WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
RESPITE OVER CITY BONUSES DETAILS
Britain’s banks will be spared the embarrassment of giving details of big bonus payments to staff in their annual reports next spring after the Treasury admitted the relevant legislation will not be on the statute book in time. The delay to new disclosure requirements is likely to create a highly contentious bonus round in February and March, coming as Britain enters the first stage of the coalition’s austerity programme.
TOKYO AIM FAILS TO FIND A SINGLE LISTING
More than a year after its launch, the Tokyo and London stock exchanges’ Japanese joint venture bourse for start up companies, Tokyo Aim, has failed to secure a single listing. The slow start at the bourse is a setback over a year after the London Stock Exchange said it was “confident [it] will develop into a vibrant new market”
.MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS IN HIRING SPREE
Hundreds of management consultants are being hired across London. All four of the big professional services firms are recruiting staff aggressively, in spite of widespread concerns that the industry would be savaged by the government’s decision to slash management consultants in the public sector.
UK SECTOR POISED FOR DEAL FLURRY
The flurry of deals in the US that saw Intel launch a surprise offer for McAfee and then snap up an Infineon wireless unit, and Hewlett-Packard outbid Dell for computer storage company 3Par, is spurring hopes of a rise in deal activity across the pond. Bankers are preparing for a pick-up in merger and acquisition activity in the UK technology sector as cashed-up companies look for targets.
THE TIMES
EXECUTIVE BONUSES SOAR AS TARGETS ARE SET ‘TOO LOW’
Executive bonuses surged last year after many FTSE 100 companies set the bar too low. Payments by the country’s top companies rose to 98 per cent of directors’ basic salaries, from 95 per cent previously, despite harsh trading conditions, according to a survey by the accountant Deloitte. Among the country’s 30 biggest corporate players, average payouts jumped to 140 per cent of salary, almost 20 per cent higher than before.
LEGAL FIRMS FACE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL DURING WINTER
Commercial law firms are bracing themselves for a bleak winter as many face a cash squeeze. A host of small and medium-sized firms will be pushed to the brink of survival as they struggle to find working capital.
The Daily Telegraph
FORMER HSBC CHIEF SIR KEITH WHITSON JOINS HIRING ROW
The former chief executive of HSBC has accused the bank of “gambling with the group’s future” by looking externally for a new chairman, days after Barclays boss John Varley turned down the job. Sir Keith Whitson, who retired from the bank in 2003 after over 40 years’ service, believes the board should concentrate on internal candidates steeped in knowledge of the company.
MCLAREN LOOKS BEYOND CARS WITH NEW £40M FACILITY
McLaren, maker of championship-winning Formula One cars and £650,000 road-going “hyper” cars, has made a £780m bet that it can cut it in mainstream manufacturing., McLaren is already working with the healthcare and sports industries and has set its sights on aerospace.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
BARCLAYS SHIFTS ITS POSITION ON STRESS TESTS, SOVEREIGN DEBT
Barclays PLC says its disclosure of sovereign-debt holdings in July’s European bank stress tests didn’t exclude any government bonds it was holding in its trading books. That is a shift for the UK bank. Officials in late August and early September told The Wall Street Journal that Barclays had excluded certain sovereign bonds that it was holding in its trading portfolios from the stress-test figures.
A WEAKENED RUSSIA LOOKS TO EUROPE
The severe blow dealt to Russia by the West’s financial crisis is prompting a recalibration of Russia’s foreign policy. Among the ideas now surfacing in Moscow: a much closer relationship between Russia and the European Union. Last year Russia’s economy shrank by 7.9 per cent.