Tuesday newspaper round-up: Egypt, ECB, Marks & Spencer...

1st Feb 2011 06:42

Oil prices broke through the $100 a barrel level for the first time in more than two years, amid market fears that Egypt's turmoil will hit oil flows.Although both the Suez Canal and a pipeline linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean continue to operate, the popular uprising to unseat Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, has brought much of the rest of the economy to a halt. The army said on Monday it would not use force against Egyptians staging protests demanding President Mubarak step down, a statement said. It said "freedom of expression" was guaranteed to all citizens using peaceful means, the FT reports.Risk analysts and intelligence agencies fear that Egypt's uprising may set off escalating protests in the tense Shia region of Saudi Arabia, home to the world's richest oilfields. "Yemen, Sudan, Jordan and Syria all look vulnerable. However, the greatest risk in terms of both probability and severity is in Saudi Arabia," said a report by risk consultants Exclusive Analysis, the Telegraph reports.The European Central Bank suspended its emergency purchases of eurozone government bonds last week as the debt crisis eased, allowing it to focus on combating rising inflation. Official data published on Monday showed annualised eurozone inflation reached 2.4% in January, the highest for more than two years and beyond the ECB's target of "below but close" to 2%. The ECB is expected to hold its interest rate unchanged at 1% on Thursday, the FT reports.Marks & Spencer is close to returning to Paris, a decade after it closed its European stores. The retailer endured a storm of criticism from French workers when Luc Vandevelde, its chairman at the time, announced the closure of its stores on the Continent, including its flagship on Paris's Boulevard Haussmann. Now the company is in talks to move into a store on the Champs Élysées occupied by Esprit, the German store.Staff at the store have been informed of the change of owner, according to La Tribune, the French business daily, the Times reports.National Grid said it expected to see a "significant" increase in profits this year, as it announced a restructuring of its US operations that will see the company shed 1,200 jobs and make annual savings of save $200m (£125m). "The strong momentum seen in the first half has continued and further improved, driven by cold winter weather following the hot weather in the US in the summer," the company said, the Telegraph reports.Greencore persuaded Northern Foods to delay its shareholder meeting yesterday to give the Irish food producer more time to consider a counterbid to Ranjit Boparan's £342m takeover offer. Northern Foods was due to recommend Mr Boparan's offer to investors at an extraordinary meeting yesterday, but Greencore approached the food producer behind Fox Biscuits and Goodfella's Pizzas on Friday, asking it to adjourn the egm, the Independent reports.Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to settle a US lawsuit over its disputed diabetes drug Avandia on the eve of the case going to court. The company said it had resolved the suit brought in Philadelphia by the family of Avandia-user James Burford, who died in 2006. Glaxo declined to give details of the settlement. Once one of Glaxo's best-selling drugs, Avandia has faced significant difficulties since a 2007 study claimed it could be linked to increased risk of heart attacks, the Telegraph reportsAn investigation into private sector pensions is to look at whether a continental-style approach could produce higher retirement incomes in Britain. Lord McFall, the former chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, will head an independent commission set up by the National Association of Pension Funds to examine why the system fails so many workers.The commission will study the Dutch and Danish occupational pension schemes, which historically have been run more cheaply than their UK counterparts, delivering higher pensions, the Times reports.The economy will turn in a "lacklustre" performance this year as household incomes plummet, a leading economic think-tank believes. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has revised down its forecasts for GDP growth this year to 1.5% and to 1.8% for next year, far below the official forecasts of 2.1% and 2.6%. It predicts that rising oil prices will reduce real incomes by about 1% this year, and that the financial crisis will leave a "permanent scar" on household incomes for the first time since the 1920s, the Times reports.Betfred and Gala Coral are leading the field in the £200m race to buy the Tote after the Government whittled the number of bidders down to six. The two bookmakers are understood to have made it on to the second round shortlist for the pool betting group, alongside the billionaire Reuben brothers and Sir Martin Broughton, the recently knighted British Airways chairman, through his private equity fund Sports Investment Partners, the Times reports.