Sunday newspaper round-up: Lloyds Banking, Anglo American, Marston's

28th Jun 2009 10:45

Lord Davies, the former Standard Chartered chief and now Trade minister, has been offered the chairmanship of Lloyds Banking Group but will turn the job down.The peer's decision to decline the job will be a blow to John Kingman, head of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body which owns the Government's 43% stake in Lloyds, who has been assiduously courting Lord Davies over the past few weeks, the Sunday Independent reports.A clutch of senior City figures have been approached to become the chairman of Anglo American, the mining group that last week received a £40bn merger approach from rival Xstrata. Jim Leng, who recently stepped down as chairman of Rio Tinto after a board row, has been put forward as a potential candidate to succeed Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, who has already announced his intention to step back. Sir John Parker, chairman of National Grid, has also been sounded out, the Sunday Times reports.Meanwhile, Anglo American is this weekend building its defences against a £41bn merger approach from Xstrata by plotting talks about a major Chinese investment and reigniting efforts to parachute Sir John Parker in as its new chairman, adds the Telegraph. Anglo, which last week rebuffed a proposal from Xstrata to consider a merger of equals, is to open talks with Chinalco, the state-owned Chinese aluminium producer, and at least one unidentified Middle Eastern investor about a partnership that could see it inject hundreds of millions of dollars into MMX, Anglo's Brazilian iron ore business.Britain's supermarkets are using the property crash to seize sites for new stores in a land grab that could redefine the retail sector for years to come. The move will consolidate the supermarkets' stranglehold over the retail sector and alarm MPs, small businesses and green groups. Tesco and Asda, the biggest retailers, are committed to opening 2.5m sq ft of new space this year, while Sainsbury's wants to add 2.5m sq ft - 15% of its floorspace - by March 2011. Morrisons is on track to open 1m sq ft by January 2011, the Observer reports.Volkswagen has delivered Porsche an ultimatum to accept a tie-up between the two car makers in a deal that would be backed by the Qatar Investment Authority. Porsche hit out at its rival yesterday after Volkswagen issued a June 29 deadline for the luxury car maker to agree to a merger plan, the Sunday Telegraph writes.City benefactors have donated millions of pounds to the Conservative Party since the start of the year as the party prepares for a general election. The growing support from City donors was demonstrated last week with more than £500,000 raised at the Conservative Party Summer Fundraiser at Old Billingsgate, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Marks & Spencer is facing an investor rebellion at its annual meeting on Wednesday with about 20% of shareholders planning to back a resolution that could block Sir Stuart Rose from occupying the retailer's chair. Its board caused a furore last year when it promoted Rose to executive chairman, the Observer reports. City bankers are forecasting a bumper $20bn (£12bn) of stock-market floats in the next two years as hopes of a recovery trigger a renewed bout of fundraising.Morgan Stanley predicts 35 to 40 companies could float in Europe in the next two years. Household names including Birds Eye Iglo, the frozen-food firm that makes fish fingers, and Acromas, the combined AA motoring and Saga overfifties group, are seen as prime candidates for a return to the public markets, the Sunday Times reports.The Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov has written to the board of Arsenal football club, saying he is prepared to underwrite a £100m rights issue. Usmanov, who is the second-biggest investor in the Premier League club and is being advised by Lazard investment bank, has made it clear he wants to work with the board. His intention is to help address Arsenal's debts and provide extra firepower during the summer transfer window, the Sunday Times reports.Marstons, the listed pubs group that is looking to tap investors for £176m, is facing a rebellion from leading shareholders over a rights issue some have dubbed "totally ridiculous". Ralph Findlay, the chief executive, announced plans earlier this month for the capital raising, which he said would fund and accelerate growth at the Midland's-based brewer. One leading shareholder said: "We do not believe this is necessary. Even after we suffer massive dilution the company is still going to be highly geared. It's ridiculous. The rational for this rights issue is spurious," reports the Sunday Independent.Doughty Hanson lost €100m (£85m) when Irish sports broadcaster Setanta collapsed last week in a rare setback for the private equity group that was once owned by Standard Chartered bank. Setanta's UK operations were put into administration after a week of talks failed to drum up the funding needed to keep the company afloat, the Observer reports.BSkyB faces a formidable legal hurdle in its battle to prevent a plan by media regulator Ofcom to force it to offer its premium football and film channels to other broadcasters at a huge discount. While an appeal continues, the remedy proposed by Ofcom must be put in place unless BSkyB can show, 'as a matter of urgency', that it is causing 'serious and irreparable' harm to the company, the Mail On Sunday reports.Alistair Darling's proposed reforms of banking regulation, to be published next month, will retain a significant role for the Treasury in financial supervision. His proposals will be seen by some as a further sign of tension between the Treasury and the Bank of England. Both the Bank and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have called for new tools to be made available for policing the banks, the Sunday Times writes.The Mail On Sunday adds that Alistair Darling has been forced to delay this week's release of his banking reforms after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King declared he had not been told what changes were planned by the Government. King's comments to the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday stunned MPs and were seen as clear evidence of a collapse of trust between the Bank and the Chancellor. Executives from Britain's top companies will warn the Big Six utilities next week that draconian contract terms, imposed to insulate them against the failure of business clients, will lead to further job losses unless they are urgently reformed.The Major Energy Users' Council (MEUC), a cross-industry group that includes the likes of Tesco, Rolls-Royce, BT and the NHS, has convened a crisis meeting for Tuesday in the Guildhall to address the issue, the Sunday Times reports.