Friday Papers: Bailout to impose controls on Athens

Top stories

• Financial Times: A €130 billion bail-out of Greece will contain unprecedented controls on Athens’ ability to spend funds, officials said, as European leaders scrambled on Thursday to paper over their divisions on the rescue package.
• The Guardian: Andrew Osborne, former managing director of corporate broking at Merrill Lynch International, has been fined £350,000 by the Financial Services Authority for engaging in "market abuse" before a fundraising by Punch Taverns.
• Financial Times: The European Central Bank has secured protection against forced losses on its Greek government bonds in a move that should make it easier for profits on its holdings to be put towards Greece’s second bail-out.
• The Independent: Moody’s has put the ratings of 114 banks in Europe under review, as well as 17 investment banks.
• Financial Times: Spain is teetering on the brink of recession after final official data confirmed that the eurozone’s fourth largest economy contracted 0.3% - the first in two years - in the fourth quarter of 2011.
• Financial Times: China has said that the next World Bank president should be chosen on merit, seeking to challenge a tradition that the bank’s chief be a US citizen, though it did not suggest a candidate.
• The Guardian: Bill Gates is putting pressure on the Obama administration to prevent major US energy companies from neutering legislation aimed at stamping out corruption in developing countries.
• The Independent: A cap on fuel bills could be introduced for the first time in more than a decade amid rising concern that customers are being ripped off by the Big Six energy firms.

Business and economics

• The Daily Telegraph: Introducing a financial transaction tax would raise additional taxes worth €10 billion for the British government.
• The Independent: Banks were Thursday warned that they could face a fresh investigation from competition watchdogs amid increasing concerns over the dominance of four big players - RBS, Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC.
• Financial Times: Japanese authorities arrested seven people on Thursday in connection with a $1.7 billion accounting fraud at Olympus, including the camera company’s former chairman, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, and outside financial advisers suspected of helping executives hide loss-making investments.
• The Independent: National Grid and ScottishPower have awarded the £1 billion contract to Siemens and cable manufacturer Prysmian for the construction of the first sub-sea electricity link between Scotland and England.
• The Guardian: Kazakh billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is alleged to have embezzled $5 billion, has been sentenced to 22 months in jail for trying to hide more than £34 million of assets from creditors.
• Daily Mail: An astonishing one in eight woman continues working until past the age of 70; among men, the figure is one in ten.
• Financial Times: Zurich-based ABB has reported full-year revenue of $37.99 billion, although a 24% rise in net income to $3.17 billion still fell short of analyst estimates.
• The Daily Telegraph: Glencore's head of aluminium, Gary Fegel, has a stake in the company worth around $1 billion, fuelling fears as to how well its management team will mesh with their Xstrata counterparts under their planned "merger of equals".
• Daily Mail: Profits at French bank Société Générale slumped 89% in the final three months of the year to £83 million as it was forced to write off Greek debt and sell off £8.3 billion of assets to boost its capital reserves.
• Financial Times: General Motors on Thursday reported full-year net income of $7.59 billion, or $4.58 a share, up from $4.67 billion in 2010.
• The Daily Telegraph: A total of 127,382 cars were made in the UK in January 2012 - a 15.6% rise on the January 2011 total.
• Financial Times: General Motors has said for the first time it is preparing a tough new restructuring plan for Opel/ Vauxhall after its European business reported an annual loss before earnings and tax of $747 million.
• Financial Times: Sales at BAE Systems fell 14% to £19.2 billion for the year to December 31, largely because of the consequences of the withdrawal from Iraq and pressure on public finances in the US and UK.
• The Guardian: Workers at Unilever's UK operations are to vote on proposals by the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group to resolve an industrial dispute over pension changes.
• Financial Times: African Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest gold producer, has reported record earnings of $4.48 billion for 2011, up 25%.
• Financial Times: Gazprom has reduced the price of gas in its long-term contracts with European customers by 10%, as it comes under mounting pressure to move away from oil-linked prices.
• The Independent: PPR, the French group behind designer brands Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Yves Saint Laurent as well as Gucci, posted an 11% rise in sales to €12.2 billion in 2011; profit was up 2% at €986 million.
• Financial Times: BP has awarded its top directors, including Bob Dudley, the chief executive, share bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of pounds under a long-term incentive plan.
• Financial Times: Malcolm Walker, the founder and chief executive of Iceland Foods, has lined up financing from three backers for his £1.4-£1.5 billion bid for the frozen food specialist.
• The Independent: The underlying operating profit of Reed Elsevier rose 5% to £1.6 billion last year after new online product launches and a cost-cutting drive.
• Financial Times: Volkswagen and PSA Peugeot Citroën are looking at tapping a European Central Bank loan programme designed to aid eurozone banks in a move that could help ease funding costs for the region’s carmakers.
• Daily Mail: French-owned EDF Energy, Britain's largest energy producer hauled in operating profits of £1.6 billion during 2011 – almost £300 per customer.
• Financial Times: VF Corporation, the owner of the North Face, Wrangler and Nautica brands, has said sales in the three months to Dec 31 were up 37% from the same period last year at a record $2.9 billion boosted by its $2.3 billion purchase of Timberland last year.
• The Independent: Nestle has posted a full-year net profit of £6.5 billion that reflected stronger-than-expected sales growth of 7.5%.
• Daily Mail: Landbrokes, the UK’s second largest betting chain Thursday said punters staked nearly £10.5 billion on gaming machines – an increase of 13.7% on last year.
• Financial Times: Capgemini, Europe’s largest IT services company, surprised investors with a 44% increase in full-year profit to €404 million, thanks to strong sales in the US, once the company’s weakest area.
• The Independent: Renault has reported net profit of £1.7 billion in 2011, down from £2.8 billion a year earlier.
• Financial Times: A reshuffle of management at Kingfisher has sparked speculation that the DIY retailer has begun the race to find a successor to Ian Cheshire, chief executive.

Share tips, comment and bids

• Financial Times: NYSE Euronext and CME Group, the two US exchange groups, have submitted bids for the London Metal Exchange, valuing it at up to £1 billion.
• The Guardian: Virgin Atlantic is increasing efforts to block the takeover of bmi by its arch-rival IAG, by making a formal complaint to the European commission, claiming the merger would create local monopolies and drive up fares.
• Financial Times: Graff Diamonds, the high-end London jeweller, has filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise up to $1 billion.
• Financial Times: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has told CVR Energy that he intends to make a hostile bid for the company worth at least $2.6 billion.
• Financial Times: The consolidation of the European logistics sector gathered pace on Thursday with UPS, the US group, buying Kiala; UPS did not give details of how much it was paying.
• Financial Times (Comment): The big challenge is to bring down corporate financial surpluses – but by raising growth, not by depressing the economy.
• The Guardian (Comment): We're told that Fed officials and the Obama administration saved us from another 1930s-style slump. Nonsense.
• The Daily Telegraph (Comment): If Greece staggers to the line again and Europe hands over cash to meet its debts falling due in March, nothing will have changed.
• Daily Mail (Comment – Alex Brummer): The speed of General Motors' recovery speaks volumes about the resilience of the US economy.
• Financial Times (The Lex Column): GM: if the US could help persuade European governments that industry consolidation can’t be put off any longer, GM’s prospects would rise sharply.
• Financial Times (The Lex Column): Société Générale: investors keep hearing that Société Générale has dealt with its pre-crisis CIB excesses. But they just keep on coming, damaging credibility.
• Financial Times (The Lex Column): BAE Systems: Europe’s biggest defence contractor has performed well, but defence cuts mean the future is less bright.
• Financial Times (The Lex Column): Nestlé: Europe’s second-biggest company looks to be in for a repeat of last year, as it suffers from the effect of the strong Swiss franc.