WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
VODAFONE?VEXED BY VERIZON STANCE
The chief executive of Vodafone yesterday said that the question of dividend payments from Verizon Wireless, its US joint venture, was one of the most pressing items on the company’s agenda. Speaking at a MorganStanley investor conference in Barcelona, Vittorio Colao said: “We need to solve the US situation.”
EUROPEAN COMPANIES TO FOCUS ON EMERGING MARKETS
Companies in Europe are setting increasingly ambitious growth targets for emerging markets, with three of the continents biggest names aiming to source half their revenues from them within six years. Philips, the Dutch consumer and healthcare group, Renault, the French carmaker, and MAN, the German truckmaker are each aiming to earn more than half their sales from emerging markets by 2015 to counter slowing growth in the west, their chief executives have told the Financial Times.
MINSHENG BID BLOCK WAS ‘COSTLY MISTAKE’
US authorities blocked the Chinese bank Minsheng from acquiring an American lender in a decision that may have cost almost $300m of taxpayers’ money and $1.4bn from an industry insurance fund, according to people familiar with the matter.
JAMES MURDOCH EYES WHOLESALE NEWS
An exciting new wholesale market for “digital journalism” is about to develop and News Corp is keen to set the price, James Murdoch said yesterday. Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp Europe and Asia, picked up the campaign by his father Rupert to charge for online news, which most papers give away. Murdoch forecast a “huge shift” in the business model of the industry.
THE TIMES
LADBROKES TO CLOSE AINTREE CALL CENTRE
Ladbrokes, the bookmaker, announced plans to close its call centre at Aintree, Liverpool, with the potential loss of 263 jobs. The news comes three months after Chris Bell, the chief executive, ruled out closing its two call centres at Aintree and at Harrow, arguing that the economic case for doing so was not “compelling”.
LAW FIRMS SELECTED FOR STATE BANK SELL-OFF
Four City law firms, including a second-tier contender, have been chosen by the Government to handle the sale of its stake in big banks, The Times has learnt. Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith and Simmons & Simmons were selected alongside Slaughter and May, which has had a stranglehold on government legal work.
The Daily Telegraph
RUSSIA REFUSES AUTOPSY FOR ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWYER
Russian authorities have refused to release the body of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer campaigning against fraud and corruption who died in a Moscow jail this week, for an independent autopsy. According to friends, the authorities rejected several requests and are only releasing the body for burial. Mr Magnitsky’s funeral will be held at noon today at Moscow’s Preobrazhensky cemetery.
LEHMAN CLAIMS MAY TOTAL UP TO $1 TRILLLION
The number of claims against collapsed Lehman Brothers could top $1 trillion (£600bn), according to the man running the investment bank’s liquidation. Bryan Marsal, co-chief executive at turnaround specialists Alvarez & Marsal, has so far received more than 64,000 claims.
WALL STREET JOUNAL
DANONE SOURS ON ITS REVENUE FORECASTS
Groupe Danone SA has trimmed its revenue expectations for the next three years, as the French dairy company now expects the world-wide economic downturn to lead to a long-term change in consumer-spending habits. “The world at large has gone, and is still going through, a profound transformational phase which will have a long-lasting impact on society” said Emmanuel Faber, co-chief operating officer.
NEW LINK SEEN IN GALLEON INSIDER-TRADING CASE
A defendant accused of exchanging a case of cash for inside information has ties to Galleon Group’s former No. 2 executive — the first link between a top executive at the hedge fund and smaller-time players cited in a sprawling insider-trading case.