What the other papers say this morning
FINANCIAL TIMES
LAWYERS URGE HUNT TO BE CAREFUL OVER SKY BID
Jeremy Hunt must act carefully to avoid legal challenge to his role in regulating News Corp’s proposed bid for British Sky Broadcasting, after his department sent Rupert Murdoch’s company a key document, lawyers said. Three competition experts yesterday said the culture secretary’s move could give News Corp the ability to offer pre-emptive “remedies” that would cut out the need for a full public interest investigation of the proposed bid by the Competition Commission.
US SENATE REPORT TO CRITICISE GOLDMAN
Goldman Sachs will come in for harsh criticism from an influential US Senate report into the financial crisis that will highlight alleged conflicts of interests in the bank’s dealings with clients, according to people familiar with the matter. Goldman yesterday released a long-awaited list of internal changes that it hoped would help to put its recent controversy behind it.
FIAT CHIEF CONFIDENT OF MIRAFIORI VOTE
Sergio Marchionne has expressed confidence that he would succeed in pushing through changes to Fiat’s car production system in Italy, which will come to a head in a vote at the carmaker’s flagship Mirafiori plant this week. Fiat’s chief executive also underscored in an interview with the Financial Times his intention to act as a kingpin of world truckmaking by integrating Iveco with MAN and Scania, in which Volkswagen holds sizeable stakes. “I’m hopeful the majority of people will see reason in this,” Marchionne said of the ballot at Mirafiori, where workers will vote on Thursday on whether to accept concessions.
THE TIMES
PLATFORM TICKET IS TOO COSTLY FOR WOULD-BE BUYERS
BAE Systems has pulled the sale of its avionics business after failing to get the price it was seeking. Europe’s largest defence company had been in negotiations with General Electric, Eaton Corp and Warburg Pincus. BAE had hoped that the Platform Solutions division would fetch up to $2bn (£1.3bn) at auction.
VAUXHALL’S LUTON STAFF TO LEARN FATE WITHIN MONTH
Vauxhall workers in Luton have been left sweating on their future after their boss at the European division of General Motors pledged a final decision on the vanmaking plant within weeks. The plant lost 355 workers in the restructuring of GM’s European operations and the other 1,100 took a two-year pay freeze.
The Daily Telegraph
CHINA IS VITAL TO UK ECONOMY, SAYS LORD GREEN
Lord Green used his first speech as Britain’s new Trade Minister to emphasise the “vital importance” of relations with China to the UK economy. The former chairman of HSBC told his Chinese counterpart, Gao Hucheng, and a delegation of 400 business leaders, that China’s economic growth figures over the past five years represented an “extraordinary historic event”.
BP CHAIRMAN CARL-HENRIC SVANBERT MOOTED FOR NEW ROLE AT VOLVO BUSINESS
The chairman of BP is the favourite candidate to become chairman of Volvo’s truck business, according to Sweden’s Dagens Industri newspaper. The report fuelled speculation that Carl-Henric Svanberg may not spend much more time at BP.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
AMD CLASHED WITH CHIEF EXEC
Advanced Micro Devices’ board was concerned for nearly a year that chief executive Dirk Meyer wasn’t doing enough to get the chip maker into markets for newer mobile devices, according to people familiar with the matter. Their concerns came to a head after November meeting between the CEO and fellow directors to review AMD’s strategy.
US EXPORT FINANCING CHALLENGES CHINA
The Export-Import Bank of the US is taking on China’s export machine, in a deal designed as a model for developed nations to challenge China in global markets. In a move crafted with White House involvement, the agency agreed to match China’s cheaper financing terms to get the Pakistan government to buy 150 General Electric locomotives.