Monday Papers: Hightech UK group in talks to sell controlling stake to Russia - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* Plastic Logic, a Cambridge company that has pioneered the development of low-cost computer chips made from plastic, is in discussions with Rusnano, a Russian state-owned nanotechnology corporation, about a capital infusion that would give it control of the UK company.

* News Corp’s proposal to takeover British Sky Broadcasting undervalues the company and may cause well-respected executives to leave, according to insiders, investors and analysts.

* Big US companies are putting in place measures to claw back executive pay and adapting their board structure ahead of new corporate governance rules.

* Russia is poised to take the first steps to form a global force in fertilisers – possibly as soon as this week – in what would be the first making of a national champion.

* Corporate governance experts backed Hewlett-Packard’s decision to oust its chief executive.

* The majority of people in the US believe oil companies should be more regulated in the wake of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a Harris poll carried out for the Financial Times.

* India is planning to open the country’s equity markets to foreign retail investors.

* Staff resignations doubled at the Financial Services Authority in the second quarter as the government announced plans to split up the embattled regulator and as revived private sector recruitment lured away managers and frontline supervisors.

* Britain is blocking an international effort to choke off funding to Somali pirates, Abshir Abdillahi and Mohamed Abdi Garaad, after UK shipping interests warned the action could hit the safety of crews, ships and cargo by making it harder to get them released.

* Headhunter Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann has poached key members from rival Heidrick & Struggles’ financial services team in the latest sign of a recovery in the banking recruitment market.

The Daily Telegraph