WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
M&S ASKS SUPPLIERS TO AID STORE REVAMPS
Marks and Spencer has asked its top clothing suppliers for a multimillion-pound contribution to its store revamp plans and a step-up in advertising. At a gathering on Friday of M&S’s top 60 clothing and homewares suppliers, Marc Bolland, chief executive, asked them for a one-off contribution of 1.25 per cent of their turnover with M&S in the year to August, people familiar with the situation said.
UNION ATTACKS LAING O’ROURKE
The UK’s biggest privately owned building company paid dividends of almost £24m last year even as it axed 2,040 jobs. According to accounts filed to Companies House, Laing O’Rourke ended the year to March 31 with 7,608 staff compared with 9,648 employees the previous year.
The job cuts came as pre-tax profit in the UK fell from £34.3m in 2010 to £28.6m this year.
PROPERTY INVESTORS DRAWN TO LONDON
London has taken the lion’s share of inward investment into Europe commercial property over the past 18 months as concerns about the health of the Eurozone continue to rattle investors. More than £8bn was spent on buying offices and shops in the UK capital in the 18 months to July, according to research by CB Richard Ellis, the property services group.
FIAT BREAKS WITH UNION OF ITALIAN EMPLOYERS
Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Fiat Industrial, has broken with Italy’s powerful employers’ union, Confindustria, raising the prospect that the carmaker and industrial group could seek to wind down further some of their operations in Italy.
THE TIMES
ROMAN ABRAMOVICH IS ACCUSED OF BLACKMAIL, INTIMIDATION AND BETRAYAL IN $6BN LAWSUIT
The billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club was accused yesterday of betraying the man who allegedly helped to build his fortune so that he could curry favour with Vladimir Putin. Roman Abramovich, in a rare public appearance, listened as lawyers for Boris Berezovsky told the High Court in London that the Russian oligarch had taken advantage of his former mentor’s fall from grace to enrich himself by bullying him out of billions of dollars worth of shares.
CHARLES STANLEY STRUGGLES AGAINST THE HEADWINDS
Charles Stanley’s shares slid by almost 10 per cent yesterday after it warned that stock market volatility and inflation would hurt its profits.
The Daily Telegraph
EUROPEAN POLITICIANS PLOT TO BLOCK UK VETO ON TOBIN TAX
A group of European politicians is plotting to impose the financial transaction tax (FTT) in a way that Britain would be powerless to veto, a British MEP has warned. Dr Kay Swinburne, MEP and spokesman for Europe’s economic and monetary affairs committee, told a group of regulators in Manchester that Britain was wrong to “relax” and rely on its veto to block the controversial tax.
YAHOO! PARTNERS WITH ABC NEWS TO COMPETE WITH CNN
Yahoo! has partnered with ABC News, the US news broadcaster owned by Disney, in an effort to outrank rival CNN as the largest news website in America and win back battered shareholder confidence. The deal will hand ABC an online audience of 100m – 25 per cent larger than CNN’s.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
US-CHINESE PROGRESS ON ACCOUNTING IS DEALT SETBACK
US-Chinese negotiations to allow American audit-firm inspectors into China suffered a setback yesterday, as US regulators indicated that a planned visit to Washington by their Chinese counterparts to continue the talks has been postponed.
SPRINT TO BET THE COMPANY ON IPHONE
With the new iPhone coming out this week, Sprint Nextel is finally expected to gain access to a device it has long coveted—but at a staggering cost. The number three wireless company is making a multibillion dollar gamble that Apple’s gadget will be the ticket to a turnaround, even though Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse told the board in August that Sprint would likely lose money on the deal until 2014, according to sources.