WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
NEW HOLE IN CONNAUGHT DEBT
The scale of debt at Connaught, the collapsed property services group, will be greater than previously thought after administrators found 50,000 invoices that the company had not accounted for. Management accounts had led administrators from KPMG to believe that the social housing maintenance arm of Connaught owed £46m to unsecured creditors, on top of the £22m to HMRC.
SAMSUNG TARGETS SALES OF 1M TABLET PCS
Samsung Electronics, the world’s second-largest mobile phone maker, forecast sales of more than 1m of its first tablet computer by the end of this year, as it revealed plans to launch the device in several sizes to fight Apple’s dominance of the fast-growing segment. Encouraged by the success of Apple’s iPad, which sold 3.3m units in the three months after its launch in April, groups including Research in Motion, Cisco, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, LG Electronics and ZTE are preparing their own tablets.
CLEARING HOUSE WARNING TO IRISH BOND TRADERS
Fears over the health of the eurozone bond market intensified after one of Europe’s biggest clearing houses warned investors they could be compelled to stump up substantially more money to trade in Ireland’s debt.
ITALY SLAMS PRE-COOKED DEALS
Franco Frattini, Italy’s foreign minister, has lashed out at France and Germany for trying to “pre-cook” agreements for the rest of the European Union, most recently at the Deauville summit where Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel hammered out their compromise on budget rules and sanctions to prevent another Greek-style crisis.
THE TIMES
HAULFRYN PITCHES ON WITH £60M DEBT FACILITY
Haulfryn Group, one of Britain’s biggest holiday and residential park owners, has defied the credit crunch to secure a new £60m debt facility from Barclays. The group, founded in North Wales in 1935 by the Minoprio family, from Italy, said that the new facility, from Barclays Corporate in Manchester, would allow the group to spend £3m a year over the next five years upgrading the parks.
TECH GROUPS BLIND TO LURE OF OLYMPIC GOLD
Only one technology company backing David Cameron’s vision to create a Silicon Valley in East London has formally agreed to move into the Olympic Park. Cisco Systems, maker of networking gear, has said it will establish a presence but Facebook, Google plan to remain central.
The Daily Telegraph
HAMMERSON PLANS NEW ST ALPHAGE LANDMARK
The company has submitted an application for a two-building project on its St Alphage site at London Wall Place – formerly earmarked for JP Morgan’s new headquarters – and will immediately start a search for a pre-let. The proposed development, likely to cost £350m and designed by Make, is strikingly different to the skyscraper projects restarted by British Land and Land Securities.
BRANSON BEGINS STRATEGIC REVIEW OF VIRGIN ATLANTIC
Sir Richard Branson has hired Deutsche Bank to examine strategic options for Virgin Atlantic in a move that could eventually see him relinquish control of his airline. Branson asked the German bank to study the airline’s market position in the wake of BA’s tie-up with American Airlines.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
GERMANY’S BAYERNLB, WESTLB END MERGER TALKS
State-controlled wholesale banks BayernLB and WestLB said they terminated merger talks after just six weeks, dashing hopes for substantial progress on consolidation in the German Landesbanken sector. BayernLB bank said its management board decided at its meeting Wednesday that the bank won’t continue the talks.
ADIDAS RAISES SALES FORECAST
Adidas AG raised its full-year sales forecast Thursday after reporting third-quarter net profit rose 25 per cent, driven by higher sales in all its regional markets and at its Reebok unit. The sporting-goods maker said net profit in the three months to 30 September was €266m (£232m)?compared to €213m last year. Revenue increased 20 per cent to €3.47bn.