NEW! Investment Companies Centre

Monday newspaper round-up: Bradford & Bingley, Rio Tinto, SCS

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: Monday 30 Jun 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Cash-strapped banks may be forced to pay billions of pounds upfront into a compensation scheme for the victims of bank failures under reforms to be proposed by the government.

The proposals, which come in the wake of Northern Rock’s near-collapse last September and have been backed by Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, will be announced by Alistair Darling in his latest consultation on banking reform, reports the Times.

Private equity firm Texas Pacific Group will meet leading Bradford & Bingley shareholders today to court their favour ahead of the bank's pivotal extraordinary general meeting next week. The move comes as major shareholders grow impatient with the bank's leadership, with some insiders suggesting Rod Kent's chairmanship will be untenable after the troubled lender completes its capital-raising programme in the coming weeks, writes the Telegraph.

Lakshmi Mittal is looking at entering the takeover battle for Rio Tinto, the mining group, according to people familiar with the matter. Mittal, the main shareholder in steelmaker Arcelor-Mittal as well as its chairman and chief executive, is keen to secure larger supplies of iron ore. Rio, one of the world's biggest producers, is the subject of a contested bid by Australian mining group BHP Billiton, valued at $160bn (£80bn) at current share prices, reports the FT.

Every household in the country will face a £213 rise in their annual energy bills if the UK is to meet European Union emissions targets, according to an Ernst & Young report, which also warns that half of all Britons are not prepared to pay. he accountancy firm will today publish a major new report on the impact on energy bills of the UK's climate change commitments, which warns that households will have to pay at least 20% more to gas and electricity suppliers, says the Independent.

The former owner of van maker LDV is this weekend finalising a rescue takeover of SCS Upholstery in a deal that is expected to wipe out most of the value of investors’ shares. Sun Capital Partners has been locked in discussions with the struggling furniture chain. It has a period of exclusivity that runs out tomorrow and a deal may be announced by the middle of the week, reports the Times.

The global economy may be heading for a far deeper crisis than is expected and a bout of deflation in the world's biggest economies is now a possibility, according to one of the world's most highly regarded economic institutions. The Bank for International Settlements has warned that many in the City and elsewhere may have underestimated the scale of the coming economic downturn in one of its most sombre portraits yet of the international financial system, writes the Telegraph.

Families are more fearful about their financial future than during the depths of the last recession, as they struggle with soaring food and fuel costs. The drop in confidence, highlighted in new monthly figures, threatens to exacerbate Britain’s economic woes as hard-pressed consumers curb their spending, further undermining economic growth. Last week’s revised figures found that the pace of growth halved to 0.3%, the lowest level for three years. The GfK NOP figures for June on consumer sentiment come as fresh evidence emerges that the housing slump is getting worse and now affects most of England and Wales, writes the Times.

Baugur, the Icelandic investment group that owns much of the British high street, could move to the UK in the wake of the conviction on book-keeping offences of executive chairman Jon Asgeir Johannesson. Lawyers for Baugur, whose sprawling retail portfolio includes House of Fraser and Hamleys in the UK, are investigating whether to redomicile one of Iceland’s most famous companies to avoid the possibility of Johannesson’s being banned as a company director following the end of a six-year legal battle this month, reports the FT.

Digital Look have been voted
"Best Research and Information Provider"

4th Floor, Bankside House, 107 Leadenhall Street, London EC3A 4AF.
Registered in England and Wales (registered no. 3678570).