Thursday newspaper round-up: RBS, tapering, Facebook

20th Feb 2014 07:44

Royal Bank of Scotland has continued the cutback of its investment banking arm with the sale of the business's equity derivatives operations to a French rival. RBS said it had reached a deal with BNP Paribas to sell its structured retail products and equity derivatives to France's largest banking group.- The Daily Telegraph Tightening monetary policy too quickly risks derailing the global recovery and the US Federal Reserve should be prepared to adjust the tapering of its asset purchases if economic conditions worsen, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. Amid renewed turmoil in emerging markets, the IMF urged central banks in advanced economies, including the Fed - which began scaling back its multi-billion dollar bond buying programme this year - the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank (ECB) to work together on a smooth "exit plan" while keeping monetary policy accommodative. - The Daily TelegraphFacebook went big-game hunting again last night, snapping up the free messaging service WhatsApp for $19bn in its biggest acquisition yet. The deal will help the social networking service to keep up with the rapidly expanding demand for instant messaging and follows its acquisition of the photo-sharing service Instagram for $1bn in 2012. - The TimesScottishPower owner Iberdrola yesterday unveiled plans to invest almost €4bn (£3.3bn) in the UK over the next three years as it posted annual profits that were hit by a doubling of regulatory levies in its Spanish home market. The UK wins the lion's share of €9.6bn of global investment between 2014 and 2016, as revealed in The Scotsman's sister publication Scotland on Sunday, despite ScottishPower's underlying earnings in generation and supply falling to €320.5m (£265m) in 2013. - The ScotsmanStaff at Sports Direct are on track to share another multimillion-pound pay-out after the retailer said it was "very confident" of hitting profit targets in the penultimate year of its bonus scheme. The sportswear and clothing chain reported gross profit up by nearly 15% at £281m over the Christmas quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier, and said it was confident of "at least" achieving its full-year operating profit goal of £310m. - The TimesA multi-billion pound windfall from the biggest corporate deal in UK history is set to be reinvested in the shares of Britain's top companies, which could propel the FTSE 100 towards a record high. Mobile phone giant Vodafone yesterday announced the detailed terms of the £50bn cash and shares return to shareholders following the £78bn sale of its 45% stake in US joint venture Verizon Wireless, a deal engineered by Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao. - The Daily ExpressAB