Wednesday newspaper round-up: RBS, energy firms, General Motors

26th Aug 2009 06:48

The sale of Royal Bank of Scotland's retail and commercial assets in China has hit a stumbling block that could derail negotiations with preferred bidder Standard Chartered, according to people familiar with the matter, according to the Financial Times. Standard Chartered entered exclusive talks with the UK lender last month to acquire assets in China, India and Malaysia, hoping to strike a deal within weeks.Britain's energy companies are paying much less for the power they supply, but despite the reductions, household electricity and gas bills are still higher than they were last summer, averaging more than £1,200 a year. Britain's "big six" suppliers - British Gas, E.ON, EDF Energy, npower, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Energy - have been given until next Tuesday by the regulator to provide an explanation as to why they are not passing on their wholesale savings, reports the Telegraph.Lord Mandelson is willing to commit taxpayers' money to General Motors, the American car group, in exchange for guaranteeing the long-term survival of Vauxhall, it emerged yesterday. The Business Secretary is prepared to pledge financial help ? believed to be up to £500 million ? to whichever of the three interested parties offers the most viable commercial future for the carmaker in Britain, and its 5,500 UK jobs, says the Times.The Independent says frustration is building over General Motors's inability to conclude the sale of its European arm (GME), which includes Vauxhall in the UK and Opel in Germany. The sale has dragged on for months already, and a GM board meeting on Friday again failed to decide between Canadian car parts maker Magna and private equity group RHJ International, it adds.Businesses and consumers continued to repay debt last month, despite credit conditions in the markets easing towards an all-time low. The three-month sterling London interbank offered rate (Libor), the rate at which banks lend to each other, dropped to a low of 0.81063 per cent yesterday ? yet, as it did so, it had no effect on overdraft rates, which remained at record highs, and the cost of the average five-year mortgage edged up to nearly 6 per cent, according to the Times.Traders could face financial penalties for loss-making investments under a proposal put forward by French bankers at a meeting with President Sarkozy today. Baudouin Prot, the chief executive of BNP Paribas, France's biggest financial institution, unveiled the so-called bonus-malus scheme after hearing Mr Sarkozy say French banks had betrayed him over traders' pay, writes the Times.BT and Virgin Media have launched an attack on the Government following the announcement of plans to punish illegal file-sharers by cutting off their internet connections. Both have expressed objections to the latest plans to by Stephen Timms, the minister for Digital Britain, which go against previous proposals announced at by his predecessor Lord Carter as part of his Digital Britain report two months ago, says the Telegraph.Temasek Holdings, the Sinaporean state investment vehicle, has stated a commitment to active engagement with the companies it owns, signally a shift among sovereign wealth funds to taking a more prominent investment role. The fund, which controls $134bn (£82bn) of assets and owns 19% of Standard Chartered, 9% of Merrill Lynch and 2% of Barclays, has updated its investment charter for the first time in seven years, pledging "sustainable returns by engaging with the boards and management of our portfolio companies," according to the Telegraph.Business leaders are more upbeat about the prospects of economic recovery than at any time since the recession began, according to a poll for The Independent. The ComRes survey of 170 leading businessmen found that 38 per cent detect signs of recovery in their sector, up from 33 per cent last month and the highest figure since the "green shoots" index was launched.Car dealers were last night scrambling to get paperwork to the US government after a late surge in sales under its taxpayer-subsidised car scrappage scheme, which has buoyed sales. More than 100,000 sales of subsidised vehicles were recorded at the weekend, the Independent reports.Sony has unveiled its bid to reclaim ground lost to Amazon.com in the battle for control of the emerging electronic book market with a wireless, touch-screen reader priced at $399. The Japanese electronics group's new Reader Daily Edition, which will hit the US market in December, costs $100 more than Amazon's basic wireless Kindle device, but offers a seven-inch touch screen, larger than the Kindle's six inches, says the FT.