TODAY’S HEADLINES IN BRIEF: REVOLT OVER EXEC PAY, RBS TO PAY BACK LOAN, UK STAGNATION THIS YEAR & BUDGIE TALKS HIS WAY HOME
FINANCIAL TIMES
INVESTOR FURY AT EXECUTIVE PAY POLICIES
By Alistair Gray and Kate Burgess in London
Andrew Moss, Aviva chief excecutive, has waived a planned £46,000 salary increase
The company lost a shareholder vote over its pay plans on Thursday, the first such defeat for a FTSE 100 company in three years. The defeat, which prompted calls for Andrew Moss, chief executive, to stand down, came during an exceptionally stormy annual meeting season. In recent weeks, large numbers of shareholders have failed to back pay plans at UBS, Citigroup, Barclays, Trinity Mirror, AstraZeneca and Inmarsat.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
FAMILIES MUST ACCEPT SHARE OF BLAME FOR BRITAIN'S WOES
By James Kirkup, Deputy Political Editor, in Hamburg
Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said that banks were not solely responsible for the financial crisis. British households that borrowed too much money must “accept responsibility” he said. The minister, who played a key role in drawing up David Cameron’s economic strategy in opposition, also claimed that people who took out loans were “consenting adults” who, in some cases, were now be seeking to blame others for their actions.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
RBS SET TO PAY BACK LAST OF £163BN LOAN FROM TAXPAYER
By Jamie Dunkley
Royal Bank of Scotland will on Friday confirm it has all but repaid the £163bn in emergency loans it received from British and US taxpayers during the financial crisis. The bank is 82% state-owned following a £45bn taxpayer bailout, will complete the loan repayments next week. An announcement will be made during the company’s first-quarter update on Friday, where RBS’ pre-tax losses are expected to fall below £50m. The figure will compare favourably with the £106m loss it made during the first quarter of 2011.
GUARDIAN
FACEBOOK PLANS INITIAL STOCK MARKET PRICE BETWEEN $28 AND $35 A SHARE
Ed Pilkington in New York
The price would value company at upwards of $96bn, just shy of the original estimates but still the largest for any internet company. Facebook has indicated it will price itself at between $28 and $35 a share, paving the way for the world's largest social networking site to reach a giddying valuation of almost $100bn when launches its stock market sale in two weeks. Mark Zuckerberg, who invented Facebook while studying at Harvard, stands to make up to $19bn personally.
INDEPENDENT
UK FACES STAGNATION IN 2012, SAYS NIESR
The UK economy is set for virtual stagnation in 2012 after four years of "unprecedented" weakness, a leading forecaster has warned. The report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) came amid signs of slowing momentum from services firms, which account for more than three-quarters of the economy. NIESR is braced for "close to zero" growth, another jump in unemployment to 9 per cent – almost 3 million – and far higher than expected borrowing. The forecaster is pencilling in public borrowing of £120.6bn next year.
THE SUN
CHINA GOBBLES UP £1.2BN WEETABIX
By Steve Hawkes, Business Editor
Britain’s favourite breakfast cereal Weetabix is going global after it was swallowed up by the Chinese yesterday. China’s state-owned giant Bright Food, bought a controlling 60 per cent stake in the former family business, which also owns Alpen and Ready Brek. The deal values Weetabix at £1.2 billion. And speaking to Sun City through an interpreter, boss Wang Zongnan vowed to help Weetabix sweep across Asia and the Far East
DAILY MAIL
UK PROPERTY MARKET SLIDE - FOUR OF LAST FIVE MONTHS SHOW HOUSE PRICE FALLS
By Adrian Lowery
The slide in the UK property market continued in April, figures showed today, with a 0.2 per cent fall making it four months out of five that house prices have dropped. And Nationwide warned that house prices, which on average were also 0.9 per cent down on April last year, were set to stagnate or fall throughout 2012 as households' confidence lagged behind any possible economic recovery.
DAILY EXPRESS
EU PLOT TO SCRAP BRITAIN
By Macer Hall
Senior Eurocrats are secretly plotting to create a super-powerful EU president to realise their dream of abolishing ¬Britain and other nation states, the Daily Express can reveal. A covert group of EU foreign ministers has drawn up plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.
WWW.BBC.CO.UK
RBS REPAYS £163BN EMERGENCY LOANS
Royal Bank of Scotland is to say that as of next week, it will have repaid all the £163bn of emergency loans it received from UK and US taxpayers, BBC business editor Robert Peston says. The announcement is expected when the bank reports its first-quarter results on Friday. The government still owns 82% of shares in the bank.
….AND FINALLY ….
DAILY TELEGRAPH
JAPAN: LOST BUDGIE REUNITED WITH OWNER AFTER RECITING ADDRESS
Piko-chan, the lost budgie returned home earlier this week after telling authorities his address and phone number. The two-year-old budgie escaped from his cage on Sunday when his owner accidentally left his cage door open. Landing in the room of a nearby hotel, the bird was turned into the authorities before suddenly beginning to recite his precise address. Brought along to a press conference by relieved 64-year-old owner of Fumie Takahashi, Piko-chan was asked by reporters, "What's your address?". The budgie replied "Sagamihara-shi, Hashimoto" with no hesitation.
