Tuesday newspaper round-up: Bonuses, BSkyB, Goldman Sachs...

11th Jan 2011 06:32

Downing Street pulled back yesterday from tough regulation of City bonuses and rejected a tax raid on banks in a move that will be seen as further blow to Vince Cable.Bankers may be asked to be more open about their multimillion-pound bonuses but will not face a windfall tax or curbs on pay after the Conservative-led coalition decided to back the Square Mile. Ministers are resigned to weeks of embarrassment from the banking sector but stressed that there was very little political gain from fighting over every penny given in bonuses, the Times reports.Senior executives of News Corp are seeking meetings with the ministry responsible for clearing or blocking its attempt to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting in the clearest indication so far that regulators have recommended a six-month investigation of the proposed bid. News Corp cancelled an appearance before MPs from the House of Commons select committee, due on Wednesday, because the company has received its copy of an initial report from Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.American money market funds have aggressively cut back their dealings with the eurozone's financial services sector amid fears that the sovereign debt crisis could infect the region's banking system. David Glocke, head of taxable money-market funds at Vanguard Group, said that his firm's $109 billion prime fund was not directly exposed to banks in countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain after adjusting its strategy during the past year, the Times reports.The eurozone's debt crisis is once again in danger of spiralling out of control after yields on Portuguese debt spiked to a post-EMU high and contagion hit Spain and Belgium. The European Central Bank (ECB) intervened heavily in the markets, buying Greek, Irish and Portuguese bonds to drive down yields again, but has yet to broaden its emergency purchases to a fresh set of countries. Germany's Bundesbank is vehemently opposed to policy "creep" that involves the ECB in fiscal rescues by the backdoor, the Telegraph reports.PetroChina is to take a 50% stake in two of Europe's biggest oil refineries in a joint venture with Ineos, the British chemicals group. The deal will give the state oil producer joint control of Ineos's giant Grangemouth refinery in Scotland and another at Lavera in the South of France. As part of the deal, Ineos, Britain's biggest private company by turnover, will receive a cash injection from PetroChina that will significantly cut its €7bn (£5.8bn) debt pile, the Times reports.Goldman Sachs plans to disclose more than it has ever done about how it makes money in an effort to end the barrage of public criticism it has had since the financial crisis. The overhaul of how it reports its results is one of a series of changes the investment bank is making following an internal review by a committee headed by two of its most senior executives, the Telegraph reports.Oil prices rose and BP shares fell last night amid nervousness about the leak that caused the shutdown of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, the supply route for more than 10 per cent of US crude oil. BP, which is still recovering from the fallout of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill over the summer, is the biggest shareholder in Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the operator of the 800-mile long system which carries oil from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field, the Independent reports.