Tuesday newspaper round-up: Barclays, WPP, British Airways

2nd Jun 2009 06:14

One of Barclays' largest Middle Eastern shareholders announced plans on Monday night to offload its stake in the British bank, pocketing a large profit less than seven months after making its £3.5bn investment, reports the FT.International Petroleum Investment Corp, an investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi royal family, was finalising a placing of 1.3bn Barclays shares with institutional investors. The group also invited offers for its entire £1.5bn holding of Barclays capital notes in a process that will be completed by Wednesday.Alistair Darling's future as chancellor was looking precarious on Monday after he admitted making "a mistake" over his expenses and Gordon Brown refused to say whether he would be in his job in 10 days' time. Mr Darling yesterday paid back £668 he wrongly claimed and apologised "unreservedly" but speculation was growing at Westminster that he could become the first chancellor in postwar Britain to be demoted in the middle of a recession, the FT writes.Hopes that the global economy could soon be past the worst of the recession led most Asian equity markets to open strongly again on Tuesday. Markets in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore sustained an overnight global rally as they registered an average gain of around 1% in the first few hours of opening, reports the FT.Thousands of American car workers were reeling yesterday after General Motors (GM) made the world's biggest industrial bankruptcy filing, ending a way of life in towns across America's manufacturing heartland. Employees of the carmaker learnt for the first time which of GM's 11 plants would close and which three would be mothballed. About 21,000 of GM's 61,000 hourly workers will be made redundant by the end of the year, as well as about 6,000 of its 29,000 salaried staff, the Times reports.Shareholders in WPP are expected to approve today a £60 million bonus scheme for Sir Martin Sorrell, its chief executive, although about a quarter of investors are expected to rebel. The advertising company's five-year incentive package will be voted on at a special lunchtime meeting in Dublin, but votes already cast suggest that it will be approved relatively comfortably, reports the Times.Gordon Brown's move to hive off financial regulation to the Financial Services Authority receives a double blow today from two hard-hitting reports that conclude that his 1997 decision was a mistake which contributed to the current crisis. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee said they had found that the "tripartite" regulatory system was "unable to fulfil one of its main purposes", namely financial stability during the crisis. Meanwhile, a paper, also published today, by former Bank director Sir Martin Jacomb calls for the Government to "re-empower the Bank of England", reports the Telegraph.Pinewood Shepperton, the British studio owner, has applied for planning permission to build a £200m rival to Hollywood in south-east England, the Telegraph writes.Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, has warned the airline's 41,000 staff that the group "is in a fight for survival". The UK flag carrier is seeking to extract big concessions and productivity savings from its workforce, and is seeking to inject fresh urgency into negotiations with its unions and in particular with cabin crew, reports the FT.The American Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, has sought to reassure the Chinese government that their dollar-denominated assets are secure. Mr Geithner, during his first official visit to China, told an audience at Peking University in Beijing yesterday that "Chinese financial assets are very safe", despite downward pressure on the US currency, reports the Independent.Nationwide Building Society risks depressing new home prices through an overly strict approach to valuations, according to leading housebuilders. Nationwide's policy, which insists that all new properties must be valued as second-hand, threatens to cause prices to undershoot the level that buyers would otherwise be willing to pay, they said, reports the FT.