Monday newspaper round-up: Wellstream, BHP Billiton, Whitbread...

13th Dec 2010 06:26

Millions of families are struggling to pay their bills ? and the number is likely to increase in the new year, according to analysis from the Bank of England. The report published today shows that two fifths of households have difficulty from time to time or constantly in meeting their monthly bills, compared with a third last year, and more than half regard their overdrafts or credit cards as a burden, the Times reports.More than three years after the start of the credit crunch, the Bank of England warns today that a lack of available credit "continues to be one of the main factors holding back the economic recovery". Writing in the Bank's latest Quarterly Bulletin, officials also repeat warnings about the size and concentration of Britain's banking sector, the Independent adds.General Electric is poised to seal a £755m-plus takeover of Wellstream, the UK oil and gas services group, as part of an aggressive expansion into energy services. The deal could be announced as early as Monday. Wellstream has twice rebuffed the US conglomerate, but the two sides are understood to have come to an agreement on price in recent days. Its third offer is understood to be substantially higher than 750p a share but less than 800p, the FT reports.Home sellers slashed their asking prices by nearly £7,000 this month as they struggled to attract the attention of picky buyers, according to figures published today by the Rightmove property website. The 3% drop in December came after a 3.2% fall in November, dragging the average asking price for a home in England and Wales to £222,210 ? 6.5% down on where it stood in June, the Times reports.The US property tycoon stalking Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) yesterday offered to pay for the group's bitterly contested purchase of the Trafford Centre from rival mogul John Whittaker. In a letter to Capital chairman Patrick Burgess, David Simon, chairman and chief executive of US Mall owner Simon Property, said his company was prepared to subscribe to a sale of up to 205.5m of Capital Shopping shares priced at 400p each to fund the £1.6bn Trafford deal, the Independent reports.Lord Myners, City minister in the last government and a key figure in the financial bail-outs at the height of the global crisis, has called for a break-up of Britain's biggest banks. Writing in Monday's Financial Times, he argues that the future of the industry "lies in less monolithic institutions" and urges the Commission on Banking, appointed by the incoming coalition government in the summer, to focus on boosting competition. "The banking commission must give proper consideration to splitting one or both of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland."Miner BHP Billiton lobbied the Australian government intensively, as it tried to wreck a $19.5bn (£12.3bn) investment by Aluminium Corp of China (Chinalco) in arch rival Rio Tinto, according to a US government cable released by Wikileaks. The leaked cables, which were published in The Sydney Morning Herald over the weekend, showed that BHP was concerned that the investment would give China insight into commercially important information. It was also claimed that BHP, the world's largest miner, had played the situation well, the Telegraph reports.Whitbread's new chief executive is expected to scotch speculation tomorrow that he might spin off the Costa coffee shop chain by declaring his determination to continue to expand around the world. Andy Harrison, who took over from Alan Parker at the end of last month, is tipped to use a scheduled trading update to outline the global potential of the Costa brand, arguing that there are no disadvantages to owning both coffee shops and budget hotels, the Times reports.Sports Direct is expected to reveal this week a bumper bonus share scheme for about 2,000 full-time staff for the two years to 2013, alongside a rise in its half-year profits. Under its current two-year scheme, the sportswear retailer will award eligible staff shares equal to 75% of their base salary if - as forecast - it hits profit targets for the 12 months to April 2011, the Independent reports.David Cameron hopes to inject private sector discipline into Whitehall by appointing some of Britain's top business leaders to new corporate-style boards for government departments. The chief executives of GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica are among the new non-executive directors due to be announced this week. Andrew Witty of GSK has agreed to be the lead external director for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills while Sam Laidlaw of Centrica will take the same role at the Department for Transport, the Times reports.Frozen food retailer Iceland could become the subject of a bidding war after investors from the Middle East began talks to acquire the business for up to £1.5bn. A consortium of Gulf investors headed by the Global Banking Corporation of Bahrain is said to be in talks with representatives looking after the assets of two collapsed Icelandic banks, Landsbanki and Glitnir, which held 76% of Iceland Foods. The banks' assets are being overseen by the Icelandic government since they called in administrators, the Telegraph reports.The chances of the euro breaking apart or disintegrating completely have been put at "one-in-five" by one of the UK's leading economics consultancies. In a research paper published today, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) claims that keeping "the euro alive will require cuts in living standards greater than the UK faced in the Second World War" for weaker eurozone members, the Telegraph reports.