WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
CORUS CHIEF SCRAMBLES TO RESCUE FACTORY DEAL
Corus chief Kirby Adamsm who took over at the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker last month, faces both the worst fall in steel demand for 60 years and a battle to salvage an agreement to sell the group’s Teesside plant to Marcegaglia. It has emerged that Marcegaglia is having second thoughts about a deal to buy the factory for $480m.
NATIONWIDE BOSS SLAMS STATE LEVY
Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, called the amount it will have to pay under the government’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme “daylight robbery of our members”. The mutual said that its full-year results would include charges and provisions of more than £250m for the government safety net, which pays out to consumers when banks fail.
DEVELOPER TO ACT OVER CRITICISM FROM PRINCE CHARLES
The developer of a controversial residential development on the site of the former Chelsea Barracks in west London has opened the door to compromise on the scheme following criiticism from the Prince of Wales.
ELECTRICITY USE FACES FIRST FALL SINCE 1945
Global electricity consumption will fall this year for the first time since 1945, according to a dramatic portrait of the effects of the slowdown in developed and emerging economies from the International Energy Agency.
The watchdog for developed energy-consuming countries will on Sunday tell energy ministers from the leading eight economies that electricity demand will fall by 3.5 per cent in 2009.
THE TIMES
PREMIUM BARS INVESTORS FACE WIPEOUT IN REUBEN PLAN
The billionaire Reuben brothers have put in a £40m bid for Premium Bars & Restaurants (PBR) that would cause the troubled operator of the Living Room and Prohibition chains to undergo a pre-pack administration, The Times has learnt. The Reubens, who hold a 32.5 per cent stake in the AIM-listed group, have offered to buy all but five of PBR’s 48 outlets.
MERGER OF SKY AND CHANNEL 4 ADVERTISING STAFF MOOTED
Channel 4 and BSkyB are in talks about merging their advertising sales teams in a deal that would produce multimillion-pound savings. Channel 4 believes that an agreement could form part of an alternative package of cost-cutting measures to help to support the broadcaster if its hoped-for tie-up with the BBC fails.
The Daily Telegraph
APPLE’S ‘TABLET’ TO RIVAL AMAZON’S KINDLE
Apple is believed to be working on a new product to fill the gap between the iPod Touch and its smaller laptops that will take on Amazon’s Kindle, which has taken a large share of the market for reading books and websites on the go. The product – which a leading technology analyst described as a “tablet” – is being developed and could be on sale as early as the first half of next year.
COST OF CALLING MOBILES COULD FALL BY TWO-THIRDS
Calls to mobile phones from landlines could fall dramatically in price, under a radical proposals by BT. The company, backed by a coalition of charities, lobby groups, and the mobile phone company 3, wants so-called “termination charges” to be lowered or scrapped.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
BANKUNITED SEIZED BY AMERICAN REGULATORS
Federal regulators seized the troubled Florida thrift BankUnited on Thursday, a failure the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation estimates will cost its insurance fund $4.9bn. BankUnited is the second costliest bank failure of the recent banking crisis, trumped only by IndyMac, which officials believe will cost the FDIC close to $11bn.
VERSACE CEO EXPECTED TO RESIGN
Gianni Versace chief executive Giancarlo Di Risio is expected to resign, a person familiar with the matter said, after months of clashes with designer Donatella Versace over how to cut costs at the Italian fashion house amid the luxury-goods industry’s worst downturn in years. Di Risio plans to tender his resignation in coming days, the source said.