What the other papers say this morning February 3, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MADEJSKI IN TALKS TO RESTRUCTURE GROUP DEBT Sir John Madejski, the owner of Reading Football Club, is in talks to restructure a loan that backed the expansion of his property empire after the crash in regional property values led to a breach in the covenants of the debt. The wealthy former media magnate’s [...]
HMV investor mulls break-up February 3, 2011 A major investor in struggling retailer HMV Group has hired Credit Suisse to advise on the options for the firm, which could include a break-up of its HMV and Waterstone’s brands, according to Sky News. Alexander Mamut, a Russian billionaire with a 6.1 per cent stake in HMV, is in the first stages of assessing [...]
Oil majors curb the FTSE 100 despite solid corporate news February 3, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index fell yesterday, hurt by Royal Dutch Shell as the oil major’s results were met with disappointment, while drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline rose after it decided to push ahead with a buyback programme. The FTSE 100 shed 16.73 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 5,983.34, after closing 0.7 per cent higher on Wednesday. The [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 2, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LLOYDS DROPS MORTGAGE BROKERS OVER SUSPECTED FRAUD Concerns over suspected fraud have prompted Lloyds Banking Group to cull the list of brokers it allows to sell its mortgages. The UK’s largest mortgage lender has removed some 900 individuals over the past four years from its “approved panel” of brokers, including 300 in the [...]
BP’s Russian ally snubs TNK February 2, 2011 A SENIOR executive at BP’s newest Russian partner Rosneft said yesterday that TNK-BP is not big enough to join its Arctic exploration efforts. “They have neither the technology, nor the experience, nor the personnel,” Rosneft chief financial officer Peter O’Brien said of TNK-BP, which is owned by BP and Russian billionaires under the name AAR. [...]
Russians freeze BP’s $16bn deal February 1, 2011 OIL giant BP has been forced to halt work on its historic venture with Rosneft, after its billionaire Russian partners won an injunction. Four Russian oligarchs, using the name AAR, convinced the High Court to stall BP and Rosneft’s plan to swap $16bn (£10bn) worth of shares and drill in the Arctic until 25 February. [...]
Arcelor joins Mongolia coal bid February 1, 2011 Steelmaker ArcelorMittal and miner Vale are among 15 groups that applied to take part in the bidding to develop Mongolia’s Tavan Tolgoi coal mine. The mine is regarded as one of the world’s biggest untapped reserves with an estimated reserve of 6bn tonnes. Two groups led by Japanese trading houses, one by Mitsui & Co [...]
1,256 SAFE DAYS FOR ALL AT BP’S LONDON HQ February 1, 2011 FULL steam ahead for the BP safety train. Following The Capitalist’s story two weeks ago about how the oil giant has been beefing up ‘elf ’n’ safety procedures in stairwell use, a source has sent in this picture (see right). Yes, that’s right, a count-down (or count-up) calendar from BP’s London HQ boasting of how many “safe [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 31, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES WARNING AS BRIBERY LAW DELAYED British companies have been warned that they could be put on an export “blacklist” by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development if the government continues to delay tough new anti-corruption laws. The warning came after Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, signalled on Monday that the implementation of [...]
BP’s Russian partners plot to block dividends January 31, 2011 BP’s RUSSIAN partners are attempting to derail the payment of the firm’s final dividend payment of last year in a row over exploration contracts. AAR, a vehicle for the billionaires who own half of Russian venture TNK-BP, said at an extraordinary board meeting yesterday that it plans to block TNK-BP interim dividends amounting to $1.8bn [...]