Tuesday Papers: Greece to face curbs on new bailout

Top stories

• Financial Times: European officials are insisting any new Greek bail-out programme specifically earmark funds to pay off remaining holders of Greek debt, giving lenders the freedom to withhold aid to Athens without risking a messy default that could reignite panic in financial markets.
• Financial Times: BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence contractor, has signalled its willingness to reduce the price of the Eurofighter Typhoon to win back a $20 billion Indian tender from France’s Dassault.
• The Guardian: Greece appeared intent on taking make-or-break talks over a €130 billion rescue programme for the debt-choked country down to the wire on Monday night as officials announced that the discussions would be delayed.
• Financial Times: European corporate defaults are widely expected to climb sharply this year despite the recent improvement in credit market sentiment as bank lending cuts and a deteriorating economic backdrop put many smaller or indebted companies under pressure.
• The Daily Telegraph: Miner Xstrata and trading house Glencore will on Tuesday unveil details for their $90 billion merger, which will see the new copper-to-commodities trading titan catapulted to seventh place in the UK's FTSE 100.
• The Independent: The mobile phone giant Vodafone has taken a major step towards a possible £10 billion stock market float for its Vodafone India subsidiary, VIL, as former co-owner Essar completed its exit from the business on Monday.
• Daily Mail: Hackers are again gunning for Britain's 25 million internet banking users after cracking the latest generation of security devices.

Business and economics

• Financial Times: British Chancellor George Osborne on Monday night secured outline backing from MPs for his bill to shake up regulation, proposing a new system – focused on a beefed-up Bank of England – that provides “clear lines of responsibility” and help to avert a future crisis.
• Financial Times: Emerging market equity funds, which fell out of favour for much of last year, attracted $3.5 billion in the week ending 1 February, the most in almost a year, taking the total inflows this year to $11.3 billion, according to EPFR Global, a data provider.
• Financial Times: Economic growth in China could drop by half this year in the event of a sharp recession in Europe, the International Monetary Fund predicted on Monday.
• Financial Times: Private secondary markets, whose businesses were built around trades of Facebook shares, will face a sharp drop in trading volume once the social network goes public, calling into question the long-term viability of the marketplaces.
• Daily Mail: The row over bankers’ pay blew up again last night after it emerged that Truett Tate, head of Lloyds 'casino-banking' arm, will pick up his £656,000 salary for doing nothing.
• Financial Times: Randgold Resources, the FTSE 100 gold miner, has committed itself to spending $1 billion over the next two years to further develop mines in west and central Africa.
• Financial Times: Swiss private bank Julius Baer fell 3.8% to SFr36.40 in London on Monday after its results for 2011 came in below expectations, with full-year net profit down 27 % at SFr258 million.
• The Guardian: A report produced by IMAS Corporate Finance on behalf of TheCityUK and UK Trade & Investment found that 55% of the largest insurance groups in the UK, valued at over £100 million, are owned by overseas firms, many of which are listed in the US.
• Financial Times: A record for the most expensive shop rent in the UK has been set with Italian fashion brand Salvatore Ferragamo agreeing to pay nearly £1,000 a square foot a year for part of its space on Bond Street.
• Financial Times: Senior executives at Network Rail have bowed to almost a week of sustained political pressure by giving up potential annual bonuses totalling more than £1 million.
• Financial Times: Citigroup will become the first western bank to issue credit cards in mainland China under its own brand after it won approval to launch the business from the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
• The Independent: BT has said it disagrees with 4.5% price cuts ordered by the telecoms regulator, Ofcom.
• Financial Times: Foster & Partners pre-tax profits surged from £1.67 million to £10.98 million on turnover up 18.8% to £159.27 million in the 12 months to 30 April, 2011, as the company boosted its global footprint.
• The Daily Telegraph: Carnival, the cruise operator behind last month's Costa Concordia disaster, has suffered a downgrade by broker Charles Stanley amid concerns that the incident will have a long-term "material impact" on revenues this year and next.
• Financial Times: MF Global began using customer funds a day earlier than previously believed as it struggled to deal with customer withdrawals and margin calls in the run-up to its bankruptcy filing on 31 October.
• Financial Times: US regulators have fined the UK-based medical devices company Smith & Nephew $22 million for bribing Greek doctors to use its products over the past decade.
• Financial Times: European officials are insisting that Chinese airlines will have to pay for their carbon emissions, rebuffing an attempt by Beijing on Monday to shield them from a controversial emissions trading scheme.
• Financial Times: Lazard’s revenues fell 26% to $260 million in the fourth quarter after the eurozone debt crisis and subsequent market turmoil led to the independent investment bank advising on fewer corporate deals.
• The Daily Telegraph: US industrial group 3M is to risk antagonising shareholders by spending up to $250 million replacing its fleet of private jets.
• Financial Times: HTC expects revenues to fall a further 35.5% in the first quarter, to between T$65 billion (US$2.19 billion) to T$70 billion, as it scrambles to find its next hit phone.
• The Daily Telegraph: Avanti, the UK's only-listed satellite operator, is to raise £75 million to fund the launch of its third orbiter, HYLAS 3.
• Financial Times: Vacancy rates on the worst British high streets could hit 50% within three years, as half of all high street leases are due to expire by 2015, research by Jones Lang LaSalle, the property consultancy, showed.
• Financial Times: Global Maritime Investments, a Cyprus-based ship operating company, has highlighted the depth of the dry bulk shipping market’s rate slump after it unusually agreed to pay Glencore $2,000 a day for the commodity trader to use one of its ships.

Share tips, comment and bids

• Financial Times: TPG’s proposed £508 million offer for London-listed GlobeOp is set to turn into a bid battle after US-based SS&C Technologies Holdings said it was considering a competing bid.
• Financial Times: Verizon and Coinstar, owner of the Redbox DVD rental service, are teaming up to take on Netflix; the new company will see Verizon hold a 65% stake, with Redbox holding 35% worth $14 million.
• The Daily Telegraph: Vodafone has done an about-turn on plans to merge its operations in Greece with rival Wind Hellas, amid regulatory objections in Brussels and mounting fears of a Greek default.
• Financial Times: Glam Media, a large network of lifestyle blogs that has been valued at close to $1 billion, is close to finalising plans to file for an initial public offering by April.
• The Guardian (Comment): The EU needs a growth compact, not a fiscal one. Swift action on tax and jobs is the way out of the crisis.
• The Daily Telegraph (Comment): The half-century habits of Franco-German condominium die hard. It is a painful process for French elites to admit that monetary union is asphyxiating their economy and must inevitably trap France in mercantilist subordination to Germany.
• Daily Mail (Comment – Alex Brummer): The Stephen Hester defence committee is now in full cry. Business grandees including Michael Spencer of Icap and Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP have taken to the prints to argue that the Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive has been ‘hounded’ out of his bonus, putting us in danger of creating an anti-business attitude, which could affect confidence in Britain.
• Financial Times (The Lex Column): Bumi: if Mr Rothschild is derailed, or forced to take a back seat, investors will feel that the cash-shell deal that they signed up to is broken.
• Financial Times (The Lex Column): China: European leaders fret too much about whether, or how, China and other Asian nations and sovereign wealth funds might come to the eurozone’s aid.
• Financial Times (The Lex Column): Unilever: though the company’s prospects appear sound in the long run, investors should be patient. Its surfboard looks to be headed into a trough.