LONDON (ShareCast) - Centrica, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, is to sound out institutional shareholders about reviving plans for a £22.5bn all-share merger with British Energy, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

The Observer says however that EDF, the French utility giant, has not given up hope of buying nuclear generator British Energy, despite the collapse of takeover negotiations last week.

Shareholders in British Energy have broken their silence on last week’s failed £12 billion takeover of the nuclear-power generator by Electricité de France (EDF), saying they rejected the deal because it was too complicated and unworkable, says the Sunday Times.

With HSBC, Barclays and RBS preparing to announce huge losses in first half of year, only Standard Chartered stands out from the crowd, says the Independent on Sunday.

Fred Goodwin, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, has been on the board for almost exactly a decade but he won't be celebrating this week when the bank discloses interim losses of more than £1bn, one of the biggest in UK banking history, writes the Observer.

HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage bank, is to offload a £400m portfolio of investments in some of the country's largest private companies as it shrinks its battle-scarred balance sheet and scales back its principal investment activities, says the Sunday Telegraph.

ITV is expected to warn this week that prospects for advertising are deteriorating when it reveals its half-way figures. Numis Securities expects advertising revenue at ITV1 to be down 8 per cent in the second half of 2008, writes the Observer.

ITV has begun consulting staff over fresh job losses as it prepares to outline deeper cost savings alongside lower half-year profits this week, writes the Sunday Times.

Royal Dutch Shell has held preliminary talks with Sibir, the Russia-focused oil firm, about a £1 billion asset-swap deal that could see it acquire a sizeable stake in its smaller rival, says the Sunday Times.

BA boss Willie Walsh is looking beyond his airline's proposed merger with Iberia to a tie-up with American Airlines and a tilt at the US domestic market, says the Sunday Telegraph.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, said there was no guarantee that flights scrapped this winter to reduce the airline's crippling fuel bill would restart next year, says the Observer.

Jaeger owner Harold Tillman is circling Austin Reed amid speculation its owners Peter Klimt and Guy Naggar could sell the menswear firm to raise funds to support their ailing investment firm Dawnay Day, writes the Observer.

The Sunday Telegraph says a pair of brothers who are among Scotland’s richest men are understood to be circling a £125m portfolio of property assets owned by the ailing Dawnay, Day investment group.

The price-comparison website Moneysupermarket.com is slashing nearly 10 per cent of its workforce in the face of worsening market conditions, reports the Independent on Sunday.

Bankers will this week finalise a multi-billion-dollar loan that could provide one of Dubai's largest sovereign wealth funds with the firepower to muscle in on the £3.3bn takeover of specialist media and exhibitions group Informa in the largest private equity deal since the credit crunch began, writes the Observer.

Northern Rock, the state-owned bank, will reveal this week that roughly one in five of its mortgage customers faces negative equity next year as it unveils a heavy loss for the six months to June, says the Sunday Telegraph.

The Treasury is close to appointing an adviser to value the shares of Northern Rock, the bank that was nationalised by the government this year, according to the Sunday Times.

LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds TSB, has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to look at a £90m sale of National Accident Helpline, says the Independent on Sunday.

Friends Provident chief executive Trevor Matthews will this week reveal whether the ailing insurer plans to continue with the sale of its stake in its F&C asset management and Lombard wealth arms, both of which went on the market earlier in the year, writes the Independent on Sunday.

CVC Capital Partners, the private equity group, has been considering making a takeover approach to Punch Taverns, the pubs operator which has seen its share price fall by more than 70 per cent during the past year, reports the Sunday Telegraph.

Helical Bar, the quoted commercial property firm, is in exploratory talks with the cash-rich Norwegian sovereign wealth fund in a move that could lead to a takeover of the company, according to the Observer.

Rival supermarket chains Asda and Waitrose could derail Tesco's attempt to get a new competition test thrown out in court, according to the Observer.

The housing market is falling at more than 10 per cent year on year, the most dramatic collapse in the sector's recorded history, the Halifax mortgage bank will reveal this week, writes the Independent on Sunday.

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