WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
THE SUNDAY
The Sunday Telegraph
TEST FOR DEFENCE SPENDING PLEDGE
The government’s pledge to direct £900m of defence spending into better equipment for Afghanistan will be tested next month when it announces the replacement for the controversial Snatch Land Rover. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is understood to be choosing between four vehicles, and industry experts say the contract could be worth up to £300m.
SIMON FULLER SET TO TAKE HELM AT CKX
Simon Fuller, chief executive of 19 Entertainment, is expected to take over the running of its parent company, CKX, within the next year, kick-starting a restructuring process. He could take the company private. The division Fuler runs generates the majority of group profits.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
RECESSION ALREADY OVER
Figures to be released this week are set to show that the recession all but ended in the third quarter of the year, economists say. Stronger construction data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) should have boosted Britain’s gross domestic product, and expectations are that the third-quarter GDP decline will be revised down to 0.1 per cent.
DATA CENTRE KEYS IN NASDAQ FLOAT
One of Europe’s biggest operators of internet data centres is preparing for a £500m flotation in 2010. Netherlands-based Interxion – pronounced “interaction” – is hunting for advisers to list the business on Nasdaq. The company recently conducted a “beauty parade” of investment banks believed to have included banks JP Morgan, Jefferies and UBS.
TODAY
FINANCIAL TIMES
BRITISH EMBASSIES FORCED TO CUT BACK ON SPENDING
British embassies are cutting counter-terrorism and security funding, banning hospitality, and imposing pay cuts and four-day weeks on local staff as a budget crisis engulfs the Foreign Office. The fall in the pound has left the Foreign Office nursing a 12 per cent deficit in its core budget this year, forcing it to stop discretionary spending.
AIRBUS FEARS DELAY TO BOEING REPORT
Airbus fears a six-month delay in a crucial World Trade Organisation report on Boeing, its US rival, could harm the European aircraft maker’s chances of winning a multi-billion-dollar Pentagon contract.
The Daily Telegraph
ICELAND’S GLITNIR ‘OWES’ £10M TO F1 TEAM WILLIAMS
The Formula One racing team Williams is demanding £10m in unpaid sponsorship from the collapsed Icelandic bank Glitnir. The claim follows a guarantee made by the bank in 2008 to fulfil sponsor Hamleys’ obligation, after the toy shop’s Icelandic owner, retail group Baugur failed to pay up.
EMI’S FUTURE MAY DEPEND ON CHRISTMAS MUSIC SALES
Christmas album sales could hold the key to music publisher EMI meeting its banking covenants and avoiding a forced takeover by Citigroup, its lender. EMI hopes sales will help lift the earnings-to-net-debt ratio in its recorded music business above the minimum threshold at which its bank can declare a loan default.
THE TIMES
DECISION DAY FOR BAA ON SALE OF TWO AIRPORTS
Airports operator BAA will discover today whether it will be forced into a firesale of London Stansted and one of its Scottish airports. The Competition Appeal Tribunal will rule whether the Competition Commission was right to demand that BAA’s monopoly control of airports in London and Scotland be broken up.
RISE IN WEST END PROPERTY VALUES FRAUGHT WITH DANGER
The chief executive of the UK’s biggest listed property fund has warned investors that the market will be “full of elephant traps” next year, amid signs that values could fall again. Duncan Owen, the chief executive of Invista Real Estate Management, said a recent rise in the values of buildings was artificial.