Wednesday newspaper round-up: US mid-terms, BP, LSE...

3rd Nov 2010 06:34

Republicans have seized control of the US House of Representatives but failed to take the Senate in midterm elections that rank as a crushing setback to President Obama's vision of a reforming presidency, the Times reports.Mr Obama's party suffered its worst defeat in a generation, losing at least 60 seats in the lower House two years after the world celebrated America's election of its first black President. It was the first time since 1930 that the House swapped hands without the Senate following suit.BP's new chief executive signalled yesterday that the company will resume paying dividends next year, but the payout is expected to be reset at about half its previous level. Bob Dudley, who succeeded Tony Hayward last month, said no decision on reinstating the dividend would be made until February 1, when BP is due to publish its full-year results. Mr Dudley is known to believe that BP's high payout levels have, in the past, consumed too much of the company's free cash flow and hampered its ability to invest, the Times reports.The London Stock Exchange launched an investigation last night into the potential sabotage of one of its main trading platforms. A full inquiry was under way after Turquoise, the electronic trading platform used by financial insitutions across the City to buy and sell shares in leading British and European companies, crashed for the second time in a month, amid suggestions that deliberate human interference may have been the cause. The LSE said last night that it had informed the relevant authorities, the Times reports.Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan's largest banking group, is poised to buy a £4bn ($6.4bn) portfolio of project finance loans from Royal Bank of Scotland in the latest move by the part-nationalised UK bank to offload legacy assets. People close to the talks said a deal could be finalised between RBS and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, a MUFG subsidiary, in the coming weeks, the FT reports.Citigroup's battle with Guy Hands took a dramatic twist after a juror with links to filmmaker Michael Moore's polemical attack on Wall Street, Capitalism: A Love Story, was removed from the case. Lawyers for the US bank asked Judge Jed Rakoff to dismiss Donna Gianell after it emerged that her name and that of her partner were among a list offered thanks on the credits of the film, the Telegraph reports.The £2bn battle for ownership of the high-speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link has gone into extra time with Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, calling for "final clarification" of offers from four competing groups. News of a further round in the process after "final" bids last Friday was characterised last night as "final, final offer time", the Times reports.Royal Mail has laid bare the depths of its financial and operating crisis, days after Vince Cable published plans for privatising the state-controlled postal service. In its half-year results, Royal Mail admitted that group profits had slumped by 70%, that letter volumes were down by a fifth in five years sending the core postal business deep into the red, and that cash is flying out of the business at more than £1.25m a day, the Times reports.Sugar is trading at its highest level for three decades, raising fears about global food price inflation. The soft commodity on Tuesday surpassed the 29-year high it hit in February this year, on concern about low crop yields in Brazil and restricted exports from India. Raw sugar futures topped 30.6 cents per pound at one point on Tuesday before settling slightly lower. Its fresh peak comes after a volatile year, in which the price of sugar had dramatically dropped by half by May this year, the Telegaph reprots.News Corporation reported 105,000 online sales of The Times and The Sunday Times yesterday as it published the first official figures since taking the controversial step of putting its website's content behind a paywall. Officials at the newspaper group said they were pleased with the number of paid-for customers since the paywall was implemented in June, the Independent reports.