Sunday newspaper round-up: Shell, Goldman Sachs, LSE

20th Dec 2009 11:15

Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant, has launched a shake-up of its controversial operations in Nigeria by offering oilfields valued at up to $5bn (£3.1bn) for sale. The auction comes as Nigeria prepares to impose harsher terms on foreign operators next month and hand greater control to domestic firms, the Sunday Times reports.Goldman Sachs has threatened the UK Treasury with plans to move up to 20% of its London-based staff to Spain in a standoff over tax and bonuses. It's believed that the Wall Street investment bank, which paid more than £2bn to the Exchequer's ailing coffers in corporation tax alone last year, has fired a warning shot across the Government's bows in response to the tax measures unveiled in the pre-Budget report earlier this month, the Sunday Independent reports.Europe's biggest banks may have to raise as much as £400bn over the next two years to meet stringent new capital rules being imposed on the sector, according to banking sources. A sweeping overhaul of international banking regulation proposed last week by the Basel committee of global bank supervisors called for banks to hold more cash in reserve to prevent future crises, the Sunday Times reports.London Stock Exchange is poised to announce it has finally agreed a deal to take control of Turquoise, the loss-making trading platform set up by the world's leading investment banks. Sources close to the deal say the exchange will announce as early as tomorrow morning that it is to become majority owner of the platform, barring an improbable breakdown in negotiations over final details. It will take a stake close to 60% in Turquoise as part of an agreement that involves the LSE making an initial investment in the business of some £20m, the Sunday Telegraph understands.Russian billionaires Andrey Melnichenko and Sergey Popov have resurrected plans for a $9bn listing of Suek, the world's fifth-biggest coal exporter, on the London Stock Exchange. The move, planned for the first half of 2010, will kick off a series of mining listings in London, which will also include Ncondezi, a Mozambique venture, the Sunday Independent reports.Apollo, the American private equity firm, is working on an audacious eleventh-hour plan to take over Gala Coral, the bookmaker and bingo club group, through a financial restructuring. It has submitted a proposal to the board under which it would pay £250m in exchange for 50% of the shares in the company, the Sunday Times reports.Annual ticket sales at British cinemas will crash through the £1bn mark for the first time thanks to a slew of blockbuster releases. The milestone will be reached today, helped in part by the release of the new 3D film Avatar. Last weekend aggregate sales for 2009 stood at £985m. Rising ticket prices are one factor behind reaching the figure, but cinema executives claim the main reason is higher attendance. Last year box-office takings stood at £950m, the Sunday Times reports.The Government's pledge to direct £900m of defence spending into better equipment for Afghanistan will be tested next month when it announces the replacement for the controversial Snatch Land Rover. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is understood to be choosing between four vehicles, and industry experts say the contract could be worth up to £300m, with each vehicle likely to cost in the range of between £600,000 and £750,000 when all the necessary kit is added, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Citigroup is lining up buyers for EMI, the troubled music group, in an attempt to apply pressure on its owner, Guy Hands, to sell the company and allow the bank to recoup some of the £2.6bn in loans it extended to finance the £4bn EMI takeover in 2007. This is the latest twist in a bitter wrangle between the US bank and Hands, who is suing Citigroup in the US courts for its role in the auction of EMI, whose artists include Coldplay and the Beatles, the Observer reports.HSBC plans to become the first international company to list on the Shanghai stock exchange by launching a £5bn share offer to Chinese investors in a move that is rich in symbolism. The listing underlines the importance of China to HSBC's growth as well as demonstrating how the centre of financial gravity is moving east. It has appointed two Chinese banks - China Citic and China International Capital Corporation - to advise it on the flotation and is set to add Goldman Sachs as the float date approaches, possibly as early as March, the Observer reports.Thomas the Tank Engine may be acquired by lenders to heavily indebted media group HIT Entertainment, whose private equity owner has been in last ditch negotiations with banks to avoid breaching its banking covenants next year. The lending banks are understood to be eyeing up a move to acquire Thomas the Tank Engine as it is the most profitable brand within HIT - which is owned by Apax Partners - as the group looks like it will struggle to meet the covenants - a test of the company's financial strength, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Figures to be released this week are set to show that the recession all but ended in the third quarter of the year, economists say. Stronger construction data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) should have boosted Britain's gross domestic product, and expectations are that the third-quarter GDP decline will be revised down to 0.1%. Some expect a flat figure. Economists are unanimous that GDP figures for the fourth quarter, out next month, will show a return to growth, the Sunday Times reports.The business publisher Euromoney Institutional Investor will next month ask shareholders to back a £30m incentive plan for its top 150 employees. The new scheme, which pays out if Euromoney raises its pre-tax profits to £100m by 2013, cements its reputation for offering some of the most generous rewards to senior staff in the industry, the Sunday Times reports.E-Clear, the credit card processing firm linked to the collapse last week of Scotland's biggest airline, Flyglobespan, is itself facing failure after being hit with a winding up order. The airline's management filed a petition in London's Companies Court for E-Clear's winding up last Wednesday, hours before Globespan entered voluntary liquidation. Globespan was believed to be owed more than £34m by E-Clear when the airline collapsed, the Sunday Independent.The Government has been forced to amend its bankers' bonus tax after admitting the original rules had accidentally targeted the wrong type of company. The climbdown is a victory for a group of leading City stockbroking firms, including Collins Stewart, Evolution Securities, Shore Capital, Numis and Cenkos, which wrote to the Revenue demanding a clarification of the tax, the Mail on Sunday reports.