Sunday newspaper round-up: M&S, HSBC, Prudential

28th Feb 2010 11:23

Shareholders in Marks & Spencer are preparing for a fresh showdown with the retail giant over the £1.13m pay package of Sir Stuart Rose, the executive chairman. Institutional investors want M&S to slash Rose's annual salary when Marc Bolland, the new chief executive, joins in May. One big shareholder in M&S, who did not wish to be named, said that Rose's pay should be cut by at least 20%, the Sunday Times reports.The chief executive of HSBC is to take a bonus of £4m and donate it to charity. Michael Geoghegan will be the first chief executive of one of the UK's "big five" banks to agree to accept a bonus.HSBC officials hope that by saying he is giving it away immediately, he will avoid attacks by politicians and pressure groups. It is believed that the charity will be one connected to his wife Jania, who supports educational foundations around the world, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Prudential, Britain's biggest insurer, is plotting a £15bn takeover bid for the Asian assets of its troubled American rival AIG. Tidjane Thiam, the Pru's chief executive, is in New York this weekend putting a proposal to the AIG board. The Pru would issue new shares to fund the deal in what would be one of the largest ever such fundraisings by a British company, the Sunday Times reports. Thiam has just weeks to clinch a deal. AIG's Asian business is due to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange next month, with a group of eight investment banks lined up to handle the listing. Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB agent turned media mogul, will this week pay a token £1 to take control of The Independent ? the same price as buying one copy of the paper from the newsstand. But he will pledge to invest millions in the loss-making title and the Independent on Sunday over five years. The final hurdle to a sale is close to being overcome this weekend after Independent News & Media agreed to take part of the pain of a 10-year printing deal with rival publisher Trinity Mirror, the Sunday Times reports. The Serious Fraud Office has begun a formal investigation into the collapse of Aero Inventory, the aircraft components group. The AIM-listed company, which supplied airlines with everything from drinks trolleys to air-conditioning filters, was worth £140m when it filed for administration late last year. A senior source said the SFO had received a number of allegations regarding the company and believed there was sufficient information to examine whether there had been any wrongdoing, the Sunday Times reports.British companies spearheading the drive to exploit the Canadian tar sands will come under renewed assault this week from an increasingly vocal group of shareholders and environmentalists who are planning to turn the forthcoming BP, Shell and Royal Bank of Scotland annual meetings into a referendum on these controversial operations. The Co-operative and the Fair Pensions lobby group are releasing a special briefing paper designed to counter recent statements by the oil companies that sought to justify their involvement in carbon-intensive oil extraction in Alberta on the basis that it was needed to meet rising oil demand, the Observer reports.The picture is improving at ITV, which will report this week that advertising income is on track to leap by 18% in April. The bounce-back at the broadcaster of shows such as Married Single Other will surprise some shareholders, who have a gloomy long-term view of the group's prospects. It comes after an estimated 8% rise in advertising in the first quarter of the year across all its channels ? and 6% at its flagship station ITV1 ? as banks and carmakers start advertising again. The figures are flattered by the company's weak performance last year, the Sunday Times reports.Luke Johnson, the former Channel 4 chairman, has called for ITV to sell off its production business so that the troubled broadcaster is better prepared to survive another economic downturn. As the broadcaster prepares to reveal a rapid rise in earnings this week, Mr Johnson, who stepped down from the Channel 4 role last month, said ITV "should think about selling off production". Mr Johnson said that although ITV's short-term advertising numbers are expected to be positive, reflected this week in the first full-year results delivered by new chairman Archie Norman, there were concerns about whether it could weather future storms, the Sunday Telegraph reports.A board of City heavyweights including Stanley Fink, the "godfather of hedge funds", has been recruited to turn the commodities firm Marex Financial into a global powerhouse. JRJ Group, the investment firm started by Jeremy Isaacs, previously European head of Lehman Brothers, and Roger Nagioff, another former Lehman executive, bought a 74% stake in Marex in December, the Sunday Times reports.AIM-Listed oil and gas company PetroNeft Resources has alerted authorities after details of its operations and directors appeared on a website and in a prospectus for a bogus company whose 'shares' are being marketed in a suspected boiler-room fraud, the Mail on Sunday reports.America's top bankers quashed attempts by their British counterparts to persuade the industry to bring down salaries in response to public outrage after the world's governments spent billions rescuing the system. Chief executives from the world's banks discussed the plans at a secret dinner held at Claridge's, the London hotel, last October, at which several leading British bankers are said to have suggested that the sector should take greater responsibility for its part in the crash, and do more to reduce the vast bonuses paid to staff, the Sunday Independent reports.