WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
KPMG HIRES NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS FOR NEW OVERSIGHT BODY
KPMG Europe has hired three non-executive directors to sit on a new oversight body in a move that highlights the differing ways big audit firms are complying with regulatory changes in the UK. The directors are: Sir Steve Robson, a retired senior civil servant at the UK Treasury, Tom de Swaan, a former chief financial officer of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank; and Alfred Tacke, a veteran of the German economics ministry.
HOLIDAYBREAK BUYS STAKE IN GERMAN GROUP
Holidaybreak has purchased a 50 per cent stake in Meininger, a German tour accommodation group, for €36.5m (£30.9m), with the option to buy the remaining shares within three years. The UK travel company said the deal between its PGL subsidiary and Meininger would boost Holidaybreak’s education travel division as well as allow the German group to provide student tours.
NORTHUMBRAIN IN CPI PENSION BOOST
Northumbrian Water has become one of the first UK companies to benefit from a government-led change to the way that retirement payments are calculated, which the utility disclosed had helped cut its defined benefit pension deficit by a fifth.
COUNCILS GIBVEN £4BN TO PROMOTE WELLNESS
Some £4bn of NHS money is to be set aside for preventing ill-health and promoting wellness, with a good chunk of it handed over to English local authorities. The radical shift in funding from 2013 will provide a ring-fenced budget for public health for the firstr time since councils lost their health functions 40 years ago in the 1974 NHS reorganisation.
THE TIMES
TESCO FEEDS APPETITE FOR BANKING JOBS
Scotland could have almost as many jobs in financial services by the end of next year as before the financial crisis after an announcement by Tesco Bank that it expects to have 2,300 people working for it by late 2011. The financial services offshoot of the supermarket group said yesterday that it had bought a second headquarters building in Edinburgh to house the new staff it is recruiting.
MADOFF LIQUIDATORS WIDEN SEARCH TO UK
Liquidators of Bernard Madoff’s operations in the US and UK have joined forces to recoup assets of the convicted fraudster’s UK unit, including an Aston Martin. Under an agreement filed in court in New York, Grant Thornton agreed with Irving Picard to co-ordinate lawsuits in the UK.
The Daily Telegraph
GAZPROM AND VITOL TO START TRADING RAINFOREST
A scheme to trade chunks of the world’s rainforest on the financial markets will sell its first credits to Gazprom and Vitol, two of the world’s biggest commodity companies.
The REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) scheme is currently being negotiated at the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico.
CHINA AND RUSSIA CIRCLING LIKE VULTURES OVER BG’S AND SHELL’S KAZAKHSTAN ENERGY PROJECTS
China and Russia are “circling like vultures” over BG Group and Royal Dutch Shell’s energy projects in Kazakhstan, according to US diplomatic papers revealed by WikiLeaks. Chinese oil companies have bought up more than a quarter of Kazakhstan’s oil production.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
CARREFOUR CUTS OUTLOOK ON HIGHER BRAZIL CHARGES
French retail giant Carrefour said yesterday that it will incur one-time charges related to its Brazilian operations of €550m (£459m) this year, up sharply from a previous estimate of €180m, prompting the company to lower its full-year operating-profit target. “What happened in Brazil was clearly a malfunction,” Carrefour Chief Executive Lars Olofsson said during a conference call.
AIRBUS TO ANNOUNCE NEW-ENGINE A320
After months of consideration, European planemaker Airbus is expected to announce as soon as Wednesday that it will offer an updated version of its popular A320 single-aisle jet with more efficient, state-of-the-art engines from General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.