Sunday newspaper round-up: Lloyds, Betfair, Johnston Press

23rd Aug 2009 12:35

Sir Win Bischoff, the incoming chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, is facing pressure to clear out the boardroom. Investors are telling him to beef up the banking experience on the board in the wake of its catastrophic takeover of HBOS, which has already claimed the scalp of outgoing chairman Sir Victor Blank, says the Sunday Times.Betfair could be in line for a £1.5bn flotation after shareholders in the world's biggest gaming exchange decided to call in bankers to discuss the group's options, writes the Sunday Telegraph.A consortium of Scottish businessmen is trying to buy The Scotsman newspaper from the debt-laden Johnston Press. Martin Gilbert, the chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, has joined forces with Edinburgh financier Ben Thomson and property developer Mark Shaw to acquire the daily, reports the Sunday Times.Meanwhile, the Independent on Sunday writes that bankers to Johnston Press are optimistic that refinancing the newspaper publisher's £500m of debt should be finalised over the next few days.The administrator to Lehman Brothers International (Europe), the London-based division of the collapsed US bank, has racked up more than £120m in fees in less than a year. Big-four accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has had up to 300 people at any one time working on one of the most complicated administrations in corporate history, according to the Independent on Sunday.The Sunday Telegraph adds that PricewaterhouseCoopers, is being sued for billions of pounds over its role as auditor to one of the feeder funds that channelled fortunes to Bernard Madoff, thus helping prop up his $65bn (£45bn) fraudulent "Ponzi scheme". Candover, the struggling private equity firm, put the final touches to a management shake-up yesterday and issued its interim results, both which it hopes will persuade investors that its recent problems, including the freezing of one of its funds, have eased, says the Independent on Sunday.A Saudi billionaire with stakes in some of Britain's biggest companies is at the centre of a multi-billion-dollar fraud that threatens to send financial shock-waves around the world, a New York judge will hear this week, writes the Sunday Telegraph. Maan Al Sanea, the boss of the Saad Group, which owns 2.9pc of HSBC and a stake in Berkeley Group, is accused of embezzling $9.2bn (£5.6bn) from one of Saudi Arabia's most powerful families, the Algosaibis, as part of a complicated and increasingly bitter legal row between the two dynasties.Vauxhall's future was hanging in the balance yesterday as the board of its embattled US parent company, GM, met to choose between the two competing buyers for its European operations. The choice - between Magna International, the Canadian car parts manufacturer, and RHJ International, a holding company of the US private equity group Ripplewood - has attracted growing controversy as Britain and Germany fight to save jobs at their countries' respective Vauxhall and Opel marques, reports the Independent on Sunday.Britain's building societies could be forced to conduct individual investigations into their mortgage books to prove they do not have financial "black holes" in the wake of the alleged £41m fraud that rocked Chelsea Building Society last week, according to the Sunday Telegraph.Britain's trade with Libya could soar following the release of the Lockerbie bomber, as the North African country embarks on a massive building programme. In the first five months of 2009, UK exports to Libya were already up by 48 per cent to £165.4m on the same period in 2008, while UK imports from Libya - mainly oil - were up 48.5 per cent on 2008 at £966m, a rise of 66 per cent on 2007, writes the Independent on Sunday.Ftse-100 energy giant Centrica is set to win its £1.3bn battle to take over Venture Production, a North Sea oil-and-gas group, reports the Independent on Sunday.The tax take has collapsed by 20% on last year ? three times as much as Alistair Darling, the chancellor, forecast in this year's budget, according to the Sunday Times.Biffa, the waste-management group that was taken private in a £1.7bn deal last year, has overhauled its expensive company-car scheme as management moves to cut costs, says the Independent on Sunday.The Financial Services Authority has awarded around a fifth of its workforce a 10pc pay rise to compensate them for the regulator's decision to close its final salary scheme to existing members, writes the Sunday Telegraph.Sir John Parker, the chairman of Anglo American, is looking to shake up the board of the mining giant by appointing new non-executive directors, reports the Independent on Sunday.Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the transport to pizza delivery entrepreneur, is set to expand easyBus after snapping up a disused factory site in London to serve as the bus company's depot, according to the Sunday Telegraph.BT has become one of the first blue-chip companies to scrap its graduate recruitment scheme, increasing fears of shrinking job opportunities for Britain's youth, says the Sunday Times.Shed Media, the independent production company behind TV hits including Supernanny and Footballers' Wives, is in talks with several private equity firms to back a buy-out of the business. Darwin Private Equity and Bowmark Capital, which used to own rival independent TV producer RDF Media, are among those private equity firms in talks with Shed's executive directors about supporting a takeover of Aim-listed award winning TV production company, writes the Sunday Telegraph.