WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
LIBYAN REBELS SET FOR FIRST CRUDE EXPORTS
Libyan rebels are set for their first oil export as soon as Tuesday as they seek funding to sustain their uprising against Muammer Gaddafi’s rule. The Liberia-flagged Equator tanker was off Port Said, Egypt, early on Monday and is expected to dock at the Marsa el-Hariga crude oil export terminal near Tubruq, in east Libya, on Tuesday morning, according to Lloyd’s Intelligence, the shipping industry data provider.
LANSLEY FORCED TO MODIFY REFORM PRESCRIPTION
Andrew Lansley has put his National Health Service shake-up on hold, promising to rewrite parts of his legislation to quell mounting criticism from the medical profession, MPs and a hostile House of Lords. The health secretary’s pledge to MPs to “pause, listen and engage” came as the Commons health committee compounded his problems by rejecting plans for purely GP-led commissioning of care, recommending instead broader-based commissioning bodies.
FOOTBALL CLUBS FACE 25 PER CENT CASH CUT FROM TV DEAL
The 72 clubs of the Football League will have to tighten their squeezed budgets after negotiators neared completion of a new three-year television rights deal that is expected to cut the broadcasting income by a quarter. The Football League, responsible for the three tiers below the Premier League, announced that Sky Sports had agreed to pay £195m for the three seasons from 2012-13. The deal gives Sky live rights to 75 league matches each season.
THE TIMES
GLENCORE’S $14M BONUSES FOR TRADERS LEAVE BANKS IN SHADE
Glencore paid its senior traders more than $900m in bonuses last year, giving them an estimated average pay-out of $14m each, dwarfing most City bonuses. The Swiss commodities trader, which is considering a flotation in London, is understood to have told its bondholders that the basic pay of senior staff totalled $146m (£90m) last year, with a further $938m paid in bonuses.
SIR STELIOS PLANS TO ADD POUNDS WITH EASYGYM
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, has entered the fitness market with a no-frills gym chain. The easyGym venture, with private equity-owned Fore Fitness, will focus on value for money, with prices starting at £15 a month, and an option for users to pay as they exercise.
The Daily Telegraph
ONE IN SEVEN CHANCE THAT NATIONS WILL ABANDON EURO
The risk is roughly one in seven that Europe’s ongoing debt crisis will push member nations to abandon the shared currency, raising the spectre of the “effective end of the euro area,” the Economist Intelligence Unit has warned.
THE BATTLE FOR NYSE EURONEXT TURNS POLITICAL
The battle for control of NYSE Euronext has turned more overtly political after a top European regulator said that Europe cannot become an “outsourcer” in global finance. The comment from Michel Barnier, the European Union’s Commissioner for Markets, comes days after Nasdaq OMX and InterContinental Exchange (ICE) joined forces to trump an existing bid for NYSE Euronext, owner of America’s oldest stock exchange.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
IMF CHIEF: BLACK SWANS STILL HAUNT GLOBAL FINANCE
The global economic recovery is still fragile, uneven and “beset by great uncertainty,” the head of the International Monetary Fund said late yesterday. Europe’s piecemeal approach to resolving its sovereign debt and growth crisis is aggravating its problems, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in remarks to George Washington University students.
BANK OF JAPAN CONSIDERS POST-QUAKE LENDING PROGRAMME
The Bank of Japan may implement a new bank-lending programme—similar to one introduced after the 1995 Kobe earthquake—at its two-day policy board meeting Wednesday and Thursday, according to a person familiar with its thinking. The programme would direct low-interest loans to banks in areas hit hard by last month’s disaster.