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Monday newspaper round-up: Friends Provident, Cairn Energy, Moss Bros

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Date: Monday 31 Mar 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Friends Provident, the embattled life assurer, is Monday expected to reject a £3.5bn takeover approach by JC Flowers, the US private equity group, says the FT.

Cairn Energy, the FTSE 100 oil company, has struck a key deal in India that is likely to reignite takeover speculation. The company will today dispel doubts over its oil development in Rajasthan with news that the regional government will not stand in the way of building a £300m-plus pipeline, reports the Telegraph.

A mystery investor has snapped up a 7.9pc stake in Moss Bros, a move that analysts believe increases the chances of a counter-bid for the menswear retailer that has already received an indicative approach from Baugur, the Icelandic retailer, writes the Telegraph.

The £371m takeover bid for GCap Media, the UK's biggest commercial radio group, hangs in the balance after news that Ofcom is investigating the company in relation to last year's phone-in scandals, according to the Telegraph.

The FT adds that if Global Radio’s 225p-a-share bid for GCap Media is agreed, it will mean that radio stations representing 87 per cent of commercial radio listening will be in the hands of privately held companies.

The Ministry of Defence will reluctantly hand control of a project to build two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy to BAE Systems in an attempt to avoid a £700 million tax bill, says the Times.

The FT writes that the financial services institutions are slashing investment plans and trimming jobs in preparation for a “long siege”, convinced they have not yet felt the worst of the credit squeeze, the CBI and PwC report on Monday.

Northern Rock will today unveil the full extent of the damage caused by last September's run on the bank – and the emergency nationalisation that eventually followed – as it publishes its first set of accounts since the crisis unfolded, and records its first ever full-year loss, reports the Independent.

Non-executive directors of Marks & Spencer are expected to veto any pay rise for Sir Stuart Rose as a result of his controversial elevation to the post of executive chairman, writes the Times.

Standard Life has begun preparations for identifying a replacement for Sandy Crombie, its chief executive, amid shareholder concern about leadership succession at the Edinburgh-based life assurer, according to the FT.

The world’s big banks are to face stronger demands from finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven (G7) leading economies to declare the full scale of their exposure to losses from the US housing market slump and the global credit crunch, says the Times.

The long-awaited Open Skies treaty that came into effect yesterday, opening transatlantic air travel to greater competition, incited an exchange of barbs between US and UK airlines and threw up fresh doubts about the viability of the pact, reports the Independent.

Alliance Boots faces a possible boycott from suppliers in a dispute over payment terms, writes the FT.

The American investment bank Lehman Brothers is to sue Japan's fifth largest trading firm, Marubeni, over an alleged $350m (£176m) fraud involving two of the company's employees, reports the Independent.

The US Federal Reserve is examining the Nordic bank nationalisations of the 1990s as a possible interim solution to the US financial crisis, according to the Telegraph.

A cross-party group of MPs is to call for water meters to be installed in all homes in the UK as soon as possible to help to conserve water, says the Times.