Monday newspaper round-up: Unilever, LSE, Greece

4th Jul 2011 06:15

Unilever hopes that the promise of a real job from the outset will prove more attractive than an investment bank's pay package in luring top MBA graduates. The maker of Magnum ice cream and Dove soap plans to quadruple the number of workers it hires with the qualification in the next two years to support its continuing drive into emerging markets and to meet its goal of doubling sales, reports the Times.The London Stock Exchange would be open to considering a merger of equals with Nasdaq OMX, the US exchange operator, in the first sign that the British bourse could yet turn its attention to securing its future in another big merger after its attempted tie-up with Canada's TMX Group collapsed. Nasdaq's chief executive, Bob Greifeld, is considering an approach for the LSE but people familiar with the matter said advisers were not yet formally involved. Nor had Mr Greifeld spoken with his counterpart at the LSE, Xavier Rolet, reports the Financial Times.Greece must privatise assets on a scale similar to the sell-off of East German companies at the fall of the Berlin Wall to rebuild its finances, the chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers said on Sunday. "The sovereignty of Greece will be massively limited," Jean-Claude Juncker, who is also prime minister of Luxembourg, told Germany's Focus magazine, according to the Telegraph.The Port of Dover has revealed ambitious plans to expand into the Asian port market ? if it can persuade the Government to privatise it. The Dover executive also believes that, if released from public ownership, it can expand into regional airports and rail, the Times says.Britain's desire to boost investment and competition in the energy sector will be threatened if German utility group RWE presses ahead with a £5bn sale of npower, MPs have warned. Goldman Sachs is understood to have been hired by RWE to conduct a strategic review of npower, one of the UK's "big six" energy firms, says the Telegraph.Britain's financial services sector is the latest part of the economy to see the pace of the recovery slow, new data suggests today, with the rate at which volumes of new business are growing declining markedly. The warning, from the Confederation of British Industry, will add to growing nervousness that the recovery across the economy is stalling, following poor data from the services and manufacturing sectors over the past week, as well as the ongoing slump among consumer-facing businesses such as retailers, reports the Independent.The possibility of a further huge injection of money to underpin the economy will be discussed by policymakers at the Bank of England this week, pushing back until deep into next year the prospect of any rise in interest rates from their all-time low of 0.5%. A further £50bn in "quantitative easing", colloquially termed "QE" or "printing money", could be announced by the Bank as early as this week, though many commentators think they will postpone a move until the picture becomes clearer still, according to the Independent.The Labour Party has added to the pressure on David Cameron over the controversial decision to award a £3bn train contract to Siemens of Germany, warning the choice to send the work abroad could affect up to 20,000 UK jobs and demanding a full review of the way the selection was made. In a letter sent to the prime minister at the weekend, shadow business secretary John Denham and his transport counterpart Maria Eagle said awarding the Thameslink trains deal to Siemens rather than the Bombardier factory in Derby "dealt a body-blow to British manufacturing," reports the Guardian.The new City watchdog is to summon bank chief executives to warn them that they will be held personally accountable for any misconduct. Margaret Cole, interim boss of the Financial Conduct Authority, said it was one of her immediate priorities to make sure fair treatment of customers was seen as a boardroom issue, reports the Daily Mail.A leading supplier of water coolers is heading towards one of the biggest Aim floats of the year. Waterlogic has raised £48m through a placing that was more than two times oversubscribed. Advised by Liberum Capital, it will join the market next Monday with a market value of £112m, reports the Daily Express.