Wednesday newspaper round-up: AstraZeneca, Housing market, Alstom

30th Apr 2014 06:58

The head of Pfizer has jetted into London to begin a whistlestop tour of City institutions as the American drugs company scrambles to drum up support for a hostile £58.7bn takeover of AstraZeneca. Ian Read's arrival for a 48-hour tour of fund management firms underlined the urgency of Pfizer's intent to capture Britain's second largest pharmaceuticals company ? a deal that, according to analysts, appears increasingly likely to succeed. - The Times One of Britain's largest landowners and developers has warned that it is "concerned" about fast rising values in London's "super-prime" housing market. Grosvenor, the property company headed by Gerald Grosvenor, the 6th duke and Britain's wealthiest landowner, said it sold about £240m of luxury residential assets in London last year and wanted to focus more on the "mid-market" residential sector. - The TimesFrench engineering group Alstom today said it would decide by the end of next month whether to accept a €12.4bn (£10.2bn) offer from General Electric for its energy business, leaving the door open for a rival bid from Germany's Siemens. France's government, which regularly intervenes in corporate decision making, had questioned whether selling Alstom to US conglomerate GE threatens the country's energy independence and jobs. Officials had pressed for more time to allow rival Siemens to make an offer. - ScotsmanMore than a third of people in the UK feel positive about their future job prospects the highest level for nearly seven years, research has shown. Consumer insight group Nielsen said 36% of people said they felt positive about their employment prospects in the first three months of 2014. It comes a day after official figures showed the UK economy grew by 0.8% in the first quarter and by 3.1% in the year to the end of March - the strongest growth since before the financial crisis. - The Daily MailPro-Russia militants in masks broke down doors and stormed government buildings Tuesday in another area of Ukraine that hugs the Russian border, as the new government in Kiev criticized local police for failing to stem the growing unrest. The latest moves in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region came despite a new wave of sanctions on Russia by the US and European Union aimed at forcing the Kremlin to rein in the activists, who have echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin in denouncing Ukraine's two-month-old government as illegal. They have called for more autonomy for the eastern part of Ukraine. - The Wall Street Journal EuropeBritain's biggest banks and lenders will have to show they hold enough capital to withstand a sharp fall in the pound and house prices, as well as a spike in interest rates, under new stress tests unveiled yesterday. The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority said eight banks and building societies will have to undergo the test, with a "strong presumption" that the supervisor will force any lender that fails to meet the threshold to strengthen its capital. - Daily ExpressAB