Tuesday newspaper round-up: Thomas Cook, Woodhouse, Saudi Aramco, PWC
Thomas Cook has delayed a crunch creditors’ vote until next week, giving the stricken tour operator more time to smooth obstacles to a £1.1bn rescue package aimed at saving it from collapse. Fears for the future of the the 178-year-old tour operator have been mounting, as it threatens to buckle under the weight of high debt, intense competition and one-off factors including last summer’s heatwave and Brexit uncertainty. – Guardian
Investors in an aborted Gavin Woodhouse care home project are to vote on whether the embattled entrepreneur’s former business partner is attempting to “buy them off at a pittance” via a new settlement offer. The October vote will give investors the chance of accepting 11p for every pound they ploughed into a single off-plan development in Yorkshire, where the advertised care home never materialised. – Guardian
The world’s biggest float - the $2 trillion listing of state-owned oil titan Saudi Aramco - is under threat in the wake of attacks on the desert kingdom that triggered the biggest spike in oil prices for almost three decades. The weekend drone strikes on Aramco’s vast Abqaiq refinery and the Khurais oil field - Saudi Arabia’s second-largest - sent shockwaves through markets. – Telegraph
The UK partners at PWC are in line for their highest payday in a decade, despite criticism from the industry watchdog over the quality of the firm’s audit work and calls to break up the Big Four accountants. The 913 equity partners earned an average of £765,000 in the year to June 30, up from £712,000 the previous year. The payment is the highest since 2009, when partners received an average of £777,000. – The Times
The unrest surrounding St James’s Place spread from its clients to its investors yesterday after it emerged that the wealth manager would review perks such as cruises for its advisers. Its shares fell by 28p, or 2.7 per cent, to close at £10.03 amid shareholder concerns that a radical shake-up to the rewards system and exit fees for customers may harm profitability, that clients could turn their back on the firm and that advisers frustrated at losing perks could leave for other wealth managers. – The Times