bonuses set to shrink

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, and his team are likely to be quite pleased with themselves as they wander around Davos.

The bank announced better than expected fourth-quarter earnings last week and saw its full-year figures come close to a Wall Street record, albeit one rather helped by cost cutting.

But executives from Goldman Sachs may well be more gloomy as they mingle with their counterparts in the Alps. Goldman is due to unveil its latest figures on Wednesday, and it is already clear they will be pretty grim.

Initially, the bank was expected to reveal a 12% drop in fourth-quarter earnings to around $1.9bn (£1.3bn).

But late last week it announced it had agreed to pay more than $5bn to settle claims it had mis-sold mortgage-backed securities to investors during the financial crisis.

It said the payment would cut its fourth-quarter earnings by $1.5bn, leaving them even lower than forecast.

So Goldman’s bankers are likely to see lower bonuses this year, which could cause some consternation in the City of London’s wine bars if the champagne is swapped for prosecco as a consequence.

Knorr adds some extra ingredients to the soup

More Knorr in emerging markets. That was one message analysts took away from a Unilever presentation in Manila and Singapore towards the end of last year. The consumer company feels its food business is lagging behind its personal and home care products in emerging markets, and is planning a push to improve that situation.

The company believes its existing distribution network in the area can be better used for its food business and gives it a key competitive advantage, according to analysts at Investec.

Of course, emerging markets have seen a lot of turmoil in recent weeks, and Unilever is far from immune. Its fourth-quarter results on Tuesday are expected to show sales growth of more than 4%, down from the 5.7% reported in the previous three months. The third-quarter figures were flattered by favourable weather in Europe, as well as stocking up in Brazil in advance of price increases, said Investec.

For the full year as a whole, Credit Suisse is predicting sales growth of 3.8%, adding: “We expect management will indicate a similar level of organic sales growth in 2016, and a margin improvement of around 30 basis points, although flagging the uncertain economic outlook in several emerging markets (Brazil, China, South Africa, Russia).”

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