WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
GLENCORE WEIGHS UP FLOATATION
Glencore, one of the world’s largest private companies had held preliminary talks with bankers about an initial public offering as it reviews its partnership structure, to a person familiar with the company. While an IPO is not is not considered imminent, a move into the public spotlight would mark a big change for the company founded in 1974 by Marc Rich, a one-time fugitive financier who was famously pardoned by Bill Clinton on the former US president’s last day in office.
ARCANDOR IN FRESH REQUEST FOR STATE AID
Arcandor, the insolvent German retailer, is lobbying for government credit guarantees to resolve a funding crisis at its mail-order unit Primondo that has thrown the group’s aim of re-emerging from creditor protection into jeopardy.Just over a week after Berlin rejected a first call for state aid.
CHIPMAKER TSMC REVIVES INVESTMENT STRATEGY
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chipmaker has become one of the first big technology companies to bet on recovery by restoring investment plans curtailed only months ago.
PRUDENTIAL SET TO CONFIRM TAIWANESE SALE
Prudential is expected to confirm today that it has offload its Taiwanese agency business after the life and pensions group received regulatory approval for the transfer to China Life this week. The deal was driven by heavy capital demands and will free £800m of cashto add to Prudential’s $2bn surplus it reported in May along side its first qurter sales figures.
THE TIMES
DEVELOPERS ‘RUN PLANS PAST PRINCE CHARLES’ TO AVOID ROWS LATER
The Prince of Wales is routinely shown plans for major building projects in London to avoid him raising damaging objections later on, developers have admitted. The disclosure , a week after he succeeded in blocking plans by Lord Rogers of Riverside for Chelsea Barracks, will raise questions that the Prince is operating as an unaccountable planning authority.
BT LOOKS TO LEND EMPLOYEES TO COMPETITORS
BT is trying to farm out some of its workers to rivals in the latest attempt by a big British company to trade through the recession with as few compulsory redundancies as possible. The radical move comes as BT struggles to turn around its failing IT services unit.
The Daily Telegraph
WORLD BANK RAISES GROWTH FORECAST FOR CHINA
The World Bank raised its economic growth forecast for China from 6.5 per cent to 7.2 per cent on the back of higher-than-expected government spending, but warned that the China growth-story could not be sustained in the long-term without fundamental reforms to the economy.
FIRST EVER TRIAL WITHOUT JURY TO BE HELD BECAUSE OF ALLEGED NOBBLING
Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice, made legal history on Thursday by allowing the trial of the four men, alleged to have stolen £1.7m, to be heard solely by a judge.The case relating to the February 2004 armed hold-up of a Heathrow depot has already cost taxpayers £24m and has been beset by problems with trials collapsing on three previous occasions.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
WAR-FUNDING BILL APPROVED
The US Senate voted yesterday to approve a $106bn bill to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through September, along with the “cash for clunkers” program to stimulate car sales by providing government-funded discounts to consumers who trade in older vehicles. The auto program cleared the Senate after Republicans failed to cut it from the bill. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation.
SWISS PROSECUTOR PROBES MADOFF SANTANDER TIES
Geneva’s public prosecutor said he has launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Banco Santander SA’s hedge-fund unit misled investors when it funnelled their funds into Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.