WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
INVESTMENT BANKING FEES FALL TO TWO-YEAR LOW
Investment banking fees from mergers and acquisitions and capital raising have slumped in the third quarter to lows not seen since the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Market volatility and worries about European sovereign debt prompted a third consecutive quarterly decline in M&A activity, while debt issuance dropped to levels not seen since the fourth quarter of 2008.
METHODISTS TO TAKE OVER LESLAU CARE HOMES
The Methodist Church has struck a deal with Nick Leslau, the property investor, to take control of a string of care homes caught in the collapse of Southern Cross. Methodist Homes, the church’s care home division, is understood to have agreed to take over leases on 14 care homes owned by Prestbury Investment Holdings, the company managed by Leslau.
UK FACES DEFEAT OVER DERIVATIVES CLEARING
Britain is bracing for defeat in Brussels on a critical piece of financial regulation, which would force it to cede control over the shape of key markets in the City of London, home to more than three-quarters of Europe’s derivatives trading. George Osborne is insisting that EU finance ministers next week continue to debate new requirements for clearing derivatives.
RBS TAKES OVER JARVIS HOTELS
RBS is set to seize control of Jarvis Hotels, the troubled hotel operator, as the lender looks to claw back £130m of debt. The bank, which has teamed up with Patron Capital, is preparing to push Jarvis through a pre-pack administration that would allow it to acquire 20 hotels the group owns under freehold.
THE TIMES
FRAUDSTERS TOOK BANKS FOR £740M, COURT TOLD
A Greek businessman and his partner tricked banks into lending them £740m to buy property in Britain and a former passenger ferry, Southwark Crown Court heard yesterday. Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams, both 43, used forged documents to fool Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Scotland into making loans to their Pacific Group company over five years, Victor Temple, QC, said.
IRISH BAD BANK TO SELL PROPERTY LOANS
Ireland’s so-called bad bank has kicked off a search for advisers to help it to sell billions of euros of distressed property loans to reduce its exposure to real estate.The National Asset Management Agency said yesterday that it could appoint as many as ten parties.
The Daily Telegraph
HYUNDAI IN LIGHTS AT PICCADILLY CIRCUS
One of the world’s most high-profile advertising hoardings has welcomed its first new resident in 17 years after Hyundai was switched on at London’s “Piccadilly Lights”. In a sign of the changing economic balance in the world, the Korean car maker is replacing Sanyo, a Japanese electronics group.
FULL TILT POKER LICENCE REVOKED
Full Tilt Poker, the gambling company that earlier this month was described as a “Ponzi scheme”, has had its licence revoked. The move was instigated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), which held a hearing about the US-run site, which is registered on the Channel Island of Alderney. The AGCC said that the firm’s owners had misled authorities over the amount of cash to hand.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
UBS HIRES SEARCH FIRM TO HUNT FOR PERMANENT CEO
UBS AG has hired head-hunting firm Egon Zehnder International to help find a permanent chief executive officer following the surprise resignation of Oswald Grübel, according to a person familiar with the matter. At the same time, the Swiss bank has already contacted at least one potential external candidate—former JP Morgan Chase executive Bill Winters.
DIAGEO’S SPIRITED PUSH INTO INDIA
Diageo is renewing a push to crack India’s tricky spirits market by launching a local Indian whiskey targeted at the country’s middle income drinkers. Rowson’s Reserve—a new brand of Indian grain whiskey that is combined with scotch and aged locally in American oak barrels—rolls out across four Indian states in October.