WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
SOROS SET TO BUY STAKE IN BOMBAY EXCHANGE
George Soros, the billionaire investor, is in final talks to buy Dubai Holding’s 4 per cent stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange, as foreign investor interest in India’s fast-growing financial markets rises, people close to the matter said. Soros Fund Management is planning to pay about $40m for its stake, valuing Asia’s oldest bourse at about $1bn, said a person involved?in?the?negotiations.
THREAT TO OUTSOURCED WORKERS’ BENEFITS
The government is “minded” to scrap an informal code guaranteeing public sector benefits for thousands of outsourced private sector jobs, threatening a confrontation with unions. The proposal, aimed at reducing the cost of outsourcing swaths of government business from cleaning and catering to information technology,, provoked opposition from union representatives yesterday.
WORLD BANK WARNS ON FARMLAND GRAB TREND
Investors in farmland are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments, according to the draft of a report by the World Bank. “Investor interest is focused on countries with weak land governance,” it said.
SAN MIGUEL SEEKS CAPITAL FOR DIVERSIFICATION
San Miguel is to sell 1bn new common shares and raise up to 75bn pesos ($1.6bn) in fresh capital to fund investments and acquisitions as it diversifies into heavy industry and infrastructure. The Philippine food and drinks group said it wanted to sell the common shares for 10 per cent more than yesterday’s close.
THE TIMES
CIVIL SERVANTS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE TO SACK, SAYS MINISTER
Thousands of civil servants in Whitehall are “treading water” with nothing to do because it is too expensive to make them redundant, a minister claimed yesterday. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, sparked a furious row by suggesting that officials who were not up to their jobs were twiddling their thumbs at a cost to the taxpayer of tens of millions of pounds a year.
SUBSIDIES FOR ELECTRIC CARS TO BE LIMITED
The government will today scale back the subsidy scheme for electric cars.Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, will announce that drivers will be able to obtain grants of up to £5,000 per car from January, but that the number of grants will be cut.
The Daily Telegraph
JIM ROGERS PREDICTS A GLOBAL RECESSION BY 2012
Jim Rogers, the market sage, has warned the global economy is just two years away from another recession, but remains ill-prepared to cope with the after-effects. Rogers, the respected currency trader and hedge fund pioneer, cautioned that when the downturn takes hold “the world is going to be in worse shape because the world has shot all its bullets”.
RECORD NUMBER OF FAKE £1 COINS COULD FORCE REISSUE
There are now so many fake £1 coins in circulation the Royal Mint could be forced to scrap and reissue the entire denomination. Their warning came as new figures indicated there were £41m fake £1 coins in Britain – one in every 36 in circulation. This suggests the proportion of fake coins had tripled in the last decade.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
TURKEY CUTS INFLATION OUTLOOK
Turkey’s central bank yesterday issued a benign forecast on inflation, interest rates and a gathering economic recovery as the country’s stock prices were soaring to a record high. The country’s central-bank governor, Durmus Yilmaz, delivered a dovish report, cutting the bank’s estimate for 2010 and 2011 inflation.
ALLIANCE AIMS FOR APP MARKET
A global alliance of telecom operators said yesterday it will establish a corporate entity as part of its plans to set up an open platform for mobile applications, hoping to broaden the market and emulate the success of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market. The Wholesale Applications Community was launched in February as a joint venture between 24 operators, including US-based AT&T.