Monday newspaper round-up: BAE Systems, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland

5th Oct 2009 06:19

BAE Systems is prepared to settle the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) six-year investigation into allegations of bribery in Africa and Eastern Europe, but will not do so "at any cost".The defence contractor is understood to be keen to resolve the issue, one way or the other, to draw a line under the corruption allegations that have dogged the company for more than a decade. However, sources say that BAE will settle only if it is presented with compelling evidence to support the SFO's claim that it paid millions of pounds in bribes to secure lucrative contracts, the Times reports.Meanwhile, BAE Systems has dismissed as "preposterous" suggestions by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Norman Lamb that he could have been the target of a bugging operation involving the British arms firm, the Telegraph reports.Michael Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC, is so convinced there will be a second downturn in the coming months that he plans to delay any rush to expand the bank. "Is this a V recovery or a W?" Mr Geoghegan asked in an interview with the FT. "[I think] it's the latter. [If I'm right], we have to be very careful we don't grow the balance sheet so far before the recovery has come only to write it back into the impairment line later on. I'm cautious about growing too fast," the FT reports.Royal Bank of Scotland will meet investors this week to finalise the details of a £4bn share placing as negotiations with the Treasury about the price of joining the Government's toxic loans insurance programme intensify.The cash raised will be used to reduce the number of shares that RBS will need to give the Government to cover the £19.5bn entry fee for its Asset Protection Scheme (APS) to insure £325bn of RBS' worst loans, the Telegraph reports.Financial services companies grew business for the first time in two years over the summer, a new industry survey will show today. The survey carried out by the CBI, the business lobby, and accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the overall volumes of business had grown for the first time in two years, but cautioned the levels were still "well below normal," the Independent writes. British Sky Broadcasting will begin a complete rebranding this month as it strives to present a warmer image and replace the BBC as the UK's "most loved and respected source of entertainment". A new Sky logo featuring a more rounded "S", which is intended to convey a friendlier corporate persona, would be unveiled in coming weeks as the company begins a pre-Christmas marketing push, people familiar with the logo said, the FT reports.Banks were confronted by the threat of two new taxes in the space of a weekend after the Bank of England floated the idea of a new levy to force banks to pay for future crisis clean-ups. The suggestion, from Paul Tucker, a Deputy Governor of the Bank, came only two days after Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had disclosed that the international agency was examining its own proposal for a worldwide bank levy, the Times reports. Meanhwile, foreign-owned City banks are considering a legal challenge to government plans to curb City bonuses, strictures to which their British counterparts have agreed. Lord Myners, the Treasury Minister, is planning to meet executives this week from investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank as he tries to extend the bonus clampdown across the City, the Times adds.Aviva is set to launch a listing of its Dutch subsidiary Delta Lloyd on Monday in which it hopes to raise about £1bn before the end of the year, the biggest initial public offering in Europe for at least 18 months, the FT reports.Goldman Sachs stands to receive a payment of $1bn - while US taxpayers would lose $2.3bn - if embattled commercial lender CIT files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, people familiar with the matter said. The payment stems from the structure of a $3bn rescue finance package that Goldman extended to CIT on June 6 2008,the FT reports.