Thursday newspaper round-up: Greek bailout, Pandora, Northern Rock

16th Jun 2011 06:06

Britain is under pressure to commit hundreds of millions of pounds to a second bailout for Greece after another day of violent protest in Athens. With the €110bn (£96bn) package agreed last year set to run out, Germany is leading calls for the entire EU, not just the 17 eurozone countries, to contribute to a rescue fund, the Times reports.Pandora Media joined the ranks of unprofitable internet businesses with vast valuations yesterday when its shares soared on their market debut. Within minutes of 14.7m shares going on sale in New York at $16, they touched $26 before closing at $17.42, up nearly 9 per cent on the day, giving the company a market capitalisation of $2.78bn, according to the Times.Northern Rock is to be sold rather than remutualised or floated on the stock market, the Chancellor has confirmed. The deal is expected to value the nationalised lender at about £1bn, meaning the sale is likely to result in a short-term loss for the taxpayer, which was forced into a £1.4bn rescue of the failed bank, the Telegraph says.The Governor of the Bank of England last night warned European officials not to water down new bank safety rules or prevent the UK from imposing tougher measures to protect taxpayers. In his Mansion House speech, Mervyn King told the City's elite that all systemically important banks must hold more common equity capital to absorb losses in future crises - as set out in last year's Basel III agreement, reports the Independent.Game Group suffered one of the biggest shareholder revolts of the year when more than half of its investors refused to back its generous pay proposals. A staggering 51.05% either voted against or withheld their support for the video game retailer's remuneration report which gave chairman Chris Bell, the former Ladbrokes chief executive, a one-off payment of £182,500 for three months work after he stepped in to run the firm when boss Lisa Morgan was ditched, the Daily Mail reports.The Spanish owner of Zara has announced plans to expand to South Africa, Taiwan and Peru. Inditex, the world's largest fashion chain, opened 12 stores a week in the three months to the end of April and said it planned to open hundreds more as it strove to bring its "fast fashion" clothes to the world, the Guardian reports.Barclays is planning to boost revenues by up to 20% by 2013 from last year's levels in an ambitious attempt to improve returns at the bank. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, outlined on Wednesday a plan to boost revenues by up to £6.4bn ($10.3bn) by 2013 despite problems in its troubled European division and its corporate bank, reports the Financial Times.