LONDON (ShareCast) - Inbev, the maker of Stella Artois, has launched an audacious $46.9bn (£23.9bn) takeover bid for the US’s biggest brewer and Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch, says the Telegraph.

Two investment banks backing a £4bn rights issue by HBOS face the prospect of being stuck with unsold stock after the shares plummeted below the issue price on Wednesday. Unless they recover during the next five weeks, Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort, the underwriters, together with major shareholders who acted as sub-underwriters, would have to buy the shares at 275p each, reports the FT.

Investors in Bradford & Bingley reacted with fury on Wednesday as the UK’s biggest buy-to-let mortgage lender said it had granted TPG Capital anti-dilution rights to protect the US private equity group’s planned £179m investment, writes the FT.

Attempts by the Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien to vote out large elements of the board of Independent News & Media, the international media group which owns The Independent, were firmly rebuffed at a shareholders' meeting in London yesterday, with one director branding Mr O'Brien's campaign as "offensive and juvenile", according to the Independent.

Royal Bank of Scotland's chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, predicted yesterday that the economic slowdown would last for at least another year, but that the UK would avoid a recession, says the Independent.

The bitter battle for Yahoo! has taken a fresh twist with the board of the search engine operator saying that a "$2.4bn change of control" severance package would fall due if activist investor Carl Icahn wins control of the board, reports the Telegraph.

The smouldering dispute over TNK-BP escalated sharply on Wednesday night as the Russian billionaire co-owners of the Anglo-Russian oil joint venture said they planned to sue BP in Moscow and international courts, writes the FT.

More than half of London businesses feel they will get no direct benefit from the 2012 Olympics, according to a new survey. The CBI and KPMG report says businesses outside transport and construction, especially small ones, feel "excluded" from the rewards of hosting the event, according to the Telegraph.

Brussels has launched disciplinary action against Britain for a deliberate breach of the EU's rules on public spending, saying the budget deficit will surge far above Maastricht Treaty limits this year, reports the Telegraph.

Controversial changes to capital gains tax and the treatment of non-domiciled foreigners have had a negative impact on Britain’s competitiveness and the Treasury needs to do all it can to reverse the damage, a report by a House of Lords committee claims today, according to the Times.

The former owner of luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo is poised to buy upmarket clothing retailer LK Bennett for around £100m, writes the Telegraph.

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