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Wednesday newspaper round-up; Anglo American, Bradford & Bingley, Barclays

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Date: Wednesday 25 Jun 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Anglo American, the London-based mining giant, is to make what is believed to be the largest foreign investment in Zimbabwe to date, just as the British government puts pressure on companies to withdraw from the country.

Anglo will invest $400m (£200m) to build a platinum mine in Zimbabwe — a move that has raised concern among some of the company’s shareholders and been condemned by politicians, reports the Times.

Bradford & Bingley, the embattled mortgage bank, looks close to agreeing to open its books to Resolution it emerged late last night, after Clive Cowdery’s investment vehicle tabled a revised £400m bailout proposal.

It is understood that executives in the buy-to-let lender, led by Rod Kent, the chairman, will convene a board meeting in the coming days at which they will grant Resolution due diligence on the same terms as TPG, the American buyout firm. TPG’s proposal to pay £179m for a 23% stake in Bradford & Bingley currently has the backing of B&B’s management, writes the Times.

Meanwhile, the FT adds Resolution was on Tuesday night refining his proposal to rescue Bradford & Bingley, the UK mortgage lender, as shareholders stepped up pressure on the board, which has told him and the four institutional investors backing his plan that their offer was unacceptable.

Domino's Pizza's shares hit a six-month low after property magnate Nigel Wray and chairman Stephen Hemsley sold nearly £20m of shares in the takeaway pizza delivery company. The shares slid 30 to 186p after the share disposals sparked fears that trading at Domino's might be suffering in the face of the consumer downturn. Wray, who bought into Domino's Pizza in 1997, sold 9.5m shares at 180p, cutting his stake in the company to 16.75%. Hemsley sold 1m shares, leaving him with a 3.74% holding. In total they sold £18.9m of shares, reports the Telegraph.

Barclays may release the details of its planned £4bn fundraising as early as today after sounding out shareholders on the proposal since the weekend. An announcement is expected by tomorrow night to remove conflicts from shareholders who have been brought “inside” on the deal as soon as possible. Four investors, including China Development Bank, the Singaporean state investor Temasek, Japan’s second biggest bank Sumitomo Mitsui, and the Qatar Investment Authority, are believed to be preparing to take minority stakes, writes the Telegraph.

NYSE Euronext is buying a 25% stake in Qatar's stock market, striking a blow at plans by the London Stock Exchange to expand in the region. Qatar picked NYSE Euronext despite its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), holding a 15% stake in the LSE. The London exchange's shares fell 35 to 834p reports the Telegraph.

Investors holding almost 20% of Expro International have joined the fight to delay the £1.8bn takeover of the oil services company by a Candover-led consortium ahead of a High Court hearing today. Shareholders - thought to include Sandell Asset Management, Trafalgar Asset Managers and Carlson Capital - have pledged their support for Mason Capital's demand that the takeover of Expro be delayed for two weeks for investors to properly consider an eleventh hour bid from rival Halliburton, reports the Telegraph.

HSBC is unlikely to receive approval to buy Korea Exchange Bank before the deal deadline expires next month, Korea's financial regulator has signalled, in spite of a court ruling that should have cleared the way for the $6.3bn (£3.2bn) takeover. The Seoul High Court yesterday overturned a lower court's finding in February that Lone Star, the US private equity fund and controlling shareholder of KEB, was guilty of stock price manipulation, reports the FT.

Nationwide Building Society has announced controversial plans to slash the rate of interest it pays to its lowest earning customers, as it tries to cut costs amid the ongoing credit crunch. From 1 August, customers of Nationwide's Cash Card account, who earn less than £1,000 a month, will see their credit interest rate slashed from 3.5% to just 0.1%. Customers of Nationwide's more popular Flex account, who earn between £1,000 and £1,500, will see their interest rate cut from 3.5 to 2%, writes the Independent.

The credit crunch is persuading an increasing number of British people, including the middle classes, to shop at the discounters Aldi and Lidl, the latest TNS Worldpanel data has revealed. The market research company found that, along with the frozen-food specialist Iceland, the two discounters are powering ahead of their rivals in the UK grocery sector, reports the Independent.

Baugur, the Icelandic investment group, has raised more than £100m by selling its shares in Booker, the rapidly growing cash-and-carry business. The 31.4% stake was placed with a number of institutional investors, including the private equity group Kaupthing Capital Partners. The deal sparked fresh speculation about the health of Baugur’s finances, given the turmoil on debt markets and the group’s recent decisions to sell MK One, its struggling fashion chain, and Julian Graves, the UK’s largest seller of natural foods, reports the Times.

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