WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
BRAZIL IN GLOBAL CURRENCY WAR’ ALERT
An “interntaional currency war” has broken out according to Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, as governments around the world comcompete to power their exhange rates to boost competiveness. Mantega’s comments in Sao Paulo follow a series of interventions by central banks in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in an effort to make their currencies cheaper.
REVERSAL ON CARILLION’S RECLASSIFICATION
Carillion has successfully persuaded the body responsible for deciding the sectors in which listed companires are categorised to backtrack on a recent decision to reclassify it as a constrution company. Carillion called on the Industry Cassification Benchmark committee to ‘correct’ the move.
GERMANY PRESSES FOR SHAKE-UP OF LANDESBANKEN
The German government believes it could take until spring for the troubled publicly owned Landesbanken to agree the first steps of a reorganisation after the global financial meltdown and Eurozone crisis. Steffen Kampete, deputy finance minister said consolidation was vital to “win back the confidence” of the markets. “I don’t think we’ll get anythinng definitive by year’s end. But we’ll see the contours by spring 2011,” he said.
AIG TO FACE SHARE LOCK UP AFTER AIA HONG KONG LISTING
AIG will keep a minimum stake of 30 per cent in AIA for at least a year after its Asian businesses are listed in Hong Kong next month. It will also be banned from selling any shares at all for six months after the listing. The lock up will also apply to AIA itself and cornerstone investors.
THE TIMES
STANDARD LIFE CHIEF HITS BACK AT VINCE CABLE
The man who runs one of the City’s most respected institutional investors has hit back at Vince Cable, describing his attack on shareholder short-termism as “disappointing”. Keith Skeoch, chief executive of Standard Life Investments, accused the Business Secretary of ignoring “all the good work done” by investors in improving the way they hold companies to account in the past year.
P&G LOOKS AT THE LONG TERM THROUGH GREEN-TINTED LENS
Procter & Gamble has pledged to power its factories with 100 per cent renewable energy. The world’s largest consumer products company also said it would use only renewable and recycled materials in all its products and packaging and would report on its progress annually.
The Daily Telegraph
BP WARNS RESTART OF DRILLING IN GULF OF MEXICO WILL BE SLOW
BP has admitted that a resumption of deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to be slow, delivering a blow to the thousands in the region whose livelihoods depend on it. It’s likely to be “a phased restart,” Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production,” told the Presidential commission investigating the spill.
TOPSHOP TO OPEN SECOND US STORE
Topshop, the fashion retailer owned by Sir Philip Green, has signed a lease on its second US shop, in Chicago. The 35,000 sq ft store on the city’s North Michigan Avenue will open in autumn 2011. He is also in talks to open shops in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and is considering San Francisco. Topshop opened its first US store – in New York – in 2009.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
UK’S IMMIGRATION RULES SLAMMED
Large corporations and other employers are turning up the heat on the UK government as it finalises new immigration rules that industry says would restrict their ability to recruit key talent. Border authorities in June introduced a temporary cap on how many skilled and highly skilled workers employers can hire from outside the European Union. In the coming months the government is expected to announce the permanent rules that will take effect in April.
FORD CEO EXPECTS SOLID PROFIT
Ford still expects to make a “solid profit” this year and plans to invest £1.5bn in the UK over the next five years, the car manufacturer’s president and chief executive Alan Mulally said yesterday. He added he expects the car manufacturer to post an improvement in performance in 2011.