WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
BTG GAINS TOP BANKER AS IT EYES EXPANSION
Roger Jenkins, the high-profile former Barclays executive, has joined BTG Pactual as a managing partner as Brazil’s largest independent investment bank and asset manager gears up its ambitious expansion plans. Jenkins, a star banker best known for orchestrating a £7bn fundraising for Barclays from Middle East investors at the height of the financial crisis, brings with him deep ties to the sovereign wealth funds that are now looking to tap into Latin American growth.
GOLDMAN SET TO BE LME SALE WINNER
Goldman Sachs has more than quadrupled its stake in the London Metal Exchange in the past two years, making the US investment bank the biggest potential winner from the proposed sale of the 130-year-old exchange. The LME, the centre for global metals trading, said last week it had been approached by more than 10 suitors.
PRIVACY CONCERNS OVER ANY CHINA PRESENCE IN YAHOO
The possibility that Yahoo will fall under Chinese ownership could lead to significant privacy risks for its users elsewhere in the world and raise questions about the operation of US laws on wiretapping, privacy campaigners in the US have warned. The warnings follow a comment by Jack Ma, founder of Chinese internet group Alibaba, that he is interested in acquiring Yahoo.
AGBANK SHRUGS OFF EARLY RIGHTS ISSUE FEARS
The world’s biggest bank – by customers, branches and staff numbers – has shrugged off market concerns that it will have to resort to an early rights issue to top up capital buffers.
THE TIMES
OLYMPIC BUILDER LAING O’ROURKE PAYS BOSS £24M DIVIDEND
The construction company that built London’s Olympics venues paid its boss a dividend of almost £24m last year. Ray O’Rourke is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Laing O’Rourke, and one of Ireland’s richest men, with an estimated fortune of £315m in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
NO 10’S GREEN SHOOTS
No 10 is investigating ways to pump money into green building projects to help kickstart the economy. Representatives of several large companies, including Balfour Beatty, J Sainsbury and Bovis, were summoned to Downing Street on Friday to discuss energy performance contracts — a scheme to speed up investment in insulation, solar panels and other energy-saving improvements.
The Daily Telegraph
WATERSTONE’S BOSS SLAMS AMAZON
The new boss of Waterstone’s has described Amazon.co.uk as a “dispiriting” place to shop and said that the business tactics used by the online retailer are “utterly utterly ruthless”. James Daunt, the managing director of the country’s biggest high street book chain, said that 13 years after its UK launch Amazon now sells almost exactly the same number of books as Waterstone’s.
MINIMUM WAGE MAY HARM YOUNG
The minimum wage may be pricing young people out of work because employers are finding it too expensive to give them their first job, Government pay advisers have said. Firms may be reluctant to create jobs by recruiting inexperienced staff because they are put off by the increased wage bill, the Low Pay Commission has suggested.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EUROPE
CHANNEL ISLANDS REGULATOR IN DARK OVER FULL TILT POKER
The top official at the Channel Islands regulator that licensed Full Tilt Poker to run an online-poker business said he became aware the site had major financial problems only after the US government indicted company executives. “What wasn’t known to us is that the Department of Justice had frozen funds associated with the operation of Full Tilt,” Andre Wilsenach, chief executive of the Alderney Gambling Control Commission said.
CARGOLUX IN BOEING AGREEMENT
Cargolux Airlines International has tentatively resolved a contract dispute with Boeing over deliveries of the first two 747-8 jets, which Cargolux abruptly postponed last month. Luxembourg-based Cargolux said it reached a tentative agreement with Boeing “over contractual issues”.