What the other papers say this morning – 4 October 2013
FINANCIAL TIMES
China to invest £650m in Manchester
China’s biggest bank will invest in a new £650m business district at Manchester airport in a deal the government believes will mark a fresh wave of investment by Beijing in UK infrastructure.
The state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is to sign the deal when George Osborne visits Beijing with a view to rekindling Sino-British relations after months of diplomatic tension. The chancellor is expected to highlight several deals between the countries as the government woos Chinese investment in projects such as its new nuclear reactor programme and other infrastructure. The scheme would create an estimated 16,000 jobs in the next 15 years.
Hedge funds step into the shadows
Some of the world’s best-known hedge funds have stepped into the shoes of Wall Street banks and expanded into the $5 trillion “repo” market, where financial companies lend out their assets in exchange for short-term loans. The rise of non-bank players in the repo market has come as new rules make the decades-old business less attractive for banks.
Facebook’s Instagram takes adverts
Instagram, the photo-sharing service acquired by Facebook last year, is finally wading into advertising, marking the first moneymaking move by the three-year-old company. Paid photo and videos will be introduced into users streams in the US over the next few months.
THE TIMES
Gala Coral quits the bingo hall
Gala Coral Group is poised to put its bingo club chain up for sale for more than £250m as the gambling operator clears the decks for a £2bn-plus flotation of its betting and online businesses in a year’s time.
Army to shed 3,000 more jobs
The Army proposes to axe almost 3,000 soldiers in a new round of redundancies in January. The job losses were drawn up despite concerns that a push to expand the Territorial Army is failing to hit recruitment targets. The coalition has demanded that troop numbers fall from 102,000 to 82,000 by the end of the decade.
The Daily Telegraph
Silverstone directors facing revolt
The directors of the Silverstone race track is facing a revolt at its annual general meeting on Friday over a deal to sell a lease on the track that hosts Formula One’s British Grand Prix for £32m to repay loans.
Error adds €10bn to Spain debt
A simple typographical error boosted Spain’s 2014 public debt forecast by €10bn (£8.4bn), the government has admitted. It turns out that Spain’s public debt in 2014 is expected to be the equivalent of 98.9 per cent of total economic output, not the 99.8 per cent figure that was originally published.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EU steps up scrutiny of Gazprom
The EU’s antitrust watchdog stepped up its scrutiny of Gazprom, saying it was preparing to initiate formal legal proceedings against the Russian state-owned energy giant in its probe of how Gazprom supplies gas to Eastern Europe.
Facebook builds company town
Facebook’s sprawling campus in California is so full of cushy perks that some employees may never want to go home. Soon, they’ll have that option. The social network said this week it is working with a local developer to build a $120m, 394-unit housing community nearby.