WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
RIO PLANS RUSSIAN DIAMOND PUSH AS IT EYES ALROSA TIE-UP
Rio Tinto is planning a push into Russian diamond mining, eyeing a tie-up with Alrosa, the state-owned miner, as the global industry looks ahead to rising demand from China amid tight supply constraints. The company declined to comment on its intentions or on wider reports that Tom Albanese, chief executive, had travelled repeatedly over the past year to Russia, a country where Rio has no operations.
UKAR TO SEEK MORTGAGES ADMIN ROLE
UK Asset Resolution, the company charged with shrinking the troubled loan books of Northern rock and Bradford & Bingley is hoping to secure a future beyond winding down the £80bn portfolio by running mortgages for other lenders.
EU PLANS FRESH TRANSPARENCY RULES
Europe is set to impose mandatory transparency measures for ming and forestry companies, requiring them to detail their financial relationships with foreign governments, a top European Union official has told the Financial Times. In an interview, Michel Barnier, the EU internal market commissioner, said the move would come as Brussels revised existing rules on transparency in autumn.
MILLER IN REFINANCE TALKS AS IT EYES FLOTATION
The UK’s biggest privately owned housebuilding and construction company has started refinancing talks with its lenders in a move that paves the way for a possible stock market debut. Miller Group, which built 1,915 homes across the UK in 2010 and had sales of £631m, has been privately owned throughout its 77-year history, but appears to be considering a public listing.
THE TIMES
IMF CHIEF FEARS FISCAL CRISIS IF SOARING DEBT IS NOT REINED IN
Western governments face a sharp surge in borrowing costs as their debt mountains hit the highest levels since the Second World War, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday. In a blunt speech, John Lipsky, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, said that advanced nations ran the risk of a “fiscal crisis”.
THORNTONS SHRINKS PRODUCTS TO BATTLE COMMODITY PRICES
Thorntons has become the latest confectioner to shrink the size of its products to help to guard profits against ever higher commodity prices. The company has begun to reduce the weight of some of its inlaid box chocolates sold in supermarkets and its own shops, meaning that an average sized box contains one or two fewer chocolates.
The Daily Telegraph
MOST BRITONS DESCRIBE THEMSELVES AS MIDDLE CLASS
Most Britons now claim to be middle class, as research shows that the proportion of people who describe themselves as working class has dropped to less than a quarter. Seven out of 10 people view themselves as belonging to middle Britain, compared with a quarter a generation ago. Only 24 per cent of people describe themselves as working class, according to the survey carried out by the new research company BritainThinks.
SAFE NUCLEAR DOES EXIST AND CHINA IS LEADING THE WAY WITH THORIUM
A few weeks before the tsunami struck Fukushima’s uranium reactors and shattered public faith in nuclear power, China revealed that it was launching a rival technology to build a safer, cleaner, and cheaper network of reactors based on thorium.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EUROPE
METS OWNERS ACCUSE MADOFF TRUSTEE OF DISTORTING EVIDENCE
The owners of the New York Mets struck back at the trustee recovering money for Bernard Madoff’s victims late yesterday, accusing him in court of ignoring evidence and fabricating allegations that they overlooked warnings about the Ponzi scheme. Team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz and their associates issued a 107-page response to the $1bn lawsuit filed by trustee Irving Picard.
FERRERO MAY CONSIDER STAKE IN PARMALAT
Italian candy maker Ferrero is eyeing a potential investment in Parmalat as part of a push by Italy’s business and political establishment to keep the dairy firm, once at the centre of Europe’s biggest-ever corporate scandal, in Italian hands, according to Italian bankers.