Wednesday newspaper round-up: Google, Cadbury, British Land

13th Jan 2010 06:32

Google, the internet search engine, has set itself at odds with the authorities in China by declaring that it will stop censoring search results on its Chinese website.In a surprise announcement, the group issued a veiled attack at Chinese censors and said it was prepared to shut down its operations there entirely if the authorities do not allow it to create an unfiltered search engine, the Telegraph reports.Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, will meet senior City figures tomorrow to urge them to help to protect British companies from unwanted takeover bids such as Kraft's £10.5bn offer for Cadbury. A top-level delegation from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) including Lord Mandelson, Lord Davies of Abersoch, the Trade Minister, and Lord Myners, the City Minister, will ask Britain's biggest institutional investors to show "stewardship" by taking a firmer line against opportunistic takeover bidders attempting to pick up listed companies on the cheap. The Times has learnt that the group will use Kraft's hostile bid for Cadbury, of which Lord Mandelson has been highly critical, as a case study for the meeting.Fears that China could fall victim to a speculative bubble resurfaced on Tuesday as country's authorities ordered its banks to set aside more reserves in a precursor to a full-blown interest rate increase. The People's Bank of China raised the reserves requirement for local banks by 0.5% to 15% of their deposits, only hours after raising the interest rates on its one-year bills in a connected attempt to cool economic activity, the Telegraph reports.Iceland has been holding "frantic talks" with Britain and Holland over the terms of its agreement to pay £3.4bn in compensation for the failure of the Icesave internet bank. Iceland is trying to avoid a referendum on the issue, after its president refused to sign a bill that meant it would have to pay a 5.5pc interest rate on top of the total, the Telegraph reports.The credit card processing company used by Globespan, the collapsed airline, has been ordered to disclose its financial position in a £35 million legal dispute over flight payments. A High Court judge gave E-Clear, which also provided payment services to the failed XL Airlines, until midday on Friday to provide evidence of how much money it is holding relating to Globespan, the Times reports.British Land will expand rapidly its residential business under plans to manage a £300m buy-to-let fund being launched by a business spun out of law firm Charles Russell. The CR Property fund, to be launched on Thursday, will buy prime London residential real estate. It will begin fundraising among wealthy investors, particularly overseas buyers interested in UK property, the FT reports.Greece was condemned by the European Commission on Tuesday for falsifying data about its public finances and allowing political pressures to obstruct the collection of accurate statistics. In a damning report ¬published as the eurozone grapples with its worst financial crisis since the euro's launch in 1999, the Commission said figures from Greece's were so unreliable that its budget deficit and public debt might be even higher than government had claimed last October, the FT reports.Britain's gas market faces a "cliff edge" in 2015-16 that could cause supplies to run short in the second half of the decade, the energy regulator has warned. Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of Ofgem, told the Financial Times there was a risk that new gas supplies from Russia and the Caspian region might not be available in time to meet UK demand as domestic production fell, the FT reports.The European Commission yesterday launched a probe into the pharmaceutical industry's settlements with generics firms, questioning whether such deals breech the EU's competition laws and restrict consumers' access to medicines, the Independent reports.The head of the internet giant AOL UK is leaving the company at the end of the month as it prepares to "significantly" reduce its British workforce and close offices throughout Europe. Michael Steckler, the managing director of AOL UK and Benelux, is the latest casualty of AOL's drive to save $300m across the globe by cutting 2,300 staff, the Independent reports.