Sunday newspaper round-up: ENRC, RBS, Lloyds

18th Oct 2009 12:17

Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), the Ftse 100 metals and mining giant, is planning to buy out its founders' African assets in a potentially controversial deal. The deal, which has not been valued but could be worth more than $2bn (£1.2bn), would be paid entirely or mostly in shares rather than cash, says the Independent on Sunday.The state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to hand out record bonuses of up to £5m each in a snub to struggling taxpayers. The average employee in its high-risk investment banking arm is likely to take home £240,000, with the top 20 staff in line for payments of between £1m and £5m, writes the Sunday Telegraph.Short-selling in Lloyds Banking Group doubled last week in a sign that traders and hedge funds expect shares in the 43.5pc state-owned bank to collapse when it launches a £25bn fund-raising in order to escape the Government's asset protection scheme, reports the Sunday Telegraph.Billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam and present and former executives of Bear Stearns, IBM, Intel and McKinsey were charged on Friday in an alleged insider trading scheme that US prosecutors called the biggest ever involving hedge funds, according to the FT.Barclays is on track to post record profits of more than £10 billion for 2009, triggering multi-million pound bonuses for dozens of traders and executives. Bob Diamond, the president of Barclays who was paid more than £20m in 2007, is believed to be in line for a huge payout for leading the bank's acquisition of Lehman Brothers' operations in the US, says the Sunday Times.Yell is set to find out by Monday whether or not enough of its lenders have approved plans to restructure its £3.8bn ($6.2bn) in debts. The publisher of the UK Yellow Pages needs 95 per cent of its lenders to approve a package of measures aimed at changing its lending terms, including rescheduling debt repayments in exchange for increased interest payments, writes the FT.UBS, the investment bank, is believed to be ready to present bosses at JP Morgan with a valuation of Cazenove, the blue-blooded bank with which it enjoys a 50-50 joint venture called JPMorgan Cazenove. Both Cazenove and JP Morgan Cazenove are led by chairman David Mayhew, reports the Independent on Sunday.Google, the internet giant, has lifted alleged search engine penalties on an online betting group that could be worth millions of pounds to the business. Media Corp, for reasons chief executive Justin Drummond claims he has never fully understood, saw one of the firms in its portfolio, gambling.com, drop in 2007 from the top spot to around 100th when users searched for the term "gambling", according to the Independent on Sunday.In a radical review of the mortgage market, the Financial Services Authority will launch plans to tighten up regulation and crack down on risky lending as part of reforms that will slow house price growth for a generation, says the Sunday Telegraph.A summer forecast that the pound would continue to rally for the next 12 months made by Barclays' top foreign exchange expert, has been cited as the primary reason for two travel companies entering administration, writes the Independent on Sunday.The Sunday Telegraph adds that the pound will be stuck at near-parity against the euro for up to four years, according to a report from Ernst and Young Item Club.A bitter feud is unfolding in the US over BAE Systems' loss of a big arms contract, amid claims of "improper contact" with US defence officials in a bid to get the decision reversed. The dispute follows the award of a $3bn (£1.8bn) order for army trucks to one of BAE's rivals, placing a question mark over the long-term future of the company's Texas factory, its biggest outside Britain, reports the Independent on Sunday.A £5.5bn planning application, the largest ever in central London, will be made tomorrow when Ireland's Real Estate Opportunities and Treasury Holdings reveal their blueprint for the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station, according to the Sunday Telegraph.ITV has approached new headhunters to replace Russell Reynolds as the troubled television company steps up its search for a new chief executive and chairman to replace its outgoing boss, Michael Grade, says the Independent on Sunday.John Lovering is expected to announce this week that he will stand down as chairman of Debenhams next year, triggering a boardroom shake-up at the department-store chain, writes the Sunday Times.