Tuesday Papers: Investors take stock as growth doubts linger - other news

Financial Times

*  Investors are reluctant to build riskier bets as worries about global economic growth continue to nag; the FTSE All-World index is down 0.2 per cent while the S&P 500 hit its lowest level since the start of October and was down 16 per cent since April’s cyclical peak; the FTSE Asia-Pacific index was up 0.2 per cent and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 per cent.

* Fairfield Energy, the private equity backed UK oil explorer, is aiming to achieve a market value of more than $1bn for its London stock market flotation this month.

* Jared Brook and Lincoln Fraser, two businessmen accused of running an elaborate £150m Ponzi scheme by the Serious Fraud Office, have been cleared following an eight-month retrial.

* Morgan Stanley was looking to hire 400 more private bankers over the next year or so, on top of the 100 it has recruited so far, sources said.

* JPMorgan, which last week acquired a large energy and metals trader, has brushed aside industry concerns that legislation forcing banks to spin off swap trading desks would make its commodities business less competitive.

* Dieter Frerichs, a suspect arrested in the course of an investigation into an alleged €300m Ponzi scheme involving Germany’s K1 hedge fund group, has committed suicide; Frerichs, was managing director of K1 group funds K1 Global and K1 Invest.

* China is considering stripping its $200bn sovereign wealth fund of the country’s banking stakes; as per the proposal, China Investment Corporation would no longer be responsible for holding the state’s majority stakes in the country’s biggest banks.

* The European Central Bank has scolded Romania’s government for forcing a 25 per cent pay cut on employees of the country’s central bank.

* BP can meet the costs of its huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico without issuing new shares, the company said on Monday, rejecting recent speculation that it was seeking a bail-out from a strategic investor.

* Henry Cameron, the former chief executive of scandal-hit Sibir Energy, has been fined £350,000 by the City watchdog for failing to disclose cash payments made by the company to one of its largest shareholders, the Russian tycoon Chalva Tchigirinski.

The Daily Telegraph