Tuesday newspaper round-up: Cadbury, Ladbrokes, Mitchells & Butlers

12th Jan 2010 06:30

Irene Rosenfeld, the chief executive of Kraft, has been dealt an extraordinary snub by two leading shareholders in Cadbury after trying to launch a charm offensive.Ms Rosenfeld has sought to meet a number of institutional investors in the British confectionery group before next week's final deadline for Kraft to raise its hostile £10.5bn takeover bid for Cadbury, the Times reports.Retailers have shrugged off the downturn to record their best Christmas trading figures since December 2001, but store owners are warning that the buoyant sales may offer only temporary relief on the "painful road to recovery". Following a series of upbeat sales updates from shops this month, the British Retail Consortium will today confirm that total underlying sales rose by 4.2% in December - the sector's best festive performance since 2001. But the results are flattered by comparisons with the dire trading recorded in December 2008, and the cutting of VAT to 15% that month, the Independent reports.Ladbrokes will announce today the shock departure of Chris Bell, Britain's best-known bookmaker, and the man who has led the company for the past nine years. Mr Bell, 52, will step down this summer after a 20-year career at Ladbrokes that has seen the industry transformed by the internet, tax changes and the introduction of fixed-odds betting terminals - as well as a diversification away from horse-racing. He first broached the subject of his possible departure after the arrival last May of new chairman Peter Erskine, the former boss of telecom group O2, the Telegraph reports. Freezing conditions in the North Sea caused National Grid to issue its fourth warning this month that gas demand is threatening to outstrip supply. Royal Dutch Shell was forced to shut its Ormen Lange gas field in Norway due to the bad weather, which is meant to supply the UK with a fifth of its total. It is not yet clear when production will begin again, according to a spokesman, reports the Telegraph.Businesses and governments have rushed to raise tens of billions of dollars from bond markets in a frenetic round of new year fundraising amid fears that interest rates are set to jump. A flurry of issuers, including Virgin Media, BMW and Manchester United football club, turned to the capital markets on Monday aiming to raise more than $20bn (£12.4bn). Poland and Mexico were among a number of governments that also tapped international investors, the FT reports.Fitch Ratings has issued the starkest warning to date that the US will lose its AAA credit rating unless acts to bring the budget deficit under control, citing a spiral in debt service costs and dependence on foreign lenders. Brian Coulton, the agency's head of sovereign ratings, said the US is shielded for now by its pivotal role in global finance and the dollar's status as the key reserve currency, but the picture is deteriorating fast enough to ring alarm bells, the Telegraph reports.House prices fell in the North and the West Midlands in December as market activity dampened, exposing those regions where the recovery has been weakest. According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), last month's figures showed 5% more surveyors in the West Midlands reporting prices falling rather than rising, and 7% more in the North. The industry body added the East Midlands and Northern Ireland to its list of areas at risk of further immediate falls, the Times reports.Joe Lewis, the Bahamas-based billionaire who owns 23% of Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), has rejected a last-ditch compromise proposal put forward by M&B aimed at averting a showdown at the pub company's annual meeting at the end of this month. The M&B board, which claims Mr Lewis is trying to seize control of the company, is understood to have been willing to accede to his demand for the election of the four non-executive directors put forward by his Piedmont investment vehicle, the Times reports.BP overtook Royal Dutch Shell in market capitalisation for the first time in more than three years on Monday, reflecting the contrasting fortunes of the two rivals for the title of Europe's biggest oil company. In the past year, BP has benefited from rising production, cost cuts and success in finding oil in the Gulf of Mexico, while Shell has been burdened by heavy capital spending and seven consecutive years of falling oil and gas output, the FT reports.