The Special Report:
*Sweden for sale - Vasakronan, Nordea and Telia Sonera, Telia’s holding company, are three of 6 state assets earmarked for disposal in the next 3-years by a centre-right government still adjusting to the trappings of power.
The Agenda Column:
*Can this be the worst crisis in 35-years? - Unlike Black Monday in October 1987, this time there has not been a stock-market crash; instead it looks like a deep and more prolonged slide.
*Beware the gnomes – If the government starts to tinker with the tax treatment of offshore trusts held by rich foreigners living in Britain, it will undo all the success achieved over the past decade in establishing London’s status as a world financial centre.
*Big Mick’s puzzle – Does, reading between-the-lines, mean that when Xstrata (XTA) said it was talking to peers about industry consolidation, but that no proposal had been made either for or by Xstrata, that chief executive “Big Mick” Davis and Glencore, the group’s biggest investor, want to talk to everybody about a possible tie-up?
The Economic Outlook Column:
*Plenty of oil left in the global tank.
Business Focus Feature:
*Riding to the Rescue - Last week the leading central banks acted en masse to pump extra money into the markets to ease the credit crisis that shows no sign of fading. Have they done enough, or will their action just be sticking plaster on a much deeper wound?
The Andrew Davidson Interview:
*Harriet Green, boss of Premier Farnell (PFL) - Return of a pocket dynamo.
Feature:
*Citigroup’s (CGP) new boss, Vikram Pandit, takes on banking’s toughest job.
Feature:
*Time runs out for Northern Rock (NRK) rescue bids – Nationalisation could be the only option as the bank continues to lose deposits and value.
Feature:
*Ceasefire in battle of the naval dockyards – Industry alliances will save money for the Government, which will guarantee a steady flow of work.
Feature:
*India’s gold rush.
The Inside the City Column:
*Barratt (Development (BDEV)) takes a hammering as builders suffer – Don’t dive in just yet, predators may be circling, but unless a bid comes quickly, Barratt’s exposure to apartments and city-centre developments will continue to put a short-term dampener on the share price.
*GKN (GKN) – Simply, while all these companies, like GKN (Enodis (ENO), Invensys (ISYS) and FKI (FKI)) have interests in the US, they also have operations in Asia, where business is still brisk.
Further news:
*Robert and Alan Wiseman have sold £15.6-million of shares in Robert Wiseman Dairies (RWD), leaving them 32% of the firm and satisfying hungry, eager buyers.
*Proposed increase in Capital Gains Tax (from 10% to 18%) sees Southern Cross’s (SCHE) chairman and fellow directors sell stakes between £6.6 and £11.1-million worth of shares.
Further news:
*Reed (REL) plans back-office revamp to save £100-million.
*Leviatham takes shape, as the gargantuan offshore oil platform starts to be built.
*Demand for wooden toys helps to get the Christmas sales rocking along.
Retail Feature:
*Prices slashed in desperate bid to lure festive trade.
The Sylvia Pfeifer Business Commentary Column:
*Good for Goldman but who are the losers? – Unlike Nick Leeson’s 1995 Barings debacle, thanks to a small group of traders, one of the biggest winners of the credit crunch is Goldman Sachs. Just how big will become clear on Tuesday when the US investment bank unveils what analysts expect will be record annual results, despite some of the worst market conditions in decades.
*No defence of the realm – What is the longer-term outlook for Great Britain's defence industry? Not great and getting worse, if you ask the country's defence industry chief executives. We're in danger of becoming a second Switzerland, one said last week, noting that if the defence budget is cut any further, Great Britain will soon be a nation merely capable of defending itself rather than going on the offensive.
*Calling the top - If Mick Davis of Xstrata (XTA) is looking to sell, then what does it say about the market?
The Economic Agenda Column:
*The slings and arrows of outrageous rate cuts.
Feature:
*Digging out the truth behind mining mergers – All eyes are on BHP’s (BLT) bid for Rio (RIO), but the smart money says Xstrata (XTA) is where the real action is.
Feature:
*Will commodities suffer metal fatique?
Profile:
*John McFall MP, who runs the Treasury Select Committee, and will quiz Mervyn King this week.
Feature:
*Mervyn on the Rocks (NRK) – The reputation of BoE Governor hangs in the balance.
Feature:
*‘Philip saw intrinsic value in it’- Profits at hedge fund RAB Capital (RAB) are slumping but its chairman defends Philip Richards' decision to buy into Northern Rock (NRK).
Feature:
*FT’s Fairhead prepares to do battle with Murdoch.
The Real Business Column:
*Freshwater (FWUK) is ready to weather the storm.
Share Tips:
*Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – Don’t buy back in yet.
*CineWorld (CINE) – Sell.
*BBI (BBI) - As predicted by Richard Rivlin in his column 2-weeks ago, the company has had an offer from Inverness Medical Innovations. The US company has agreed to buy BBI for £83.7-million or 195p a share. Investors keen to re-invest their profits from the deal in a similar company should look at Tepnel Life Sciences (TED) or Immunodiagnostic (IDH). Broker Seymour Pierce believes that profitable, niche-playing diagnostic companies will continue to be targets of larger global players.
*Xcite (XEL) – A risky buy.
*Jetion (JHL) - Buy.
Further news:
*Weir (WEIR) to sell part of pension to L&G (LGEN).
*Allseas make waves with record-breaking ‘double supertanker’.
*Halabi limbers up for Esporta buyback.
The Lead Story of the Business Section:
*City fears state takeover of Northern Rock (NRK).
Feature:
*Not content with just connecting people, Nokia (NOK) changes the settings on the mobile industry.
The Business Analysis Column:
*The sun, the sea – and coal mines of South Wales.
The Jola Shillingford Column:
*So this is Christmas: ‘tis the season to be lazy – If you do no work you are in effect stealing from your employer.
*Set Khodorkovsky free – Former oligarch is still rotting in a Russian jail.
*To the banks’ rescue – If the 3 bodies in Great Britain, the Bank of England, the Treasury and the FSA could not co-operate fast enough in the Northern Rock (NRK) debacle, how come so many central banks could get it together?
The Expert View Column:
*Memo to the taxman: this goose will spitting feathers – Families won’t be able to run their businesses without state interference.
The Hamish McRae Economic View Column:
*The money masters have soothed the markets’ nerves. But the banks are still edgy and they’ll tke it out on us.
The City Eye Column:
*It’s enough to make Gordon Gekko go green - The fictional lizard king of Wall Street, as embodied by Michael Douglas, complete with red braces, gave us the deathless observation that greed is good. Nowadays I wonder if he meant "green is good".
Feature:
*‘Is it really so miserable in Russia’ The chosen one speaks out – Putin’s anointed successor Dmitry Medvedev.
Further news:
*Treasury suspected of ‘cynical ploy’ over tax relief on green homes.
The Lead Story of the Financial Mail:
*‘Rescue’ deal sparks £95-billion shares plunge – World’s leading banks hit after £50-billion injection.
Feature:
*Specsavers sparks fury over web U-turn – After years of opposing internet sales, the UK’s biggest optician enrages franchises with online plan.
Interview:
*Land Rover’s Phil Popham.
Further news:
*Dragons’ Den reject, Rachel Lowe, whose company RTL makes the hugely popular board game Destination London, has signed a multi-million pound deal to create a Harry Potter game... Destination Hogwarts.
*Axed PlusNet chief set for clash with BT (BT.A).
*South African media combine close to buying QXL Ricardo (QXL) for £750-million.
*Myla lingerie is exploring a possible £25-million market flotation.
*Tata to drive off with Jaguar and Land Rover.
*Fears rise for Airbus jobs.
*Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) demands deadline for bid.
*Doughty Hanson faces cash call for its mobile phone firm 20:20.
*Liverpool Football Club may kop its American owner Tom Hicks’s debt, as he enters talks with bankers over plans to load up the football club’s balance sheet with debt. Billionaire Tom Hicks, who bought the club in February with his compatriot George Gillett, has secretly asked Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to explore restructuring options.
*New store blitz by Somerfield.
*Banks ‘still sitting on $140-billion worth of sub-prime losses’, says Thomson Financial data.
*FSA launches market abuse inquiry over Resolution (RSL) takeover.
*Collins Stewart (CLST) and Nomura in early stage takeover talks.
*Olivant must find £300-million extra for Northern Rock (NRK).
*Short-selling on FTSE-250 at 3-year high.
*Bidders in the £3.6-billion auction for Angel Trains, the rolling stock leasing company, face a potential £600-million liability unless they can structure a deal to get round the Government's "Schedule 10" tax rules.
*New Logica (LOG) chief set for write-downs and asset sales across troubled group.
*Hilton Food Group (HFG), the meat packing business, is involved in a long-running legal dispute that could disrupt the supply of meat to Tesco (TSCO), its biggest customer.
*Trocadero owner Asif Aziz sued for $20-million over ‘fraud’.
*Takeover Panel to referee S&N (SCTN) fight.
*Struggling Evolution (EVG) tipped for takeover as staff seek way out.
*Rank (RNK) loses at the City tables as short-sellers feast on the stock.
*Pernod Ricard is close to clinching a £1-billion purchase of Stolichnaya vodka brand, in a move that will challenge Diageo’s (DGE) number one alcoholics drinks position.
*Deadline may derail Rio (RIO) bid.
*Lobby group, Which? Issues ultimatum to Norwich Union over its £5-billion of surplus assets.
*Gordon Ramsay and Harrods prepare to land at Terminal 5.
*French hotel group, Accor to expand onto UK.
*GSK (GSK) seeks approval for new infants’ vaccine.
*Booking Services International has been put up for sale, with a £30-million price tag.
SOME ITEMS THAT COULD INFLUENCE SHARE PRICES
*In a ceremony at Basra airport, British troops have transferred control of Basra province to the Iraqi authorities, four-and-a-half years after the invasion. The handover marks a significant milestone towards Britain's final withdrawal from southern Iraq. Major Gen Graham Binns, who led Great British troops into the city in 2003, said it had "begun to regain its strength". Iraq's National Security Adviser, Dr Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said the "historic" day marked a "victory for Iraq".
*Dozens of Turkish jets have fired on suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border with Iraq, reports say. Turkish officials said the warplanes had targeted the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in areas near the border. But officials in northern Iraq said the planes had struck several villages. There were reports that one woman was killed, although this was unconfirmed.
*The Afghan army has killed 4 rebels in the first fighting near Musa Qala since it was captured from the Taleban last week, the defence ministry says. The insurgents died in a shoot-out east of the town during a search operation which found arms, ammunition and police uniforms, said Afghan officials. The clash near the former Taleban stronghold in southern Helmand province came as residents began returning home. Thousands of UK, US and Afghan troops seized the town five days ago.
*A key suspect in last year's alleged plot to bomb aircraft flying from Heathrow airport has staged a dramatic escape from custody in Pakistan. Rashid Rauf, 26, a British national who used to live in Birmingham, escaped from Pakistani authorities after appearing before a judge in an Islamabad court. He could have faced extradition to Great Britain in weeks.
*A woman will be denied free National Health Service treatment for breast cancer if she seeks to improve her chances by paying privately for an additional drug. A former nurse has been told that if she attempts to top up her treatment privately, she will have to foot the entire £10,000 bill for her drugs and care. The bizarre threat stems from the refusal by the government to let patients pay for additional drugs that are not prescribed on the NHS.
*A life-saving treatment will be denied to tens of thousands of victims of Britain's most common male cancer after a U-turn by the NHS rationing body. The groundbreaking ultrasound therapy has been shown to kill nine out of 10 prostate tumours, and five years after treatment, 80 per cent of patients show no sign of the cancer recurring.
*Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling, plans to make himself the key decision-maker in any future financial crisis, overruling the Bank of England and Financial Services Authority if necessary.
*Barry Townsley, the stockbroker who became embroiled in Labour’s cash-for-peerages affair, has seen his name dragged into court proceedings involving Langbar, the scandal-hit investment company that collapsed two years ago. According to e-mails presented at the High Court in London, Townsley was “shorting” shares in Langbar selling them in order to profit from an expected fall in their price months before the company’s collapse.
*Citigroup (CGP) predicts 10% fall in house prices.
*According to new research from BDO Stoy Hayward, the accountants, almost 1,400 retail businesses are expected to go bust next year, an increase of 7% on 2007 levels.
*Government berated by tourism chiefs: ‘Stop taking tourism for granted’.
*Rocketing food prices are prompting a revival of traditional farms.
*According to plans being drawn up by the Government, Great Britain’s next generation of nuclear power stations could be built to French design.
*South Africa's ruling African National Congress has begun a congress in Polokwane during which it will choose its next party leader. The two contenders are current ANC head and South African President, Thabo Mbeki, and ANC deputy Jacob Zuma. Despite corruption charges, Mr Zuma looks to be the favourite to win, the BBC's Peter Biles says. The choice of leader could determine who becomes South Africa's president after Mr Mbeki steps down in 2009.
*In the US two reservoirs which supply drinking water to parts of eastern and central Los Angeles were shut down after officials found them contaminated with high levels of a chemical that can cause cancer.
Compiled in association with HB PLC and WH Ireland Ltd
