WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
CHINA FUND TAKES DIAGEO STAKE
China’s sovereign wealth fund has acquired 1.1 per cent of the Diageo drinks group, giving it a stake worth £221m, in a sign of its emerging strategy to spread its investments over different global markets and asset classes. The move by China Investment, which manages $200bn of the country’s $2,132bn in foreign exchange reserves, makes the fund the UK-based groups’ ninth-largest investor.
YELL SEEKS TO EXTEND DEBTS
Yell, the debt-laden directories group, is drawing up proposals to extend its debt maturities and amend covenant terms ahead of a meeting with its lenders. The publisher of the Yellow Pages, which is to report its first-quarter results on Thursday, is not currently considering a debt-for-equity swap.
MACAO CASINOS FEEL THE PINCH
The world’s largest gambling market is on track for its first year-on-year decline since it was opened to foreign competition in 2002. Macao, the Chinese special administrative region near Hong Kong, has reported a 12.4 per cent decline in first-half casino revenues to 51.4bn patacas (£4bn). If this trend continues, driven by a 20 per cent fall in visitor arrivals, this year will be a first to see a contraction since the monopoly of Stanley Ho.
CATTLES BONDHOLDERS PLAN TO STEP UP PRESSURE ON DEBT TALKS
Bondholders of Cattles have been working on a plan to seek repayment, potentially increasing the pressure on negotiations over a restructuring of the subprime lender’s debts. Holders of the outstanding bonds due in 2017, on which the company recently defaulted on interest payments, have been working on plans to send a so-called acceleration notice to HSBC, the trustee of the bonds.
THE TIMES
REGIONAL LAW FIRMS TAKE SEVERE STEPS TO CUT COSTS
Britain’s leading regional law firms are imposing drastic cost-cutting measures in an attempt to stave off further job losses. Yesterday Dundas & Wilson, one of Scotland’s oldest firms, asked its 650 staff to consider a 10 per cent pay cut in return for an additional 18 days of unpaid leave.
PARTRIDGE FINE ARTS CALLS IN THE ADMINISTRATORS
Partridge Fine Art, the dealership set up in 1902 to buy antiques for Queen Mary, was placed into administration yesterday. The business, which sells to private clients, designers and institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum and the J Paul Getty Museum, is probably best known for selling a Louis XVI writing table to the Getty museum nearly 35 years ago.
The Daily Telegraph
ICELAND TO GIVE STAKES TO CREDITORS
Iceland is preparing to hand over large stakes in its three nationalised banks to their international creditors along with a 270bn krona (£1.3bn) injection of capital to revive the country’s broken financial system. The country’s three biggest banks, Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing, failed last October owing $60bn (£36bn) to foreign institutions and savers.
MICHAEL JACKSON: PRIVATE EQUITY AND MEDIA FIRMS EYE ESTATE
Less than a month after the death of the “King of Pop”, a host of private equity and media firms are now attempting to extricate value from his estate. A number of firms including private equity group KKR – best known in the UK for owning Alliance Boots – and Colony Capital – which owns part of the singer’s Neverland ranch – are reported to have made inquiries.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
PORSCHE-VOLKSWAGEN DEAL HITS POTHOLES
Volkswagen’s plan to acquire Porsche Automobil Holding’s auto business has run into fresh complications over a potential multibillion-dollar tax liability and growing tensions between the two camps, said people familiar with the matter. The two sides tried unsuccessfully over the weekend to find a way around a tax payment that could be triggered by the sale of Porsche’s sports-car operation to Volkswagen.
SWISS BANKS FREEZE OUT US CLIENTS
UBS AG’s high-profile spat with the Internal Revenue Service has made some of Switzerland’s smaller banks wary of looking after US-based clients. A number are no longer accepting deposits from US-based customers, or allowing them to open accounts.