WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
CITIC ARM TO PRESS AHEAD WITH HK LISTING
Citic Securities is to go ahead with a planned Hong Kong listing that could raise up to $2bn for the Beijing-based financial services group. Bankers say that the listing is likely to take place by the beginning of September. The decision comes as many other issues have been pulled in the face of market volatility.
WEST COAST RAILWAY SWELLS UK STATE COFFERS
The government has received a record payment from a long-distance rail operator, with Virgin Trains paying £110m for running the London to Glasgow service last year. The West Coast railway line, which carries 28m passengers a year between London and Glasgow, is now the most profitable long-distance franchise in Britain after Virgin turned a £40m subsidy received from the government last year into a £110m payment on 31 March.
REGULATOR CENSURES BAYER FOR DRUGS TWEETS
Bayer has been sharply reprimanded by the Uk pharmaceutical industry regulator for using Twitter to promote two high-profile prescription medicines to the public, in a pioneering case highlighting the dangers of social media for marketing.
BARCAP STAR TO GO AMID PROP TRADING EXODUS
Star banker Todd Edgar and his team of nearly a dozen fellow commodities traders are to leave Barclays as part of a stream of cuts designed to shed overheads. He and his colleagues now plan to set up a hedge fund by the end of the year. People close to the situation said it had become untenable for BarCap to employ prop traders in the light of US Dodd-Frank leglislation.
THE TIMES
CHALLENGE TO EXCHANGE DEAL OVER BEIRUT BOMB
Deutsche Börse’s proposed takeover of the owner of the New York Stock Exchange is being challenged by the families of victims of a 1983 terror attack in Beirut, who are suing a subsidiary of the German exchange operator for $250m. The case centres on Clearstream Bank, a securities depository owned by Deutsche Börse. It is being sued by nearly 1,000 family members and survivors of the 1983 bombing of a US Marine Corps barracks in the Lebanese capital, which killed 241 US servicemen.
IRISH SUPPLIER PINS HOPES ON AN AMERICAN ROAD TRIP
Big infrastructure projects in the US could give the Irish building materials group CRH a boost as it fights against high raw material costs and sluggish growth prospects.
The Daily Telegraph
HIGH EARNERS INCREASE THEIR USE OF OVERDRAFTS
A third of high-income families now rely on overdrafts of more than £1,000, compared with 15 per cent in 2008. According to a three-year survey from Experian, the information services company, 52 per cent of these families regularly borrow money using their overdrafts. This results in higher repayments, as rates of interest on overdrafts tend to be higher than on other credit products.
DYSON SAYS LACK OF ENGINEERS IN THE UK COULD FORCE VACUUM MAKER OFFSHORE
Sir James Dyson, the inventor and businessman behind the eponymous vacuum cleaner, has warned that he may be forced to take his research and development operations abroad if Britain does not produce more engineers.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
SPAIN’S GROWTH UPTICK SLOWS
Spain’s tentative economic recovery lost momentum in the second quarter as the Eurozone’s fourth-largest economy suffered the effects of a deepening sovereign-debt crisis, official data showed yesterday. Spain’s gross domestic product rose at a quarterly 0.2 per cent rate in the second quarter, down from a 0.3 per cent expansion in the first quarter, as falling domestic demand was partially offset by booming exports, Spain’s national statistics institute INE said. On an annual basis, second-quarter GDP rose 0.7 per cent.
HONDA STRUGGLES WITH SUPPLY
Honda Motor’s US dealers say they are headed for their most difficult month of sales since the 11 March earthquake in Japan disrupted production at the auto maker’s factories at home and in North America.