Friday newspaper round-up: BP, Bats/Chi-X, Easyjet...

18th Feb 2011 06:39

Vince Cable's Business Department has been accused of indulging in empty rhetoric and failing to produce a coherent strategy for growth in a withering assessment of the past nine months. MPs on the Commons Business, Enterprise and Skills committee will say in a report published today that the Department is letting down British companies, particularly in failing to break the bank-lending impasse, the Times reports.BP had problems for years with the Halliburton engineer it worked with on the Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico but failed to review his work adequately, according to an official report into the oil spill last year. In an expanded report on the disaster that killed 11 workers, the White House oil spill commission concluded yesterday that BP's engineers failed to put in place safeguards, even after discovering troubles that the contractor had on another well, the Times reports.BATS Global Markets, operator of the third largest stock exchange in the US, was on Thursday night finalising a deal to merge with Chi-X Europe to create the largest platform for share trading in Europe by volume. Negotiations were complete, and the deal could be announced as soon as Friday, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The move caps a week of frenetic consolidation among global exchanges, with Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext revealing details of a plan to build the world's largest bourse, and the London Stock Exchange tying up with Canada's TMX Group, the FT reports.One of the most senior executives at Lazard has shocked the City after revealing he was to quit the investment bank after only six weeks. Naguib Kheraj joined Lazard at the beginning of January as chief executive of the international business, a role created specifically for him. The bank, which recently hired Lord Mandelson as a special adviser, disclosed the news yesterday morning and is not expected to look for a replacement in the short term, the Independent reports.Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, has criticised Mervyn King, Bank of England governor, saying he should step out of the political arena and stop tying his credibility to the coalition's "extreme" deficit-reduction plans. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Balls drew comparisons between Mr King's stance and the backing lent by the Bank of England to the Treasury's fiscal hawks during the Great Depression.More than half of easyJet shareholders, led by founder Sir Stelios Haji-Iaonnou, voted against the company's pay report at the annual meeting yesterday. The vote was seen as a protest over the size of payments to former chief executive Andy Harrison. He was given £1m for a six-month contract and a further £1.2m under a "golden handcuffs" retention deal agreed in May 2009. The deal kept him at the airline for a period following the departure of the chief financial officer and chairman, the Times reports.A halt in betting by a single high-roller cost Ladbrokes about £60m in lost profits last year compared to 2009. The big money gambler, believed to be a member of an Asian royal family, was the main reason for the bookmaker's fall in operating profits from high-rollers to just £5m versus £66.9m last time. There was industry talk that the punter had not been betting while he settled past losses. Ladbrokes declined to comment, with a spokesman stressing: "We never comment on any of our clients," the Telegraph reports.Cotswold Geotechnical has been fined £385,000 after being found guilty in the first ever corporate manslaughter prosecution. Geologist Alexander Wright from Cheltenham died in September 2008 when a 12.6ft deep unsupported trial pit that he was working in alone caved in at a development site in Brimscombe Lane, near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Cotswold Geotechnical was on Tuesday found guilty at Winchester Crown Court of corporate manslaughter relating to Mr Wright's death. The judge, Mr Justice Field, said the gross breach of the company's duty to Mr Wright was a "grave offence", the Telegraph reports. Investors rushed to take up the benchmark issue by Credit Suisse of a new financial instrument hailed by regulators as a key tool for rebuilding the capital strength of banks, placing orders of $22bn - 11 times the $2bn on offer. The deluge of orders represented a big vote of confidence in the nascent market for contingent capital bonds, dubbed cocos. Priced with an interest rate of 7.875%, the sale is likely to spur other banks to consider cocos, a hybrid form of capital where the notes rank above equity but below debt, the FT reports.