Sunday newspaper round-up: United Biscuits, HSBC, BAA...

26th Sep 2010 11:36

One of China's biggest food companies is in secret talks about a multi-billion-pound takeover of United Biscuits, the British food group behind McVitie's biscuits, Jaffa Cakes and Twiglets.Shanghai-based Bright Food has pre-empted a planned auction and is in exclusive discussions about a deal expected to value United Biscuits at more than £2bn. Its audacious move is a blow to the ambitions of several western food groups that had their eye on United Biscuits, including America's Campbell Soup, the Sunday Times reports.Michael Geoghegan, the chief executive of HSBC pushed out after a power struggle at the bank, could leave with a payout eventually worth up to £23m. The award ? which is highly conditional on the company's performance, and could be much lower ? comes from a combination of salary, bonus and long-term share awards. Geoghegan, 56, has in the past given his bonus payments to charity, including a £4m payout this year, the Sunday Times reports.Michael Geoghegan, the outgoing chief executive of HSBC, was told over dinner in London's Goring Hotel 10 days ago that he was not to be the new chairman. But, contrary to damaging press reports Mr Geoghegan neither threatened to resign unless he got the promotion nor did he "throw his toys out of the pram", the Sunday Independent reports.The City headquarters of Goldman Sachs's European operation has been seized by a consortium of banks in one of the largest property collapses since the financial crisis began. Peterborough Court and Daniel House on Fleet Street, the American investment bank's home for nearly 20 years, have been taken into receivership after their owner defaulted on a loan. Goldman's landlord is Antedon, a property investment firm understood to be registered in Jersey. It paid £355m for the complex at the top of the market in spring 2007, th Sunday Times reports.A consortium of City financiers plans to open a bank that lends exclusively to small firms. The British Enterprise Bank (BEB), which hopes to start trading early next year, will take deposits from the public and lend only to small and medium-sized businesses. Jono Shorrock, a former senior banker at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, is among a team of bankers, hedge fund managers and entrepreneurs backing the venture. "The plan is to build a bank that will actually lend to small, viable companies," Shorrock said, the Sunday Times reports.Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman of BAA, has admitted for the first time that Heathrow is now a "second tier" world airport as a result of the Government's decision not to grant a third runway to the UK's busiest airport. The airport chief said that the UK risked becoming "less competitive" as a result of the decision, one of the first made by the coalition Government after it came to power in May, the Sunday Telegraph reports.David Ross, the Conservative party donor and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, is on the brink of breaking-up his retail property empire. The businessman is being advised by Jones Lang LaSalle, the property agent, on the strategic options for Kandahar Group, which include a sale of the whole group valued at around £440m, or a £230m sale of its biggest asset, Drake Circus, a shopping centre in Plymouth, teh Sunday Telegraph reports.Royal Bank of Scotland is ready to take control of Liverpool Football Club by putting its parent company, Kop Holdings, into administration. It is one of several options being studied by RBS's toxic loan division, the unit given responsibility for the taxpayer-owned bank's £230m loan to the financially troubled club. The terms of the loan give RBS the right to take control in a few weeks' time. City sources said that a move on Kop Holdings would allow RBS to take over at Liverpool ? displacing the American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett ? without the club incurring penalties under football league rules, the Sunday Times reports.