Business news in brief: Rolls-Royce | Nissan | Oil & Gas UK

ENGINE maker Rolls-Royce has secured a $1 billion (£617.1 million) contract to supply Japanese low-cost carrier Skymark Airlines.

Skymark, a new customer for the group, has ordered Trent 900 engines to power six Airbus A380 aircraft and also signed a letter of intent for Trent 700 units for up to ten A330s. All the planes are due to enter service in 2014, and Skymark will be the only airline Japan using both the Trent 900 and 700 engines.

Meanwhile, Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines has placed the country’s largest civil aviation order – worth $12bn – to buy 100 aircraft from Airbus.

Clearing houses face bank checks

Clearing houses that will manage the £400 trillion market for derivatives such as credit default swaps as part of new global regulations will face spot checks from the Bank of England to ensure they are mitigating risks.

Outlining how it will supervise UK clearing houses from April, the bank said its key concern will be to ensure financial stability was maintained in the public interest. It will have powers to force them to take a specific action, impose requirements and penalties and even to revoke their licence.

Nissan

Car giant Nissan is to build a new luxury model in Britain, creating 1,000 jobs with a £250 million investment.

The new model will be manufactured at the Japanese firm’s plant in Sunderland, which employs 6,000 workers.

The car, built under Nissan’s Infinity premium brand, is set to be produced from 2015.

It will be developed with help from Nissan’s design centre in London and technical centre in Cranfield and then exported around the world, the firm said.

Around 280 of the new jobs will be in Sunderland, with the rest in other sites across the UK.

Werngren leads oil body operations

Oil & Gas UK has appointed Oonagh Werngren as operations director. She will join the team on 21 January, succeeding Paul Dymond who retires after ten years service.

Werngren is highly experienced in project delivery in the industry across the world and is trained in incident investigation.

Malcolm Webb, Oil & Gas UK’s chief executive, said: “She will lead the operations directorate’s work to improve the business environment for companies and enhance understanding of the dynamics we are currently witnessing.”