Wednesday newspaper round-up: ITV, Cadbury, Goldman Sachs

18th Nov 2009 06:29

ITV will today name Archie Norman, the former chief executive of Asda, as its new chairman, according to two people familiar with the situation.The appointment of Mr Norman, 55, a former Tory MP, will bring to an end an embarrassing seven-month succession process for the broadcaster as it sought to replace Michael Grade, the executive chairman. Mr Norman was credited with the turnround of Asda in the 1990s and will have to oversee a similar process at ITV, reports the FT.Hershey, the firm behind the eponymous chocolate bar, and Ferrero, which makes the iconic Ferrero Rocher chocolates, have held talks in recent weeks about trumping the £10bn bid for Cadbury by Kraft, the American food giant, The Telegraph reports. Meanwhile, The Times adds that the Ferrero family, owner of Ferrero Rocher, is understood to be divided over a possible audacious deal with Cadbury, the British confectioner. Michele Ferrero, the head of the family, is said to be keen to keep the business independent rather than involve other investors in a play for Cadbury or take part in a tie-up with the maker of Dairy MilkThe private details of millions of mobile phone customers, including their numbers and addresses, have been sold illegally. Staff at T-Mobile passed the information to brokers who then sold it to rival phone companies. The companies then called customers as their contracts were due to expire to offer a better mobile phone deal. T-Mobile confirmed that it was being investigated for breaching data protection rules after Britain's information watchdog said that an unnamed mobile phone company had been involved in the illegal sale of customers' records, the Times reports.Housing affordability peaked in the second quarter of the year and is now deteriorating as property prices rise, according to research produced by Lombard Street Research (LSR). The economic consultancy's housing affordability, produced in conjunction with The Daily Telegraph, shows that in the second quarter of the year house prices were at their most undervalued level since the mid-1990s.The new head of Vauxhall said yesterday he was confident that far fewer than 800 workers in the UK would be made redundant as the carmaker indicated that it wanted loans and guarantees from the British taxpayer. However, the car group is also seeking a deal with unions to extract concessions from workers that could include pay cuts and reductions in benefits, the Times reports.Goldman Sachs delivered a long awaited apology yesterday for its role in the global financial crisis and announced a $500m (£299m) pledge to small businesses. Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of the bank, said: "We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret ... We apologise." He added that the bank was "very concerned" about the criticism it received for accepting a $10bn bailout, only to return quickly to paying multimillion-dollar bonuses. "Our reputation is very important to us," Mr Blankfein said, reports the Times.A lawyer representing Hermitage Capital Management, the fund manager, has died in jail amid a dispute between the fund's co-founder Bill Browder and Russian authorities. The death of Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year old father of two, is set to reignite concerns about investing and doing business in Russia, The Telegraph reports.The new head of global retail banking at Barclays has joined the backlash of traditional bankers against the entry into banking of supermarkets and other consumer companies. Antony Jenkins said the new competitors may be under-estimating the difficulties of breaking into the market. Mr Jenkins, who last week replaced Frits Seegers following a surprise shake-up of the bank's management team, cast doubt on whether Tesco and Virgin had the right skills to run a bank, the FT reports.European and Latin American trade officials are close to a deal over bananas that would end the longest-running dispute in the history of the World Trade Organisation and could lead to lower prices for consumers. A draft settlement seen by the Financial Times calls for the European Union to cut sharply duties on bananas and dozens of other tropical products. It could be signed this week, said people familiar with the talks. Fears that the Bank of England may have to reverse its policy of quantitative easing - injecting cash directly into the economy - and raise rates sooner than expected were heightened yesterday with the publication of the latest inflation figures. The Office for National Statistics said that the annual rate of CPI inflation rose sharply higher in the year to October to 1.5%, up from the 1.1% annual rate of change recorded in September, the Independent reports.