Friday newspaper round-up: Russia, Britain, AstraZeneca

9th May 2014 07:29

The European Central Bank says capital flight from Russia since the Ukraine crisis erupted may be four times higher than admitted by the Kremlin, a clear sign that sanctions pressure is inflicting serious damage on the Russian economy. Mario Draghi, the ECB's president, said the outflows from Russia have been large enough over recent weeks to push up the euro exchange rate, complicating monetary policy for the ECB. - The Daily TelegraphBritain's six-year Great Recession will be declared over today when one of the country's leading economic bodies says that the ground lost in the financial crisis has been recovered. The monthly estimate of growth from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research will show that GDP is back at, or just fractionally short of, its March 2008 record. "We are incredibly close to the pre-recession peak. Whether we make it in the April estimate will be a matter of 0.1%," Jack Meaning, a research fellow at the institute, said. - The TimesFormer science minister Lord Sainsbury has launched a blistering attack on Pfizer's £63bn takeover move on AstraZeneca, calling on the government to block its attempt to "dismember" a strategically important British company. Amid expectation that the US pharmaceutical firm is preparing to come back with an improved offer which could value AstraZeneca at £67bn, Sainsbury warned David Cameron he would be politically damaged if he simply stood by and let the takeover go ahead. - The GuardianThe boss of US drugs giant Pfizer could lose out on a potential £70m windfall if the proposed takeover of AstraZeneca fails. Pfizer's Chief Executive Ian Read has more than 4m shares in the pharmaceuticals giant that will mature only if the company hits performance targets in the coming years. But the group has recently been struggling financially, which has led analysts to predict that it needs to buy AstraZeneca, Britain's second-largest drugs maker, in order to keep growing. - The Daily MailInvestors staged this year's biggest rebellion yet against excessive boardroom rewards by casting a substantial vote against pay proposals at Standard Chartered yesterday. At the bank's annual meeting, 56% of investors withheld their support from Standard Chartered's plans to change the way its executives are paid in response to the European Union's new bonus cap. - The TimesOmnicom and Publicis have abandoned their $35bn plan to merge into what would have been the largest advertising company in the world. The boards of the American and French companies met on Thursday evening to finalise the decision, walking away from an agreement they toasted with Champagne nearly 10 months ago. Neither side will pay a break fee. The break-up came amid concerns of a cultural clash between the two companies, and worries that the deal was taking too long to complete - to the detriment of the respective businesses. - The Daily TelegraphAB