Wednesday Papers: Santander executive charged with insider trading - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* Juan Garcia, head of Europe equity derivatives research at Banco Santander, was on Tuesday charged with insider trading by the SEC in relation to the hostile $39bn bid by BHP Billiton for PotashCorp.

* The domestic arm of China’s main sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp, completed its first bond sale on Tuesday, raising Rmb40bn ($5.9bn) from the interbank market.

* An increase in client investments and fees helped Jupiter Fund Management swing into the black in its first results since listing this year; the asset manager attracted £814m of net inflows in the first half.

* Lou Simpson, a fund manager for Warren Buffett, plans to retire at the end of the year from his post at Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico subsidiary, depriving the billionaire investment guru of an employee once tipped as a potential successor.

* WPP now expects the second quarter’s 4% growth rate to hold for the remainder of the year after a rapid rebound in advertising.

The Daily Telegraph

* Daun Winslow, one of the survivors of BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion, admitted that his bonus was in part based on how quickly repairs were carried out.

* Profits at Burger King fell 17% to $49m in its fiscal fourth quarter, against $58.9m last time, as total sales slipped 1% to $623m.

* Rio Tinto is not planning to make a counterbid for PotashCorp, sources close to the company have said.

The Guardian

* Persimmon reinstates half-year dividend after soaring profits.