WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
STUDY POINTS TO PENSION GAP AMONG EXECUTIVES
Executives at FTSE 100 companies earn retirement benefits that cost roughly twice as much as those offered to those in the FTSE 250, according to a study released on Wednesday. The study, prepared by actuarial consultants Lane, Clark & Peacock, looks at the way FTSE 250 companies offer retirement benefits to their executives.
DEMAND FOR OFFICES FALLS SHARPLY
Demand from tenants for commercial property has fallen for the first time in a year, raising fears that the nascent rental recovery has already stalled, owing to concerns among occupiers about the impact of the government’s new austerity measures. Demand for offices fell most sharply in London in the second quarter, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
ACTIVIST INVESTOR ICAHN RENEWS BID FOR LIONS GATE
Carl Icahn has launched a renewed hostile bid for Lions Gate Entertainment just 24 hours after the end of a 10-day truce between the activist investor and the Hollywood studio. Mr Icahn made a hostile bid worth $6.50 a share – less than the $7 a share offer he made a few months ago, which Lions Gate then described as “financially inadequate”.
SKS MICROFINANCE PLANS TO RAISE $350M IN IPO
SKS Microfinance, India’s largest lender to the poor, aims to raise about $350m this month by selling a 21.6 per cent stake in an initial public offering expected to spark a wave of listings by equity-strapped Indian microfinance companies. SKS will be one of the biggest microfinance companies to go public since the 2008 share offering of Compartamos.
THE TIMES
NETWORK RAIL BOSS ATTACKS “ILL-INFORMED” BONUS CRITICS
The chairman of Network Rail has defended his decision to defy critics — including the Transport Secretary — and pay his executive team £2.3 million in bonuses. In an extraordinary tirade before the rail infrastructure group’s annual meeting in Manchester, Rick Haythornthwaite has accused those who criticised Network Rail’s decision to pay bonuses of being “often illinformed and possibly with alternative agendas”.
TOYOTA SUBPOENAED OVER STEERING RODS
Toyota has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in New York to submit documents relating to defective steering rods in some of its vehicles. The company is fighting to restore its reputation after recalling millions of cars worldwide since October.
The Daily Telegraph
UK DEFENCE INDUSTRY MUST HELP GOVERNMENT CUT COSTS, SAYS LIAM FOX
The British defence industry must brace for major reforms, defence secretary Liam Fox said at the Farnborough Airshow yesterday. The defence programme inherited from the former Labour Government was “entirely unaffordable”, he said, “and the unavoidable reality is that change is coming”.
TUI AG BID FOR TUI TRAVEL IS ON THE CARDS
Tui Travel made headway on takeover talk despite the FTSE 100 finishing in negative territory for a fifth consecutive day. The travel operator was in demand as Morgan Stanley said German conglomerate TUI AG, which owns a 54 per cent stake in Tui Travel, could buy out the remainder of the company that it does not already own.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
GLAXO RIVAL PAID FEES TO DOCTOR WHO VOTED AGAINST AVANDIA
A doctor who voted against the diabetes drug Avandia at a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel last week said he earlier served a paid speaker for the maker of a rival drug. The statement by Abraham Thomas, head of the endocrinology and diabetes division at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, follows the disclosure that another doctor on the panel, David Capuzzi of Philadelphia, is a paid speaker for the maker of Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline.
IMF: CENTRAL BANKS MUST THWART BUBBLES
The International Monetary Fund’s executive board said central banks may want to use interest rates in a “limited” way the next time they encounter an asset bubble that needs to be pricked.