Thursday newspaper round-up: Smith & Nephew, Saga, Morrisons

5th Jun 2014 07:21

Smith & Nephew could become the centre of an American bidding war after another US company was said to be interested in making an offer for the medical technology company. As shares in the FTSE 100-listed hip replacement maker rose by more than three per cent yesterday, there were reports that Medtronic, one of the world's largest medical device manufacturers, was making early stage preparations before an offer. According to Bloomberg, the information provider, Medtronic had 14.2bn dollars in cash or near-equivalent assets at the end of April. - The Times One of the world's biggest hedge funds is betting against Saga in the wake of the company's high-profile flotation that has left hundreds of thousands of private investors out of pocket. GLG Partners, which is part of Man Group, has taken a short position of 0.61% in the over-50s insurance and holidays group, according to a filing with the Financial Conduct Authority. - The Daily TelegraphMorrisons is set to reveal a management restructuring in its stores within weeks that could lead to as many as 2,000 job losses. The move, resulting from trials of three possible slimmed-down management structures in around seven of its new stores, is likely to affect managers overseeing product categories such as fresh food or non-food across the chain's 500 stores, according to industry insiders. - The GuardianDesmond Tutu will lead protesters on Thursday campaigning against British security firm G4S's role in maintaining prisons and detention centres in the West Bank and Israel. The South African retired archbishop and Nobel peace laureate will challenge G4S's management over the company's alleged role in facilitating "Israel's brutal occupation and abhorrent prison system" at the company's annual general meeting in London on Thursday afternoon. - The GuardianPressure mounted on Tesco boss Phil Clarke yesterday as the supermarket giant posted the worst quarterly slump in UK sales he has witnessed in four decades with the group. The latest setback came after the company posted its second year running of falling profits and a £734m write-down on the value of its European and Chinese businesses in April. Clarke, who became Chief Executive in 2011, also acknowledged that the firm's woes were unlikely to ease in the near-term.- The Scotsman Eurozone growth remained just above zero in the first quarter, reinforcing expectations that the European Central Bank will introduce negative interest on Thursday to head off the threat of deflation and underpin a "stuttering" recovery. GDP in the 18-nation currency bloc expanded by just 0.2% in the three months to March, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Wednesday. - The Daily Telegraph ABAB