Monday newspaper round-up: Cadbury, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tesco

11th Jan 2010 06:37

Cadbury will fight for its independence on Monday with a defence document that includes only headline trading figures and no audited management forecast for 2010.The confectionery company, behind Dairy Milk and Trident gum, will fight Kraft's £10.5bn hostile cash and share offer by unveiling a measured document that outlines the strength, value and credibility of the confectionary business. Shareholders will have to wait until later in the week before they get their hands on the full details of the chocolatier's trading statement ? expected to show strong Christmas numbers and results for the company's different geographical businesses, the Telegraph reports.Ferrero, meanwhile, moved a step closer to gatecrashing the £10.5bn bid battle for Cadbury last night after the Italian chocolate maker lined up a bumper loan that could be used to back an offer for the British confectionery group. Ferrero, which makes Nutella spreads and Kinder chocolate eggs, is talking to the Italian bank Mediobanca about taking on a $4.5 bn loan that would be syndicated to at least four other big lenders, according to local reports, the Times reports.A row has broken out between a senior MP and Royal Bank of Scotland over claims that former ABN Amro bankers who now work for RBS are being paid more generous bonuses than when they worked at the Dutch bank. Stephen Hester, RBS's chief executive, is likely to face questions about the claims when he appears in front of the Treasury select committee on Monday. RBS is proposing a new bonus scheme paid over three years. This will see some bankers receiving 50pc in year one, and 25pc of their bonus in the remaining two years. Others will be paid in equal thirds, the Telegraph reports.Blackstone, the US private equity firm, has been approached by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Money about backing a renewed bid for state-owned Northern Rock. The buy-out house is among several firms that Virgin has talked to as it works on finding a partner for its financial services business in preparation for its move on Northern Rock's "good bank" spun out of the state-owned lender and thought to be worth up to £2bn, the Telegraph reports.A tentative recovery in Britain's financial services sector will fizzle out soon, posing fresh questions about a revival in the wider economy, according to the CBI. In its latest quarterly survey, which is published today, the employers' group says that banks, building societies, dealers and other financial institutions are at their most pessimistic since December 2008, when the UK was in the grip of a banking crisis. Respondents to the CBI's survey, its 81st poll of industry trends, said that trading levels and profits had increased slightly during the three months to the end of December, their second successive quarterly rise, the Times reports.Tesco has slipped from third to fourth place in the league table of the world's biggest retailers, The Times has learnt. According to a worldwide study by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the accountants and business advisers, Britain's biggest grocer has been overtaken by Metro, of Germany, best known in Britain as the owner of Makro, the cash-and-carry store, the Times reports.A group of Russian oligarchs are priming their companies for multi-billion dollar London listings in a sign the City remains the favoured financial centre for the country's tycoons as they try to rebuild fortunes devastated by the crisis. Sergey Popov and Andrey Melnichenko, the owners of Russia's biggest coal producer Suek, will appoint banking advisers this week for a stock market listing in London and Moscow that could value the business at up to $9bn, according to people close to the company. ProfMedia, one of Russia's largest media groups controlled by the magnate Vladimir Potanin, has also mandated Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse for a London listing that could achieve a market value of up to $2bn. Both listings are expected to launch in the second half of the year, the FT reports.The government is attempting to claw back tens of millions of pounds from flu vaccine manufacturers as it seeks to scale down an immunisation plan to protect the country from a severe pandemic. Officials have cancelled further orders from Baxter, and are finalising a deal to limit purchases from GlaxoSmithKline, in an effort to recoup part of a £500m deal with the two companies for sufficient vaccine to cover the entire population, the FT reports.The growing economic might of China was laid bare yesterday by reports that it overtook Germany to become the world's largest exporter last year. The strong export data for December follows the news on Friday that China had leap-frogged the US as the world's largest automotive market. China is also forecast to outgun Japan to become the world's second largest economy in 2010, and it is inevitable it will take top spot from the US, given that Chinese GDP is forecast to grow by more than 10% a year for most of the next decade, the Independent reports.