Thursday newspaper round-up: Pensions, Rolls-Royce, BHS

19th May 2016 07:16

(ShareCast News) - The Bank of England's chief economist has admitted that the British pensions system is so complicated, even he fails to understand it, warning of the "damaging" consequences this presents for consumers as they approach retirement. Andy Haldane said he considered himself to be "moderately financially literate" yet confessed to "not being able to make the remotest sense of pensions". - Financial TimesA UK probe into suspected bribery at Rolls-Royce, the engineering group, has spread to Nigeria in the latest blow to a company already facing investigations in multiple countries. Britain's Serious Fraud Office is examining Rolls-Royce's former energy operations in the oil-rich west African state, as part of a wider inquiry that also covers Brazil, Indonesia and China, the Financial Times has learnt. - Financial TimesRent bills are likely to fall if Britain exits the EU and property will become more affordable to first-time buyers, according to the bodies that represent the UK's estate agents and landlords. The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) said that Brexit would cut levels of immigration and depress future price rises, leaving the average UK house worth £2,300 less in 2018, and £7,500 less in London. - GuardianSports Direct tycoon Mike Ashley is understood to have been outbid by rivals including the owners of Matalan and Edinburgh Woollen Mill as administrators try to secure the future of BHS. Sources said Ashley had put in a "low-ball offer" for the business, which collapsed into administration at the end of last month, putting 11,000 high street jobs at risk. - Guardianhe time it takes the nation's small firms to deal with all the form-filling required to stay in business has surged to almost a day a week, it has been claimed, with more than two-thirds saying that red tape distracts them from running or growing their company. Britain's small business owners are spending an estimated 33 hours a month on business administration, a report by the Federation of Small Businesses has found - or four days every month. - TelegraphPaddy Power Betfair, Playtech and Foxtons have become the latest companies to be swept up in this year's Shareholder Spring after investors rebelled against pay at the two gambling businesses and the high-profile estate agency. Some 31.8pc of shareholders that voted at Paddy Power Betfair's annual general meeting came out against the freshly-merged company's remuneration report, dealing a bloody nose to the business, which is led by boss Breon Corcoran, just months after it was created in February. - TelegraphA former Nomura banker has claimed that the Japanese investment bank failed to check whether the investor at the centre of the largest individual loss in the company's history was authorised to trade, according to a witness statement at his employment tribunal. Giovanni Lombardo, 48, said that his boss had described Invexstar, which collapsed last year with losses of nearly £100 million, as a "rogue account". He claimed that Nomura staff had allowed Alberto Statti, Invexstar's top manager, access to its electronic trading systems despite knowing that he had presided over another collapsed fund. - The TimesCoffee shops and the fast-food outlets have done more to prop up the traditional high street than any other kind of retailer, according to research charting their explosive growth over the past two decades. Branches of coffee shop chains have ballooned twentyfold to more than 4,200 in the past 17 years, according to a study by CBRE, the commercial property agency. Fast-food and other takeaway shops owned by chains have tripled over the same period to more than 8,700. - The Times