WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
WYNN RESORTS LEADS IN RACE TO LIST IN HONG KONG
A Las Vegas-based casino company has taken the lead in a race to become the first international casino operator to list in Hong Kong, taking advantage of investor appetite for stocks with links to the world’s biggest gambling market. Wynn Resorts, controlled by Steve Wynn, hopes to float a minimum 25 per cent interest in its Macao operations.
CAR SUPPLIERS PRESS EU ON LOAN
Automotive suppliers are pressing the European Union to back a €3bn ($4.2bn) loan facility to prevent bankruptcies predicted after the continent’s car plants reume work in autumn. The industry wants Brussels to respond by Friday to its request for a pan-European scheme to guarantee suppliers’ receivables and speed up payments for parts from carmakers.
MOD AND BVT IN SHIPBUILDING DEAL
The Ministry of Defence and BVT Surface Fleet, a joint venture between BAE Systems and VT Group, have signed a landmark agreement worth at least £3.5bn ($5.7bn) to sustain the shipbuilding industry for 15 years. Britain’s remaining shipyards are at full stretch building aircraft carriers, frigates and submarines. But the industry has long recognised that rationalisation is necessary.
ESCADA PEGS PLANS ON RIGHTS ISSUE
Escada, the German luxury womenswear group, on Tuesday launched plans to raise Euro 29m ($41m) in a rights issue as part of a plan to restructure its debts. The capital raising is conditional on 80 per cent of its bondholders, which are due to be repaid in 2012, agreeing to a restructuring of their bonds. However, only 37 per cent of bondholders have agreed to do so. Escada will extend the deadline for bondholders to tender bonds from 31 July to 4 August.
THE TIMES
HMRC FACES £1.6BN HIT ON INCORRECT TAX CODES
About 4.5m workers are owed hundreds of millions in tax because of incorrect codes handed out by HM Revenue & Customs. There were 20m queries about tax codes in March this year, up from around 16m last year, HMRC accounts published earlier this week show. The scale of the problem could force HMRC to pay back £1.6bn.
PUBS CLOSING AT RATE OF 52 A WEEK AS HARD-UP DRINKERS SHUN LOCAL
The rate of pub closures is accelerating, with 52 going out of business every week at a cost of 24,000 jobs over the past year, figures show. Almost 2,400 pubs and bars have vanished from villages and towns in the past 12 months, according to research for the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), with local pubs in small towns the worst hit.
The Daily Telegraph
STAGECOACH PAIR WIN COURT CASE
The founders of Stagecoach, Ann Gloag and her brother Brian Souter, have won a £17.8m court case against a City grandee who undertook to buy shares on their behalf but apparently failed to return the money. A High Court judge ordered Nicholas Levene, former deputy chairman of Bramdean Asset Management, to pay Gloag, Scotland’s richest woman, and Souter, chief executive of Stagecoach, £8.9m each plus over £12,000 in legal costs.
GLAXO PLANS 1HR SWINE FLU TEST
GlaxoSmithKline has signed a deal to develop a new test which can diagnose specific strains of influenza, including swine flu, in just an hour. Glaxo, which developed the technology with Salisbury-based Enigma Diagnostics, said the test will provide results as accurate as those provided by a laboratory at local GP surgeries.
WAKK STREET JOURNAL
AMD 2ND QUARTER LOSS NARROWS ON ONE-TIME ITEMS
Advanced Micro DevicesInc.’s long quest for a turnaround hit a bump Tuesday as a closely watched measure of profitability fell in the second quarter compared with the first period. AMD, which sells chips that serve as calculating engines in PCs, reported that its loss narrowed sharply compared with the year-earlier quarter.
NARDELLI RETURNS TO CERBERUS
Robert Nardelli is rejoining private-equity giant Cerberus, overseeing the operation of the companies in Cerberus’s portfolio. Nardelli has rejoined the company as chief executive officer of Cerberus Operating and Advisory Company. He will oversee firms owned by Cerberus funds and accounts. He was CEO of Chrysler until it emerged from bankruptcy protection in May.