Wednesday newspaper round-up: Ukraine, Just Eat, Pension

9th Apr 2014 07:17

There are signs of disarray amongst some of the groups of armed radicals who have dug in behind reinforced barricades in several cities in eastern Ukraine. However, on Tuesday Russia warned the new government in Kiev against the use of force to make them vacate those positions. That comes after Ukrainian police managed to dislodge some of those pro-Russian separatists from a government building. Nonetheless, Moscow said that the use of force might end up in civil war, The Wall Street Journal Europe reports. Investors' appetite for newly listed companies has waned sharply of late, with shares of Just Eat experiencing a poor start to unconditional trading after coming to market at a mind boggling valuation of 100 times' underlying 2013 earnings. Boohoo.com and AO World are not far behind. The fall from grace in three of this year's highest profile technology flotations has fuelled concerns that a new bear market might possibly ensue, The Times says. Tens of thousands of individuals who are due to retire this year have no form of pension and will be forced to fall back on very thin incomes of less than £8,600 a year, insurer Prudential claims. Those people, one in seven of all those who are planning to give up work this year, have no workplace or personal pension savings set up, leaving them reliant on their state pension. That will also place one in five of them below the threshold for the 'Minimum Income Standard' as defined by poverty campaigners the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which is at £8,600 for a single person or £12,500 for a couple, The Daily Mail writes. After coming under scrutiny for the bungled announcement of an industry inspection into the insurance sector - which wiped £6bn off those firms' market capitalisation - the Financial Conduct Authority has chosen law firm Clifford Chance to lead an inquiry. The point man for the investigation will be that firm's Simon Davis, one of its senior partners. In particular, he is expected to focus on how details of the investigation were leaked by a senior official at the regulator to the Daily Telegraph, according to The Guardian. Asset manager St.James Place has decided to pull £8bn of funds from Invesco Perpetual and funnel them towards that firm's former star manager, Neil Woodford. Mr.Woodford will manage them at his new business, Woodford Investment Management. St.James Place says this will ensure continuity of manager for its investors, The Daily Mail says. AB