Sunday newspaper round-up: Lloyds Banking, RSA, Yell

30th Aug 2009 11:07

The Lloyds Banking is offering the sale of two regional branch networks to address concerns by the European Commission over state aid and market share. The British bank has offered to sell the Scottish branches of Lloyds TSB and the Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) network. This would affect some 340 branches out of Lloyds's total network of 3,000, says the Sunday Times.RSA, one of Britain's largest insurance groups, is considering launching a rights issue of up to $1bn (£614m) to take advantage of stronger market conditions and boost its financial position, reports the Sunday Telegraph.Yell, the Ftse-250 directories group, is thought to be plotting a £350m rights issue by the end of the year to curb its massive debt burden, writes the Independent on Sunday.Administrators of the London arm of Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street bank that collapsed a year ago, are preparing a $100 billion (£61.5 billion) claim against its former parent company in America, according to the Sunday Times.Investors are expected to clash with DSG and HMV managements this week as they pitch contentious pay plans at their annual meetings. Shareholders in DSG will be asked to sign off on a share option scheme that would enable employees to sacrifice up to 25 per cent of their salaries in exchange for options worth £3 for every £1 they contribute. And Pirc, the corporate governance group, has advised HMV shareholders to oppose proposed pay levels, says the Independent on Sunday.China Investment Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund of China, has joined a consortium to help bail out the majority owner of Canary Wharf, which was facing a potential breach of an £880m ($1.3bn) loan, writes the FT.SpinVox, the UK's troubled voice-to-text technology group, is being eyed by Nuance, an American speech-recognition software group, reports the Independent on Sunday.The Financial Service Authority is beefing up its policing of senior City appointments by hunting for a top banker to join its enforcement team, according to the Sunday Times.LonZim, the Aim-listed spin-off of pan-African conglomerate Lonrho, is mulling a secondary listing on the resurgent Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, says the Independent on Sunday.Britain's leading pension fund body has hit out at excessive fees and a lack of competition among investment banks underwriting share issues, in the latest blow to the banking industry. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has suggested the fees charged by banks are not a fair reflection of the risks they take, while also questioning whether there is true competition in the market, writes the Sunday Telegraph.The insurer Royal Liver looks set to fail in its attempt to sell its troubled financial advisory business, Park Row, with interest in the sale waning, reports the Independent on Sunday.The new owners at BMI British Midland have begun a management shake-up at the airline with the departure of two senior executives. Staff were told last week that Peter Spencer, managing director of BMI Mainline, the division that includes all flights out of Heathrow, and Martyn Bridger, the division's commercial director, were leaving. Lufthansa, the German airline, took control of BMI last month, says the Sunday Times.Crossrail, the proposed £16bn Heathrow-to-Essex rail link, could be saved by the specialist bank set up by the Treasury to bail out the beleaguered private finance initiative (PFI), according to the Independent on Sunday.Insurance tycoon Peter Cullum, the executive chairman of Towergate, is believed to have personally lost £17m in the pre-pack administration of his company's financial services arm earlier in the year, says the Independent on Sunday.Inverstment banks that typically pay bonuses in April and May are considering paying out earlier next year so that employees can avoid the 10% rise in income tax, applicable to those earning more than £150,000, that comes into force on April 5, reports the Sunday Times.Sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation (CIC) and investment house Fidelity are among six parties ready to loan Glencore up to $1.5bn (£900m) in exchange for stakes in the world's biggest commodity trader, writes the Independent on Sunday.The boss of BT Global Services in the UK has become the latest victim of the company's purge of senior managers, after the disastrous IT services division dragged the telecoms company to its second ever full-year loss, says the Sunday Telegraph.