WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
CAYMAN DIRECTORS COLLECT FUND JOBS
A small group of Cayman Island “jumbo directors” are sitting on the boards of hundreds of hedge funds as demand for independent directors booms in the Caribbean tax haven. A least four individuals hold more than 100 non-executive directorships each, and 14 have more than 70 – each worth as much as $30,000 a year. One person has been listed as on the boards of 567 Cayman entities, almost all of which were hedge funds.
ECONOMISTS WARN PLANS TO CURB MIGRATION WILL HIT UK’S GROWTH
Leading economists are urging George Osborne, the chancellor, to insist that the government rethink a plan to curb immigration that would be “deeply damaging” to competitiveness and growth. In a letter to the Financial Times today, the group criticises a forthcoming shift in Home Office policy that is expected to limit economic migrants from outside the European Union to a five-year stay.
UBS CONSIDERS BONUS POOL CUT
UBS executives are considering cutting the group’s bonus pool in an effort to recoup some of the $2.3bn (£1.5bn) it lost in the alleged trading scandal centred on Kweku Adoboli. The Swiss bank last month opted not to eat into bonus accruals when it reported its third-quarter earnings.
STANCHART CUTS EXPOSURE TO EUROZONE DEBT CRISIS
Standard Chartered has cut its exposure to Eurozone banks and boosted business with Chinese financial institutions because of the European debt crisis but has not axed credit lines to any specific banks despite fears of a credit crunch, according to the bank’s Asia chief executive. Jaspal Bindra is also executive director of the London-based bank.
THE TIMES
ESTUARY AIRPORT IS VITAL FOR THE ECONOMY, SAYS JOHNSON
Britain faces economic paralysis unless the Government backs a new aviation hub, the Mayor of London will argue today as he takes his campaign for a Thames Estuary airport to the heart of the business community.
Construction of a new hub offering direct links to the emerging powerhouse economies of Asia and Latin America will be vital to preserve the country’s economic status, Boris Johnson will argue.
GREEN DEAL UNLIKELY TO DELIVER PROMISES
Government ministers have heralded it as “the biggest home improvement programme since the Second World War”, but their own economists predict the number of homes insulated under the Green Deal will slump, not rise.
The Daily Telegraph
M&S ROW WITH SUPPLIERS SIGNALS HARD TIMES ON HIGH STREET
A row has broken out between Marks & Spencer and its supply chain over plans to make them pay towards its own £600m refurbishment programme, in a further sign that small businesses are being squeezed as consumer confidence falters. The supermarket has asked its suppliers to pay 1.3pc of their annual sales towards its “strategy for growth” – but at least one major supplier is understood to have refused to pay, with others expected to follow suit.
CARGILL’S PAUL CONWAY GIVES FOOD FOR SERIOUS THOUGHT
Paul Conway, the vice-chairman of the giant food company with a key position in world agriculture, says the world’s seven billion people can be fed, but warns “the days of real-term deflation in prices is probably over”.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EUROPE
PFIZER NEARS SETTLEMENT ON BRIBERY
Pfizer will pay more than $60m to resolve US government probes into whether the drug maker paid bribes to win business overseas, people familiar with the matter said. The settlements, expected to be made public by year-end, come as part of a government investigation that has changed how the pharmaceutical industry conducts business overseas in light of US antibribery laws.
CHEVRON TAKES BLAME IN SPILL
Chevron’s top official in Brazil said yesterday that the company “takes full responsibility” for an oil spill off the country’s coast and pledged to investigate how it made a critical miscalculation when drilling a well deep below the ocean floor. Oil has been seeping from near a well some 230 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro.