A to Z of the Sunday newspapers

13 April 2012

THIS Is Money reads the Sunday papers so you don't have to. Here is this week's run-down of who is making the headlines on the City pages.

The Business

GlaxoSmithKline:

THE drugs giant's $2.5bn (£1.4bn) blockbuster bond will kick-start the US corporate credit market, which has been starved of new issues. This is the first time that the Anglo-American giant has raised money in US dollars.

ITV:

ANGRY shareholders plan a 'significant' protest vote at the company's annual general meeting against the three non-executive directors over the huge pay-off awarded to former boss Michael Green. The Association of British Insurers had moved to pour cold water on the increasing anger. The three at risk of losing their jobs are Sir Brian Pitman, Etienne de Villiers and John McGrath.

Ministry of Defence:

THE battle to upgrade the MoD's computer systems is hotting up. The Radii consortium - which takes in US computing giant CSC, Thales of France and BT - said it will create 2,000 jobs as the fight for the £4bn contract goes into the next round. The rival bidder is the Atlas consortium, which includes Electronic Data Systems, Fujitsu Services and General Dynamics UK.

The Independent

Anglian Water:

CHIEF executive Roy Pointer is to meet unions this week in an attempt to avert a strike over pensions. The unions have warned that the company's 3,000 staff will walk out if the management does not compromise over its pension policy. As part of a restructuring Anglian decided to outsource some operations and workers affected are being transferred to new employers.

Iraq:

THE British Goverment and some of the world's biggest oil companies have pulled out of a conference on exploiting the country's vast oil reserves because of the security situation. BP has decided not to attend and Exxon-Mobil is believed to have pulled out.

Mayflower:

FORMER Prime Minister John Major is believed to have lost £212,000 on his investment in the collapsed bus builder. He was on the company's audit committee between January 2000 and March 2003 and bought nearly 400,000 shares in the group.

Trinity Mirror:

FORMER chief executive Philip Graf received £490,000 last year for doing almost nothing. He resigned in February 2003 as a director of the newspaper group but remained on the payroll. He received his salary, pension contributions, private health insurance and the use of a company car until he retired fully in October.

Sunday Telegraph

Canary Wharf:

THE City Takeover Panel is expected to say this week that it will wrap up the long-running bid battle for the group by imposing a quick-fire auction. The procedure has never been used in a UK takeover.

Courts:

THE loss-making retailer is to raise up to £1.6m by selling the company's lavish villa in Barbados. The group, which operates stores throughout the Caribbean, owns a six-bedroom property complete with pool on the Sandy Lane estate.

Savoy:

THE famous hotels group is to be sold for £800m within days. The group, which takes in the Savoy, Claridges, the Berkeley and the Connaught, is owned by the Blackstone Group and Colony Capital, two US investment firms.

WPP:

A REQUEST from one of the advertising group's biggest shareholders for separate votes on multimillion pound incentive schemes for Sir Martin Sorrell and the rest of the executives has been rejected. The demand from the investor indicates the increasing concerns in the City that the terms being offered are too generous.

Sunday Times

Eurotunnel:

THE French government has recruited US restructuring specialist Houlihan Lokey ahead of Wednesday's knife-edge vote on the future of Eurotunnel. A group of rebel investors is planning to oust the board at a shareholders' meeting in Paris.

GlaxoSmithKline:

CITY headhunter Anna Mann, blamed for the Sir Ian Prosser fiasco at supermarkets group Sainsbury, is playing a leading role in assessing the boardroom talent at the drugs giant. Mann is believed to have been paid a fee of around £250,000 for judging Glaxo's board.

New Star:

JOHN Duffield is to float New Star Asset Management later this year with a valuation of some £80m. He has appointed HSBC as advisers for the offer.

Shell:

THE troubled oil giant is selling hundreds of petrol stations in Spain and Portugal. The sales could be worth up to £220m to the company, which is battling to restore its reputation following the storm over the reduction in its proven reserves.

The Observer:

British Airways:

THE prospect of chief executive Rod Eddington checking in passengers' bags is raised by the company's 'back to the floor' initiative for the airline's senior management. BA is putting its 300 most senior managers through the experience of doing front line jobs, from baggage handling to dealing with awkward customer service problems.

ITV:

A CONTROVERSIAL deal that could give boss Charles Allen £21m over four years has won the approval of the National Association of Pension Funds, whose members include the City's biggest and most influential institutional investors.

Sainsbury's:

AMERICAN leveraged buyout specialist Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, known as 'barbarians' for aggressive deal-making in the Eighties, is stalking the British supermarkets group. Sources close to KKR said it is interested in making an audacious raid on the UK company.

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