Wednesday Papers: StanChart hits back on Iran claims

Top stories

• Financial Times: Standard Chartered hit back hard on Tuesday against US regulatory attempts to cast it as a “rogue institution” for allegedly breaching sanctions on Iran, describing any transgressions as “small clerical errors”; but it failed to convince investors and the bank’s fell more than 16% on Tuesday to £12.28.
• Financial Times: Xstrata on Tuesday sought to underline its standalone growth prospects and pledged to defer $1 billion of about $8.2 billion in capital expenditure this year, amid calls from investors for greater discipline and shareholder opposition to the terms of the miner’s $60billion planned merger with Glencore.
• Financial Times: The sizes of Standard Chartered’s alleged sanctions problems could be $250 billion or $14 million depending on how the US law is ultimately interpreted by federal regulators and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.
• The Guardian: The Labour MP John Mann has called for a government inquiry into money laundering, and outlined fears that US regulators have British banks in their sights as they try to shift business from London to New York.
• Daily Mail: Deloitte stands accused by the New York State Department of Financial Services of helping Standard Chartered to cover up £160million of illegal transactions provided to rogue regimes, including Iran.
• The Independent: Pressure was growing last night for the two top executives at Standard Chartered, Peter Sands and Richard Meddings, to resign in the wake of accusations that the British bank laundered $250 billion of Iranian money over the past decade.
• Daily Express: Standard Chartered shares slumped by up to 22% on Tuesday, before closing down 241 pence to 1228½ pence, a 16% fall on top of a 6% drop on Monday, losing around £8 billion from its value.
• The Daily Telegraph: Jean-Claude Juncker, leader of the eurozone finance ministers' group, says the world could cope with Greece leaving the eurozone - but that it still holds dangers.
• The Guardian: Jessica Harper, the former Lloyds bank boss in charge of online security, has admitted a £2.4 million fraud.
• Financial Times: The US wants China and Arab states to help foot the $3 billion bill for a deal designed to unlock oil production and set Sudan and South Sudan back on the path to peace.
• The Independent: Beleaguered Italy paid the price of Prime Minister Mario Monti's €20 billion austerity drive on Tuesday as official figures showed a fresh 0.7% slide between April and June for its sclerotic economy.
• The Independent: The Bank of England will slash its growth forecasts close to zero on Wednesday as the double-dip recession deepens and the eurozone storm closes in on UK shores.
• Financial Times: Starting on Tuesday, Facebook will offer users in the UK aged 18 and over the opportunity to play online bingo for cash prizes; slot machine games will be added in the coming weeks.

Business and economics

• Financial Times: InterContinental Hotels Group has said it would return $1 billion to shareholders after solid trading in China and the Americas pushed up pre-tax profit 38% to $284 million in the six months to 30 June.
• Daily Mail: Diageo is expected to turn in a 7.4% increase in pretax profit to £2.9 billion on sales up 8.1% at £10.7 billion when it posts its full-year results later this month.
• Financial Times: Net income of Walt Disney for the third quarter rose from $1.66 billion to $2.04 billion, as revenues increased from $10.68 billion to $11.09 billion.
• Daily Express: ITV shares rose 1½ pence to 81¼ pence on Tuesday as Liberum Capital suggested it could return £1.3 billion or 40% of its market value over the next four years, with a special dividend payment seen as more likely than a share buyback.
• Financial Times: Munich Re beat analysts’ forecasts and raised net income for shareholders for the second quarter from €736 million a year ago to €808 million, on gross premiums that rose 5.5% to €12.6 billion.
• The Daily Telegraph: Meggitt has won a $100 million contract with oil giant Petrobras as part of a drive into the energy sector that is accelerating growth for the aerospace and defence engineer.
• Financial Times: Eon, the Düsseldorf-based company, said on Tuesday that it expected to report about €3.3 billion in underlying net income for the first six months of the year, compared with €900 million a year ago.
• Daily Mail: Bakery chain Greggs, despite managing to fight off the government's plans to impose 20% VAT on hot food on shelves, reported a 3.5% fall in underlying sales in the second quarter of 2012.
• Financial Times: Pfizer has been fined $60 million by US regulators for bribery of doctors and government officials in countries in eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the decade up to 2006.
• The Daily Telegraph: Heritage Oil jumped 25.8 – or 21% – to 148.8 pence following the resumption of dealings after trading was halted at the start of July at 123 pence.
• Financial Times: Hyundai Motor’s labour union staged partial strikes for six days from Tuesday to step up their push for higher wages and better working conditions.
• The Daily Telegraph: Legal & General saw pre-tax profits rise 11% to £525 million during the six months ending 30 June, on the back of strong sales of corporate and housing protection insurance.
• Financial Times: Hong Kong-listed Esprit Holdings has announced the appointment of Jose Manuel Martínez Gutiérrez, group director of distribution and operations at rival retailer Inditex, as its chief executive.
• Financial Times: Premier Foods has reported an operating profit of £33.6 million in the first half, sharply down on the year-ago £56.7 million, due to asset disposals.
• Financial Times: The wholesale price of the highest quality black tea has surged 41% higher since the start of the year, last month surpassing $4 a kilo, a level seen only once before in late 2009, when prices reached $5.45.
• Financial Times: Peter Marks is to retire as chief executive of the Co-operative Group after six years at the helm of the retail and financial services group, and 45 years in the wider Co-operative movement.
• Financial Times: Amazon.com has launched a textbook rental service, allowing US students to borrow print editions for a school term at up to 70 per cent off the price of new titles.

Share tips, comment and bids

• The Guardian: The Church of England has offloaded £1.9million stake in News Corporation because it fears Rupert Murdoch's media empire has failed to learn lessons from the phone-hacking scandal.
• Financial Times: The battle for control of Asia Pacific Breweries intensified on Tuesday after an affiliate of Thai brewer ThaiBev made an unexpected $805 million offer.
• The Guardian: A consortium of Chinook Urban Mining, the London-based recycling specialist, private equity investor Clearbrook Capital and US bank JP Morgan has made a £520 million cash offer for Biffa, the debt-laden waste management group.
• Financial Times: Opening bids for patents being put up for auction by Eastman Kodak have come in at only around 10% of the value the company is seeking for its digital imaging innovations; initial bids were in the range of $150 million to $250 million.
• The Independent: One of London's best-known hotels, the Intercontinental in Park Lane, has been put on the market by Intercontinental Hotels Group as it moves ever more from owning to managing hotels; the hotel could fetch more than £200 million.
• Financial Times: The new chief executive of Legal & General has signalled a greater willingness to make acquisitions, saying the FTSE 100 group would consider “bolt-on” purchases of asset management and general insurance companies.
• The Guardian (Comment): Of all the bank scandals, payments over PPI mis-selling scandal are likely to have to greatest personal impact on customers.
• The Guardian (Comment): On a day like this when another British bank faces accusations of serious wrongdoing by a regulator in the United States, it's worth remembering that, for all its talk of level playing fields and open trading, the US has always practised a robust form of economic nationalism.
• The Daily Telegraph (Comment): The Prime Minister must outline a vision of a global Britain that trades with the world.
• The Daily Telegraph (Comment): If Benjamin Lawsky’s allegations are right and it’s true that Standard Chartered “indisputably helped sustain a global threat to peace and stability” through $250 billion of “secret transactions” with banned Iranian clients then presumably that’s the end of the UK bank.
• Financial Times (Lex): Standard Chartered: the UK bank’s shares fall by a quarter as allegations about its dealings with Iran surface. Is this a buying opportunity?
• Financial Times (Lex): Xstrata: commodities trader Glencore is running out of time to seal its planned ‘merger of equals’ with FTSE 100-listed Swiss miner Xstrata
• Financial Times (Lex): Elan: the failure of a promising Alzheimer’s drug could have big strategic repercussions for Dublin-based biotechnology company
• Financial Times (Lex): Asia Pacific Breweries: if F&N shareholders have the patience they should accept Kindest Place’s offer because Heineken cannot afford to walk away