Sunday newspaper round-up: Cadbury, Royal Bank of Scotland, Yell

13th Sep 2009 09:50

Roger Carr, the Cadbury chairman, delivered a stinging rebuke to Kraft Foods this weekend, insisting the American rival's plan to absorb the chocolate maker into its "low growth, conglomerate business" was an "unappealing" and "unattractive prospect".In a terse letter sent yesterday to Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and chief executive of Kraft, Carr dismissed the American giant's $16.7bn (£10bn) takeover offer, which was tabled last Monday, the Sunday Times reports.Deloitte, the accountancy firm, took fees of more than £30m from MG Rover and the Phoenix consortium in the five years before the Midlands carmaker collapsed. Its pivotal role in the business has been uncovered in a long-awaited government inspector's report. It also revealed that another firm, Barclays Capital, was instrumental in putting forward schemes that helped Phoenix to earn millions by exploiting MG Rover's tax losses, the Sunday Times reports.The board of J Sainsbury has picked David Tyler to become its next chairman. An official announcement is expected within the next two weeks and will bring to an end a drawn-out search to identify a successor to Sir Philip Hampton, the Sunday Times reports.The Royal Bank of Scotland is working on plans to resurrect a brand that disappeared from the high street 24 years ago as part of its response to a European state aid probe. Williams & Glyn's, which had 330 branches mostly in northwest England at the time of its demise, could be put up for sale by RBS to reduce its market share in retail and commercial banking, the SundayTimes reports.Deutsche Telekom has called in banking advisers to study a possible multi-billion dollar bid for Sprint Nextel, the third-largest mobile phone operator in the US. The company's decision to call in Deutsche Bank comes hot on the heels of the agreed tie-up of its struggling T-Mobile UK business with Orange to create Britain's biggest mobile phone firm, the Sunday Telegraph reports.The 'Big Six' energy giants will defy growing public anger and the demands of the energy regulator by refusing to cut gas prices at least until the spring, despite the fact that the UK is sitting on a glut of cheap wholesale gas. The price collapsed last week to 34p a therm, whereas this time last year it was £1. Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of industry watchdog Ofgem, has said continued high prices do not appear justified and plans to 'name and shame' the companies that refuse to adjust their tariffs to changing wholesale prices, the Mail on Sunday reports. Knight Frank has shrugged off a 66% drop in full-year profits, insisting the stricken property market is bouncing back and its business remains in rude health. The upmarket estate agent, which sold Compton Bassett House in Wiltshire for about £8.5m to the pop star Robbie Williams early this year, said house prices were stabilising and residential sales during August were up 37% on the same time last year, the Sunday Times reports.Institutional investors in Yell Group, the debt-burdened directories firm, have agreed to stake as much as £500m to revive the company on the condition that banks agree to relax lending terms. The owner of the Yellow Pages directory business has sounded out shareholders on a rights issue in the past couple of weeks and secured support in a move that the company hopes will speed up its restructuring process, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Policyholders have accused Aviva, the insurer, of employing underhand tactics ahead of a High Court hearing tomorrow seeking approval for the reattribution of its inherited orphan asset estate. Aviva is offering policyholders £500m in exchange for their rights to £1.2bn worth of estate, an amount that some, including the consumer group Which? has dubbed derisory, the Sunday Independent reports.United Company Rusal, the Russian aluminium giant run by oligarch Oleg Deripaska, is planning to list in Hong Kong by December in a huge blow to the London Stock Exchange. Mining sector sources said that the partial float, which would list between 10 and 20% of the company's shares, could value Rusal at $20-30bn, the Sunday Independent reports. Travelport, the privately owned $2.5bn (£1.5bn) travel group, has arranged a beauty parade of banks in early October ahead of a London Stock Exchange flotation. It is understood that a series of leading investment banks, including Morgan Stanley Citi and Credit Suisse, will pitch to arrange the listing over two-to-three days in London, the Sunday Independent reports. Cable & Wireless has opened a fresh offensive in its battle in the Caribbean with telecoms tycoon Denis O'Brien by launching a $44m (£26m) lawsuit against his Digicel mobile-phone empire. C&W alleges Digicel has overcharged its Jamaican division for six years after switching the amount it charged to connect callers to its network from a per-second rate to per-minute in 2003, the Sunday Times reports. The London Stock Exchange is expected to announce the acquisition of MillenniumIT, a trading platform software company, as early as this week in a deal worth more than £50m. The LSE had been expected to buy a replacement for TradElect, its outdated trading system, but the stock exchange's decision to buy an entire software company is likely to take many in the City by surprise, the Sunday Telegraph reports. The Russians have unveiled bold ambitions to break into the British nuclear market in a move that could revive nervousness about the Kremlin's use of energy as a political weapon. State-owned Atomenergoprom has already signed a joint venture with Toshiba, whose Westinghouse subsidiary manages the UK's main nuclear fuel manufacturing plant at Springfields in Lancashire. It is in talks about a similar arrangement with Siemens, which wants to become a significant supplier to a new generation of reactors in this country, the Observer writes.John Lewis is trialling a new "click and collect" service which could allow shoppers to order goods from the store's website and pick them up at any of sister company Waitrose's 213 supermarkets. Click and collect services, where goods are ordered online and picked up from a store, are internet retailers' fastest-growing trend. Argos last week reported its Click & Reserve service was up 50% on last year, the Observer reports.