Monday newspaper round-up: Shire, Charlie Hebdo march, RBS...

12th Jan 2015 06:40

Shire has agreed to buy rare diseases specialist NPS Pharmaceuticals for $5.2bn as it bounces back from the collapse of a £32bn takeover by AbbVie, The Times reports. The company said it is "clearly a statement from us that we are committed to an independent future"."They came in their hundreds of thousands: the old and the young, the white, the brown and the black; the left and the right," writes The Independent, following the march of at least 1.5m people in the centre of Paris. Another 2m marched in over 60 similar demonstrations across the country in response to the terrorist attack at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week.Royal Bank of Scotland is in talks about a potential "retreat" from Asia, according to the Financial Times, as the lender steps up its disposal of non-UK and investment banking operations. The bank wants to scale back its non-UK activities to less than a quarter of total assets.Jaguar Land Rover's vehicle sales jumped 9% last year to 462,678, reports The Scotsman. The firm, owned by India's Tata, said China was its biggest market and saw a 28% surge in sales to 122,000, while UK sales rose 7% to 83,000.With just two weeks to go before snap elections, Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras has promised to ease back on austerity measures, writes The Guardian. "Unveiling a 'roadmap' of measures for a 'post-bailout Greece', the leader pledged he would restrict spending cuts and reforms that have seen the popularity of the main opposition radical left Syriza party soar," the paper said.Trouble insurance outsourcer Quindell is attempting to restore its reputation by taking on a number of experienced executives, according to The Telegraph. AO World's chairman Richard Rose will join as chairman, while former Old Mutual boss Jim Sutcliffe will be appointed as his deputy.London-based Helios Investment Partners has raised the first $1bn-plus Africa-focused private equity fund, the Financial Times reports. "The record size of the fund signals the growing appetite for a continent that until a few years ago had been largely ignored by global investors," the paper said.Oil companies in the UK will be offered tax breaks by chancellor George Osborne in the wake of a collapse in the price of crude, The Telegraph says. However, the industry is concerned that the help will not be good enough, and Oil & Gas UK has called for a tax cut of as much as 30% and an overhaul of the current tax system.