Tuesday newspaper round-up: Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, ITV

3rd Nov 2009 06:12

The Government will today announce plans to inject a further £40bn of taxpayers' money into Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group as part of a fresh, wide-ranging restructuring of the UK banking sector.The sum is higher than expected because RBS will take about £25bn in new "B" shares and £9bn in contingent capital that can be converted into loss-absorbing equity if the bank's finances deteriorate further. The injection of "B" shares will increase the Government's economic stake from 70% to 84% but its voting rights are capped at 75%, the Times writes.The FT adds that as well as the widely trailed sales of RBS's insurance businesses - Direct Line, Churchill and Green Flag - and its small business banking operations in England and Wales, the bank has agreed to sell its Global Merchant Acquiring business, a transaction services unit, as well as RBS Sempra, its thriving commodities trading subsidiary.Record company EMI is urgently investigating how The Beatles' entire back catalogue has been made available to buy digitally for the first time ever on a US website. A Santa Cruz-based website, BlueBeat.com, was yesterday selling MP3 files of every single Beatles track for 25c (15p) each, including songs from the recently released remastered albums. The site was also streaming the albums in their entirety, allowing users to listen to them for free, the Telegraph reports.The Financial Services Authority (FSA) confirmed yesterday that it would begin a comprehensive review of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), a safety net for consumers established in 2001 to deal with a failure at a bank, insurer or fund manager.The move comes after building societies, insurers, brokers and asset managers have berated the FSCS's annual levy as disproportionate and anti-competitive, the Times reports.Friends Reunited owner ITV was told yesterday it might not be allowed to sell it, even for a £145m loss. The latest embarrassment came from the Office of Fair Trading, which ruled that ITV's attempt to sell Friends for £25m to the owner of two genealogy sites could breach competition law, the Times reports. Land Securities, Britain's biggest property developer, has indicated its fresh confidence in the market by setting aside £200 million for two big developments in London next year. It is the biggest commitment to speculative projects on such a scale ? without bank borrowing ? since the start of the downturn, the Times reports.The battle for iPhone customers in the UK will be fought on the strength of the operators' networks this Christmas, after Orange announced the official launch date and tariffs. Yet analysts believe a price war is set to be unleashed next year. Orange announced yesterday that the much-anticipated launch date of its iPhone in the UK will be next Tuesday. This breaks the two-year exclusivity held by rival O2, which has sold more than one million handsets, the Independent reports.The Reserve Bank of Australia has raised the country's official interest rates for the second time in a month, citing strong growth in China. Australia's central bank raised interest rates by a widely-tipped 25 basis points to 3.5%, another sign the country's economic recovery is continuing, the Times reports.Stanley Works, maker of the world-famous handyman's knife, has cut one of the biggest DIY deals of all time by taking control of Black & Decker, the tools and workbench maker, in a $4.5bn (£2.7bn) deal. The two American companies said in a joint statement that the all-stock transaction would create an $8.4bn market leader, benefiting from higher margins and cost savings, the Times reports.