Saturday Papers: NBNK Investments raises £50m in IPO - other news

Financial Times

* NBNK Investments, a vehicle set up and chaired by City heavyweight Lord Levene to buy state-backed banking assets, has raised £50m through an initial public offering.

* South Korea’s financial regulators have punished Kookmin Bank and its current and former officials for decisions that led to $948m in losses at the country’s biggest retail lender.

* Reduced growth forecast puts heat on Sarkozy.

* Sweden’s economy is on course to grow at 4.5% in 2010 - its fastest pace for more than a decade, according to an upwardly revised government forecast.

* Axel Weber, the Bundesbank president, has argued in favour of extending emergency help for eurozone banks until at least next year.

* Senior Republican lawmakers in the Senate have warned that Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker, should be blocked from operating in the US because of alleged ties to the Iranian government.

* The FTSE All-World stock index fell 1%; the Eurofirst 300 index has closed down 0.7%, and  Shanghai’s composite index fell 1.7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.4%; the S&P 500 index has fallen 0.4%, after dropping 1.1% to its intra-day low.

The Daily Telegraph

* UK house prices will not recover to their 2007 peak for another decade, once the effects of inflation are included, PwC has warned.

* The Institute of Economic Affairs has calculated that the national debt is £4.8 trillion once state and public sector pension liabilities are included, or £78,000 for every person in the UK.

The Guardian