What the other papers say this morning – 27 February 2014
FINANCIAL TIMES
Hester to shore up RSA with £1.5bn
Stephen Hester is finalising plans to shore up RSA’s balance sheet by as much as £1.5bn with one of the biggest equity raisings by a UK insurer, said people with knowledge of the matter. The former Royal Bank of Scotland chief, drafted in to run RSA after a series of profit warnings, is expected to press the button on Thursday on a rights issue of about £800m. It is set to be priced at a discount of between 35 and 40 per cent to the current share price. As part of a wider “capital management plan” designed to save an additional sum of about £700m, Mr Hester is also set to undertake disposals, cut costs and scrap the dividend.
Tax plan splits corporate US
The top US Republican tax-writer on Wednesday unveiled a far-reaching plan to boost the world’s largest economy through an overhaul of the country’s tax code that lower rates and slashes popular tax breaks, but the effort split corporate America and faces an uphill battle in Congress.
Miliband worries business backers
Senior business figures with links to Labour are worried by what they regard as a persistent campaign by Ed Miliband against large companies, saying it marks an alarming shift from New Labour. One Labour-supporting executive said the recent decision to propose lifting the top tax rate back from 45p to 50p had been a “major screw-up” and said Miliband was only pursuing “populist policies”.
THE TIMES
Arrest warrant issued for Subrata Roy
India’s highest court has ordered the arrest of Subrata Roy, who owns London’s Grosvenor House and New York’s Plaza hotels, after failing to appear at a hearing. Roy is locked in a dispute with the Supreme Court over the group’s failure to refund 200 billion rupees (£1.9bn) to investors.
Fund managers pushed aside in IPOs
Leading City fund managers say that they are being forced to make decisions about whether to buy shares in flotations without access to critical information. Institutional investors have said investment banks running recent initial public offerings have been refusing to release the prospectus until the very last minute.
The Daily Telegraph
Fabulous Fab to teach economics
Fabrice Tourre, the former Goldman Sachs trader convicted on six counts of securities fraud six months ago, will teach a class in economics at the University of Chicago this spring. Tourre’s seminar, called “Elements of Economic Analysis”, is part of his studies for a PhD
Bank chiefs want savings ratio focus
Britain’s biggest banks have warned the chancellor that the UK’s continually low savings rate risks throwing the recovery off course. The Telegraph understands that as part of its submission to the Treasury, the British Bankers’ Association called on George Osborne to consider a series of measures to encourage saving.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Tesla plans $5bn battery factory
Electric car maker Tesla is considering building an up to $5 billion battery factory that would allow it to sell as many as 500,000 vehicles a year. The factory could employ 6,500 people and require as much as 1,000 acres, Tesla said yesterday.
French unemployed at record high
President François Hollande’s target of bringing down unemployment drifted further out of sight Wednesday, as figures showed that the number of jobless people kept rising at the start of this year to reach a record high. The number of job seekers rose 0.3 per cent in January to 3.32m, the highest level since records began in 1996, labour ministry figures showed.