Sponsored by Digital Look Events

Sunday's newspaper round-up: Marks & Spencer, Whitbread, Shell

Related Companies

Related Indices

Related Sectors

News for Spread Betters

PreviousPrevious
NextNext

There's a new Investor Edition of CMC Markets' spread betting platform... and it's exclusive to DigitalLook.com users...

Get full details about Marketmaker:Investor Edition here. Advertisement

Date: Sunday 16 Mar 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Furious investors are demanding meetings with Marks & Spencer as the row over botched succession planning at the retailer intensifies, according to the Observer.

Lord Burns, chairman of Marks & Spencer, will embark on a charm offensive this week to persuade angry investors that promoting chief executive Sir Stuart Rose to executive chairman is the best thing for the high-street retailer, adds the Independent on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times says the group is to risk inflaming shareholder anger by giving an expected £450,000 pay-off to Lord Burns, its departing nonexecutive chairman.

The leisure group Whitbread has been holding secret talks to merge its Premier Inn budget-hotel business with the rival Travelodge chain in a move that would create a £3 billion hospitality giant, says the Sunday Times.

Shell is to slash reserve figures from last year by more than half, taking about 1.3 billion barrels of oil off its books, equivalent to about a year's production, reports the Observer.

Britain’s largest aerospace and defence groups, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems, have asked the government to break with tradition and let them appoint a foreign chief executive, writes the Sunday Times.

A former Thailand MP who is now the secretary general of the Thai chamber of commerce is facing a £16m legal claim from Tesco for speaking out against the retailer in his home country, reports the Observer.

Sainsbury’s, the supermarket group, was this weekend embroiled in a £3m bribes investigation after one of its most senior buyers was arrested on suspicion of accepting backhanders from a potato supplier, says the Sunday Times.

John Lovering, veteran high street dealmaker and Debenhams chairman, is believed to be considering stepping down from the helm of the department store group, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The BHP Billiton director charged with winning over Rio Tinto shareholders has mocked its rival's assessment of its aluminium business, claiming the valuation is around $50bn wide of the mark, reports the Sunday Telegraph.

The Danish Bankers' Association has written to the European Commission complaining that Northern Rock's government guarantee gives it an unfair advantage over other banks, says the Observer.

Ron Sandler, the man charged by Gordon Brown with overseeing the running of Northern Rock as a nationalised company, is expected to deliver his much-anticipated restructuring report to the Treasury tomorrow, reports The Independent on Sunday.

Meanwhile, HSBC is examining a sale of its train-leasing division, according to the Sunday Times.

Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's most powerful investment bank, will this week announce asset writedowns worth about $3bn (£1.5bn), its biggest jolt to date from the crisis threatening to engulf the world's financial markets, reports the Sunday Telegraph.

Joe Lewis, the secretive British billionaire, has lost an estimated $800m in the collapse of the American investment bank Bear Stearns, according to the Sunday Times.

High-street fashion chain Next is expected to deliver a gloomy outlook for the rest of the year when it unveils its preliminary full-year numbers on Wednesday, writes the Independent on Sunday.

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) is to consider selling a minority stake to private equity firms in return for an injection of cash that would help repair the embattled bars operator's balance sheet, reports the Sunday Telegraph.

Apollo Management, the American private equity group, could be forced to pump millions of pounds of cash into Countrywide, Britain's biggest chain of estate agents, in a bid to shore up its investment in the group, says the Sunday Telegraph.

Tullett Prebon, the interdealer broker headed by the City tycoon Terry Smith, will tomorrow unveil a deal to buy one of the world's largest oil broking firms. Smith, who is chairman of Tullett Prebon, is understood to have agreed to pay about $40m for Primex Energy, a London-based oil broker whose business has grown alongside a surge in oil prices, says the Sunday Telegraph.

The tool-hire group Speedy Hire is considering the sale of one of its best-performing businesses, Speedy Space, as the firm battles investor concerns over its leveraged balance sheet, reports the Sunday Times.

Centaur Media, owner of Marketing Week and The Lawyer magazines, is calling in advisers to carry out a strategic review that could lead to a management bid to take the company private, says the Sunday Times.

Gordon Horsfield, the outgoing chairman of power group Drax, and his children stand to make nearly £7m out of their shareholdings over the next four years, reports the Independent on Sunday.

Senior managers at private equity giant Carlyle face personal losses of $135m following last week's collapse of its mortgage-backed security fund Carlyle Capital Corporation (CCC), says the Observer.