WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
JUSTICE SHAMBLES ATTACKED BY LABOUR
The coalition’s strategy on criminal justice was said to be “in shambles” yesterday after the government scrapped its cost saving plans to halve prison sentences for offenders who plead guilty. Ken Clarke, justice secretary, came under fire for creating a £130m hole in his departmental budget.
MADOFF’S YACHT IN THE MONACO SALES
For the great and the good of the hedge fund world gathered in Monaco this week, only one trade is worth discussing: Bernard Madoff’s yacht.
The 90ft powerboat, “one of the fastest ever built”, is being discreetly offered for sale for €3m (£2.7m) this week at the Gaim conference, an annual event for the European hedge fund industry.
DIRECTORS AT C&W WORLDWIDE SEE PAY CUT
Cable & Wireless Worldwide is cutting the pay packages for its top managers following shareholder anger over the telecoms group’s poor performance during its first year as an independent company. The basic pay and perks of Jim Marsh, chief executive, rose 45 per cent in 2010-11, while the group’s share price fell 43 per cent in the same period following two profit warnings.
TOP RBS STAFF GET £2.7M IN BONUS SHARES
Seven of Royal Bank of Scotland’s most senior executives were granted shares in the bank worth £2.7m after a deffered part of an earlier bonus scheme was paid out. John Hourican, head of the investment banking division, was awarded the biggest pay-out of 2.4m shares for his performance in 2009, a bumper year for his part of the business. After tax he received 1.16m shares, which he immediately sold for about £450,000.
THE TIMES
BIG SIX ESCAPE ENERGY REGULATOR
The Big Six energy companies have escaped a referral to the Competition Commission, Ofgem will confirm today. The decision comes in spite of Britain’s largest independent supplier warning that the regulator’s proposed reforms are unlikely to be effective.
BA GIVES UP ON NEW RUNWAY AT HEATHROW
British Airways has given up hope of a third runway being built at Heathrow and is looking instead for space to expand in foreign cities, with Madrid at the top of its list of targets.
Speaking at The Times CEO Summit yesterday, Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA’s parent company, conceded for the first time that the Government’s decision to cancel expansion at Heathrow had killed the prospect of a new runway for good.
The Daily Telegraph
US TOBACCO INDUSTRY TO FIGHT GRAPHIC CANCER IMAGES ON PACKS
Cigarette packs sold in the US next year will be required to carry images of a corpse and cancer-ridden lungs in a change that has triggered a legal protest from the tobacco industry. Cigarette packs sold in the US next year will be required to carry images of a corpse and cancer-ridden lungs in a change that has triggered a legal protest from the tobacco industry.
BELGIUM LIFTS SECRECY ON FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNTS
Belgian tax authorities are preparing to release the details of thousands of foreign-owned bank accounts, as part of a move to improve tax transparency. Information about around 250,000 savings accounts owned by foreigners will be handed to governments around the world in the next few weeks.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
M&A BOSS LEAVES UBS
In the latest of a string of high-level departures to hit Swiss banking giant UBS AG, its head of global mergers and acquisitions has defected to become a partner at New York-based boutique Moelis & Co. Liam Beere, a 19-year veteran at UBS, will join Moelis in September, according to a statement from the boutique bank.
GEITHNER CONFIDENT US WILL AVOID DEFAULT CRISIS
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Tuesday said he is confident that the U.S. will avoid a default crisis this summer as policy makers near agreement on a broad budget framework. “We’re going to have a bipartisan, comprehensive long-term deficit reduction framework. The question is, what is going to be the shape of that framework,” Mr. Geithner said at The Wall Street Journal CFO Forum.