WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
ASTRAZENECA TO OFFLOAD SWEDISH DIVISION
AstraZeneca is in final talks to sell Astra Tech, the Swedish healthcare and dental business, to Dentsply International in a deal that could value the group at about $1.8bn (£1.1bn). The US dental equipment maker has outbid other potential buyers, including private equity group EQT Partners and medical company Biomet and has been granted exclusivity in the negotiations in recent days, several people familiar with the situation said.
PRIVATE SECTOR BACKTRACKS ON OFFSHORING
Moves this month by Birmingham city council and Hewlett-Packard, contractor for the Department for Work and Pensions, to shift work to India have raised the hackles of trade unions amid fears of further job losses in the UK. Ironically, the public sector’s rising interest in “offshoring” services such as call-centres and IT operations comes at a time when the private sector is reconsidering the benefits of taking support functions to lower-wage economies.
SMALL BUSINESSES WARNED ON NEW JUSTICE BILL
Small businesses’ ability to pursue bad debts and other commercial litigation will be hurt by provisions in the justice bill expected to be published today, the head of the Law Society has warned.
CLEGG SETS OUT ON MISSION TO BEEF UP BRAZIL TRADE LINKS
Nick Clegg will pledge to double British exports to Brazil by the end of this parliament as the deputy kicks off a trade trip to Sao Paulo today by acknowledging that Britain has failed to nurture ties with the South American powerhouse.
THE TIMES
MOTHERCARE ENTERS INTO WAR-SCARRED IRAQ
Mothercare is boldly going where other retailers fear to tread by taking its prams, buggies and rattles to war-scarred Iraq. The intrepid mother and baby equipment chain hopes to make its first tentative steps into the troubled region later in the year. Its Middle East franchise partner has signed a lease on a site in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish north.
SUPERFAST MISSILE KNOWS WHEN IT IS OFF-TARGET
Plans for a missile designed to be the fastest weapon over sea were announced today by a defence company that provides many of the bombs being dropped on Libya. The Perseus will fly three times faster than the speed of sound, with the ability to hit aircraft carriers, destroyers and warships and targets on land.
The Daily Telegraph
HERMITAGE CAPITAL CALLS FOR RUSSIAN INQUIRY INTO $330M TAX FRAUDS UNCOVERED BY SERGEI MAGNITSKY
Lawyers for the London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management have applied to the Russian authorities for an inquiry to be opened into the alleged involvement of a senior state official in suspected tax frauds worth more than $330m (£204m). The alleged frauds were discovered by Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage’s investigative lawyer who died in custody on allegedly trumped-up charges.
MOBILE REVENUES INCREASE AS USERS SURF THE WEB INSTEAD OF TALKING TO OTHER PEOPLE
Mobile phone revenues in Northern Europe grew in the year to March 2011, despite a decline in income from voice calls, because more customers use mobiles to surf the web.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
POPOLARE OFFLOADS CZECH BANK
A London private-equity firm is buying the Czech banking business of Italy’s Banco Popolare in the latest example of troubled European banks scrambling to shed peripheral assets and business lines. The buyout firm, AnaCap Financial Partners, is teaming up with asset-management arms of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on the roughly €48 m ($68.7m) deal.
UNIONS FEAR AN AREVA SHAKE-UP
Workers at nuclear-engineering giant Areva are bracing for a shake-up after the departure of their chief executive, amid speculation the French government could reorganise the country’s atomic-energy sector in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan. Last week the government said Areva would replace CEO Anne Lauvergeon when her contract expires in June.