Friday newspaper round-up: BAA, Euro, LinkedIn...

7th Jan 2011 06:39

Some of Britain's largest airlines are considering legal action against BAA after snow shut Heathrow airport last month, causing travel misery for thousands of passengers.The demands for compensation from the airports operator come as British Airways revealed that the weather disruption had cost it £50m. A number of carriers, including British Midland bmi and Virgin Atlantic, have told The Times that they are weighing their options after last month's chaos at Heathrow.The European single currency's survival in its present form "can no longer be taken for granted," Deutsche Bank warned yesterday. The German lender said that EU policymakers had to move far more rapidly to reform the eurozone, adding that extended delay could send the region spiralling into another crisis. Thomas Mayer, the bank's chief economist, told The Times that the financial markets had been "left guessing" what will happen next after policymakers pledged last month to take any measures necessary to defend the euro.The economy is suffering a "disappointing" start to the year as snow and the early impact of government spending cuts have hampered business activity, say the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply (Cips). The latest Cips survey of confidence in the service sector - accounting for around 70% of the economy - reveals that the cold weather probably pushed the economy into contraction in December as the snow disrupted supplies and transport. This effect will have partially reversed the growth seen in October and November, the Independent reports.LinkedIn plans to file for an initial public offering in the United States within months, according to reports that suggest the social network service for professionals is keen to take advantage of growing investor interest in privately held technology companies. A LinkedIn filing in the first quarter of the year may give it an edge before investor demand is soaked up by a widely anticipated offering from Facebook within the next 12 months, the Times reports.Brazil has made a fresh attempt to keep the lid on its rising currency with new curbs on speculative trading designed to discourage ramping of the real against the dollar. A day after finance minister Guido Mantega pledged not to allow America to "melt the dollar", Brazil's central bank announced that domestic lenders would have higher reserve requirements against foreign exchange positions, the Telegraph reports.Brussels has called for sweeping powers for regulators to seize failing EU banks, sack board members, and impose haircuts on senior bank debt, aiming to ensure that taxpayers are never again held hostage by high finance. The European Commission's "Framework for Bank Recovery and Resolution" draws on Scandinavia's hard-line approach during their banking crises in the early 1990s. The goal is to end the pattern of moral hazard and mispricing of risk that generated Europe's debt woes, the Telegraph reports.Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint, the Trade Minister, has refused to take on the role of promoting the £35bn British arms industry. Civil servants are working on a compromise ahead of the former HSBC chairman, who is an ordained Anglican priest, formally taking up his post next week. Lord Green's decision, taken for what are thought to be "ethical" concerns, is likely to spark anger within the defence industry, which employs 300,000 people, the Telegraph reports.National Grid has been found guilty of lying over the speed at which it finishes gas mains roadworks and fined £8m by Ofgem with £5m costs. The fine is the second largest levied by the regulator behind the £15m that National Grid paid last year over anti-competitive practices in the metering market, the Times reports.Citigroup is seeking buyers for CitiFinancial, the largest consumer finance company in the US, in a deal that could raise hundreds of millions of dollars and mark a milestone in the bank's efforts to break with its troubled past. People close to the situation said that after months of restructuring, Citi had begun contacting potential buyers for CitiFinancial, which was one of the building blocks in its ill-fated plan to become an all-purpose "financial supermarket", the FT reports.