Saturday Papers: StanChart hastens board shake-up

Top stories

• The Daily Telegraph: Standard Chartered is planning a boardroom overhaul to give the developing markets bank a more global focus, replacing at least two non-executive directors.
• Financial Times: Individual homeowners built more homes than any of the UK’s major developers last year, leading to calls for more bank support for the self-build sector.
• The Daily Telegraph: Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays, has been accused of misleading Parliament in an unusually strong attack by MPs investigating the Libor scandal.
• Financial Times: Treasury select committee has criticised the FSA and the central bank for bowing to public pressure by calling for Barclays chief executive to go.
• The Daily Telegraph: Pressure on banking sector over Libor-rigging scandal ramped up after seven banks, including the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC, issued with subpoenas in the US.
• The Daily Telegraph: Treasury likely to delay appointment of new Bank Governor after several favourites are tainted by fallout from financial crisis.
• The Daily Telegraph (Comment): Andrew Tyrie's Treasury Select Committee has produced an excellent report into the Libor rate-rigging scandal. But it’s not just the bankers that need changing but the regulators too.
• The Daily Telegraph: Facebook shares were worth just half of their $38 flotation price on Friday, falling by 50% in just three months to hit the unwelcome milestone and record low of $19.
• Financial Times (Lex): Facebook: the social network is an advertising company and a capitalistic enterprise, but it has put together the worst imaginable advertisement for capitalism.
• The Guardian: The mayor of Madrid, a prominent member of Spain's ruling party, said on Friday it seemed inevitable that the central government would apply for some kind of international aid package as the country's borrowing costs soar.

Business and economics

• Financial Times: Moody’s has unveiled a sweeping review of its ratings of California cities, warning of rising default risk on debt issued in the state; the move comes after three California cities – Stockton, Mammoth Lakes and San Bernardino – filed for bankruptcy this summer.
• The Daily Telegraph: Senator, the Lancashire-based furniture company, is eyeing new export markets after sales topped £100 million for the first time.
• The Guardian: Travelodge is asking landlords for rent reductions as part of a rescue deal that will see it jettison nearly 50 hotels, potentially putting 350 jobs at risk.
• Financial Times: Savers invested £1.1 billion into so-called “fund of funds” in the second quarter of this year, up from just £460 million in the previous quarter.
• The Daily Telegraph: Violent clashes at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, brutally put down by the police, have left another 34 dead and raised the pressure on the cash-strapped company.
• The Daily Telegraph: Mark Thompson was beset by pay rows at the BBC, where he took home £671,000 a year, but he could receive up to $10.5 million when he joins The New York Times.
• The Daily Telegraph: Rank Group, which operates the Grosvenor Casino and Mecca Bingo brands, defied the economic downturn by increasing revenues by 3.4% to £600.5 million during the 12 months ending 30 June.
• The Independent: The pay of Britain's top company bosses has soared still higher; the total pay package for the typical FTSE 100 chief executive hit £3 million for the first time in 2011 – an average rise of 8.5%– despite it being a brutal year for investors.
• Financial Times: Mathias Döpfner has been rewarded for his leadership of Germany’s Axel Springer with a gift of shares worth almost €74 million from the publishing group’s owner.
• The Daily Telegraph: Falling prices of recycled materials have seen trading plunge at Pennon's waste business Viridor, which until recently was seen as the company's growth engine.
• The Guardian: US consumer sentiment improved in early August to the highest level in three months as sales at retailers and low mortgage rates spurred Americans to boost their buying plans, a survey showed on Friday; but rising food prices from drought sent inflation expectations up.
• The Daily Telegraph: A clinical trial of GlaxoSmithKline's drug for people with severe asthma nearly halved the number attacks suffered by people with a difficult-to-treat type of the disease.
• The Guardian: Inditex, the Spanish clothing retailer, has increased sales and made its founder, Amancio Ortega, the world's third richest man.
• Financial Times: Workers at General Motors’ operations in South Korea have overwhelmingly rejected a new pay offer from the US car company.

Share tips, comment and bids

• The Daily Telegraph: Chemring, the high-technology British defence and aerospace equipment maker, has received a takeover approach from private equity firm Carlyle.
• The Guardian: Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is buying 20% of Heathrow owner BAA.
• Financial Times: Heineken has sweetened its bid for Asia Pacific Breweries to trump a rival offer from an affiliate of ThaiBev in the convoluted battle for the Asian brewer.
• Financial Times: Aviva has received first-round bid approaches for its US arm from US-based private equity houses as well as financial services group Guggenheim Partners, people with knowledge of the matter said.
• The Guardian (Editorial): In an ordinary year – one not marked by Britain's double-dip, the euro crisis and a possible change of guard in Washington – the collapse in Facebook's stock would be one of the biggest business stories around.
• The Independent (Comment): Google's acquisition of Frommer's is a red rag to regulators. Toreador Larry Page, the search engine's chief executive, has dropped any pretence that the company's mission is simply to "organise the world's information", as it has long claimed.
• The Independent (Comment): This week's strife in South Africa suffered by platinum producer Lonmin acts as a timely reminder that Mick Davis, who was dangled a £30 million, no-strings retention package, is human after all.
• Financial Times (Lex): Big US retailers have entered the rapidly expanding market for mobile transactions as they fight off the competition in a winner-take-all battle.