WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
INVESTOR IRE SPARKS ICAP PAY REVIEW
Icap, the largest interdealer broker, is to undertake a thorough review of its remuneration policy for the first time in eight years. The FTSE 100 group is making the move after a substantial minority protest vote at the annual meeting in mid-July.
ONGC EYES SALE OF DEEPWATER STAKES TO OIL MAJORS
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp is in talks with foreign oil majors BG, Eni and Shell to sell stakes in deepwater developments off the country’s resource-rich eastern coast, as it seeks to replicate the lucrative $7.2bn deal struck between BP and Reliance Industries. AK Hazarika, the chairman of India’s biggest oil and gas group, told the Financial Times that the state-owned group was looking for a partner with the technological expertise to exploit its vast but untapped deepwater oil and gas reserves.
BARRATT LOOKS TO SELL PART OF SHARED EQUITY BOOK
Barratt Developments, the UK’s largest volume housebuilder, has entered talks with investors to sell its first tranche of shared equity loans, in a move that could herald a return of mortgage security products. It is being advised by Credit Suisse.
CINVEN IN TALKS TO BUY GUARDIAN LIFE INSURANCE
Cinven is in exclusive negotiations to buy Guardian life insurance, in the first of an expected string of deals by the UK private equity group in the sector. Cinven has been given a few weeks by the seller to negotiate a more than £250m ($410m) deal to buy the 190-year-old company, two people close to the situation said. Lancashire-based Guardian has been put up for sale recently by Aegon, the Dutch life insurer.
THE TIMES
CARE HOMES CHIEF IN LINE FOR £494,500 SEVERANCE PAY
The failing care homes operator Southern Cross could be forced to spend more than half a million pounds paying off its top executives when it closes. The company is contractually obliged to make a number of so-called “golden parachute” payouts, the biggest of which is owed to the chief executive, Jamie Buchan. While such payments are usual in corporate Britain, they will incense Southern Cross’s 31,000 residents and their families who are facing months of uncertainty.
BOND STREET: IT’S REALLY WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD
Buying property on Bond Street in London is as secure and lucrative an investment as buying gold, thanks to soaring rents and values in Europe’s most expensive street.
The Daily Telegraph
BONFIRE OF THE JOBLESS BANKERS
The bonfire of the bankers is upon us, but the thousands of banking staff faced with losing their jobs could have an extra thing to worry about. According to some headhunters, nobody will want to rehire them. Banker-bashing has now become so ingrained in the British psyche that it has found its way into recruitment circles too. Where private sector companies in a range of industries would have once jumped at the chance of hiring ex-bankers, many now will not touch them with a barge pole, according to some executive search firms.
CLASS DIVIDE IS BACK IN FASHION
As austerity bites, retailers are turning to demographics to prise money from reluctant shoppers by targetting different groups from “secure families” and “worried wealthy” to “affluent greys”.