WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
REVIEW LOOKS TO TACKLE THE COST OF WORKPLACE ILLNESS
Action to curb the financial and social costs of long term illness and make it easier for employers to get staff back to work was recommended yesterday, in a government-commissioned review of sickness absence which also urged ministers to review the generosity of public-sector sick pay.
WAR GAME TESTS CITY RESILIENCE TO ONLINE ATTACKS
What would happen to the City if it were hit by a cyberattack in the middle of the Olympics? Today, thousands of people at 87 of London’s biggest banks, exchanges and other institutions are going to try to find out. Led by the Financial Services Authority, they will be engaging in a war game that envisions two simultaneous problems: widespread travel disruptions and a major cyberattack.
SAUDIS HALT OIL EXPANSION AFTER REACHING 12M BARRELS A DAY
TARGET
Saudi Arabia has halted the $100bn expansion of its oil production capacity after reaching a target of 12m barrels a day as the kingdom believes that new oil sources will meet rising demand. Khalid al-Falih, chief executive of state-owned Saudi Aramco, said on Monday that pressure on Riyadh to raise its output capacity had “substantially reduced”, the clearest indication yet that the world’s top oil producer is not pushing ahead with an assumed expansion plan to 15m b/d by the end of 2020.
STUDY PUTS UK TOP FOR PRIVATE EQUITY
The UK is the most attractive place to set up private equity businesses, an Investec Fund Finance survey of UK buy-out chiefs has found.
THE TIMES
EMI TAKEOVER SOUNDS ALARM FOR VIVENDI’S CREDIT RATING
Vivendi’s credit rating may be under threat in the wake of the French conglomerate’s acquisition of EMI’s recorded music division, a move that has “exhausted” its debt capacity. Vivendi secured the £1.2bn takeover this month after a string of other deals. In April it paid £7bn for Vodafone’s 44 per cent stake in the French mobile network SFR and it is in talks about increasing its investment in the Polish broadcaster TVN.
BAKER GETS ITS FINGERS BURNT AS CUPCAKE DEAL PROVES TOO TASTY
For 25 years Rachel Brown had been baking “celebration” cakes to order, but she bit off more than she could chew when she signed up for an offer through Groupon, the discount coupon website. She found herself facing an order for 102,000 cakes.
The Daily Telegrpah
CHEVRON FACES FINES OF UP TO £53M OVER BRAZIL OIL SPILL
US oil giant Chevron is facing fines that could total $83m (£53m) as a result of an oil spill off the coast of Brazil and could face a temporary ban on operating in the country. The oil company has said it accepts full responsibility for the accident, which Brazilian regulators say has seen more than 416,000 litres of oil leak into the Atlantic in the past two weeks.
FABERGE OPENS ITS FIRST BRANCH IN LONDON SINCE 1915
Fabergé, the upmarket jewellery company, has opened its first shop in London for nearly 100 years, with the cheapest item on sale a £4,200 pair of earrings. The opening of the shop, just off Bond Street, has highlighted how pockets of Britain – most notably in central London – seem to be completely immune from economic downturn.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
AUDITING WATCHDOG’S AUDIT OF PWC, KPMG FIND WEAKNESSES
The government’s auditing regulator found deficiencies in 28 audits conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and 12 audits by KPMG LLP in its annual inspections of the Big Four accounting firms. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said many of the deficiencies it found in its 2010 inspection reports of the two firms, released yesterday, were significant enough that it appeared the firms didn’t obtain sufficient evidence to support their audit opinions.
JP MORGAN ADDS CHIP-BASED CARDS
JP Morgan Chase & Co is raising its bets on high-technology credit cards aimed at cutting down on fraud. The bank said yesterday that it is offering a version of its Visa card that stores account information in a chip.