Sunday newspaper round-up: Cadbury, ITV, Legal & General

27th Sep 2009 19:14

Kraft Foods is poised to launch a hostile bid for Cadbury valuing the British confectionery business at around £11bn, says the Observer.Cadbury is proposing to shrink the size of its chocolate bars to disguise price rises it will be forced to make next year because of high cocoa costs. The move will boost the firm's projected profits, as it fights a £10bn bid from Kraft Foods, says the Independent on Sunday.The Sunday Times says Irene Rosenfeld, the chairman and chief executive of Kraft Foods, has launched a stinging attack on Cadbury this weekend.The board of ITV has this weekend begun urgent talks with Sir Crispin Davis, the former boss of Reed Elsevier, and Sir Michael Bishop, the airline entrepreneur who chaired Channel 4, in an attempt to accelerate the appointment of a new chairman at the crisis-ridden broadcaster, says the Sunday Times.Leading shareholders in ITV are moving to block the appointment of Sir Crispin Davis as chairman of the troubled broadcaster, according to the Sunday Telegraph.Legal & General has prepared a defence document to ward off an unwanted takeover approach from Clive Cowdery's Resolution vehicle, says the Sunday TelegraphFashion retailer New Look is drawing up plans for a £1.7bn-plus stock market float, according to the Sunday Telegraph.Directors of Rusal, the aluminium giant controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, are this week expected to approve a flotation valuing it at $30 billion (£19 billion). The deal will be one of the biggest floats of the year and, in a snub to the London Stock Exchange, will take place in Hong Kong, according to the Sunday Times.Marks & Spencer will report improved summer trading this week. More resilient retail sales, a better food performance and the weakness of recession-struck suppliers are behind what is expected to be an up-beat statement, says the Independent on SundayBarclays is days away from agreeing a deal to buy Citigroup's credit card business in Portugal, in the first phase of a European shopping spree by the bank, reports the Sunday Times.Anglo-Australian mining conglomerate BHP Billiton lent former chief executive Charles "Chip" Goodyear $1.3m (£811,000) to settle a tax dispute with the Inland Revenue, says the Sunday Telegraph.The founder of Fitness First, the world's largest gym chain, has quit the company after a row with the main shareholder over strategy, according to the Sunday Times.Outdoor retail specialist Blacks Leisure plans to put itself through a company voluntary arrangement in an attempt to secure its survival, reports the Sunday Times.Greg Hutchings one of the early symbols of executive excess, will today launch a website for disgruntled shareholders of Lupus Capital as part of a campaign to win support for yet another City comeback, says the Observer.Fears for the future of Britain's Aston Martin car brand were heightened after the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund that owns half of the luxury carmaker admitted it was struggling to refinance its debt, according to the Observer.Magna's takeover of Opel and Vauxhall could be threatened amid mounting criticism from across Europe, according to sources close to the negotiations., reports the Sunday Telegraph.Raw cotton prices are set to soar by 20 per cent, according to industry experts, hurting margins at the world's leading clothing retailers, according to the Sunday Times.A glut of high scoring games and favourites winning in the Premiership has set the gambling industry on one of its worst runs of luck in living memory, reports the Sunday Telegraph.Conservative Party fundraisers have raised nearly half of the £18m needed for the election "fighting" fund after a big upsurge of support from businessmen and City financiers, says the Independent on SundayLord Mandelson is to unveil investment packages for key areas of British industry as the cornerstone of Labour's economic policies in an attempt to secure the business debate ahead of the general election, says the Sunday Telegraph.Buy-to-let mortgages could be regulated for the first time along with second charges secured on homes under proposals to be published next month by the Financial Services Authority, reports the Independent on Sunday.London-based liquidators have been appointed to break up part of the Saad Group, the powerful Saudi conglomerate, in a restructuring that involves more than 100 global banks, says the Sunday Telegraph.