SHARES RISE ON NEWS THAT MURDOCH UNFIT TO RUN BSKYB, DOW HITS 4 YEAR HIGH, 1 IN 4 COULDN’T AFFORD FOOD IF MORTGAGE RATES RISE
FINANCIAL TIMES
MURDOCH ‘NOT FIT’ TO RUN GLOBAL COMPANY
By Ben Fenton and Salamander Davoudi in London and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York
A UK parliamentary committee has issued a damning report that criticised News Corp’s handling of the phone-hacking scandal. The MPs also accused Mr Murdoch, News Corp chairman and chief executive, and his son James of mismanaging the crisis at the company.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
NEWS CORP & BSKYB SHARES RISE ON TALK MURDOCH MAY SELL STAKE
By Katherine Rushton
Shares in News Corporation and BSkyB rose as experts warned he may have to sever all ties with the business he founded. News Corp could be forced to sell off its entire 39pc stake in BSkyB, or watch the company lose its valuable licence to air television. In London, BSkyB shares rose 13 to close at 691p.. In New York, News Corp shares went up 32 to $19.93 in morning trading. BSkyB publishes its third-quarter results on Wednesday
DAILY TELEGRAPH
DOW JONES INDEX HITS FOUR-YEAR HIGH ON US MANUFACTURING GROWTH
By Richard Blackden
America's benchmark Dow Jones Index jumped to a four-year high after better-than-expected manufacturing growth eased concerns that the US recovery is losing momentum.
FINANCIAL TIMES
UBS SHAREHOLDERS SET TO REBEL OVER PAY
By Daniel Schäfer in London
A significant number of investors are preparing to confront the management of UBS on Thursday by voting against the bank’s 2011 pay award. The bank’s share price dropped 28 per cent last year and it lost $2.25bn in a rogue trade in London that caused the largest unauthorised trading loss on record in Britain. For the same period, the bank chose to pay 12 members of its executive board $77.1m.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
ONE IN FIVE 'COULDN'T AFFORD FOOD' IF MORTGAGE PAYMENTS ROSE
By Richard Evans
One in seven home owners struggles to pay the mortgage and 20% would not have enough for essentials such as food if their repayments rose by £100 a month. According to research by Which?, the consumer group, 70% of mortgage-holders are concerned about an increase in interest rates. More than a million home owners will see the cost of their mortgage payments increase today as several lenders raise standard variable rate.
GUARDIAN
HOUSE PRICES FALL BACK 0.6% IN MARCH
House prices have fallen year-on-year for the 15th month in a row, official figures showed today. Prices dropped by 0.6% both annually and on a monthly basis in March 2012, pushing the average house price in England and Wales to £160,372, the Land Registry said. The figures were released on the same day that more than a million homeowners saw the cost of their mortgage payments go up.
THE SUN
IRON WILLED
Rock star, Bruce Dickinson, has vowed to create 1,000 jobs at a “centre of excellence” for British aviation. The Iron Maiden frontman, a fully qualified pilot, yesterday bought 132,000sq ft of old RAF hangars in South Wales. He aims to use the site at St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, to service Boeing 737s, train pilots on simulators and, one day, build airships.
DAILY MAIL
PPI MIS-SELLING VICTIMS LOSE £80MILLION TO PUSHY CLAIMS FIRMS
By Lauren Thompson
Thousands of victims of payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling are set to miss out on £80million-worth of compensation this year alone. The money is going straight into the pockets of unscrupulous claims management firms instead of people who paid years worth of premiums for insurance cover they didn’t need. Claims firms promise to secure refunds of PPI, a type of insurance supposed to cover payments of credit cards and loans if you fall ill or can’t work.
DAILY EXPRESS
LLOYDS BOSS ATTACKS PPI CLAIM ‘FRAUD’
By Andrew Johnson
One in four claims made against Lloyds Banking Group for mis-selling payment protection insurance is fraudulent, the bank’s chief executive said yesterday. Antonio Horta-Osorio slammed the claims management companies who submit compensation demands “on behalf of customers who do not even have a PPI policy with us” as he revealed the bank had been forced to set aside a further £375million to cope with the scandal, taking the total to nearly £3.6billion. “We have to stop this, it is fraud,” said Horta-Osorio, who described the jump as a “minor adjustment”.
THE SCOTSMAN
CONSOLIDATION TALK AS ETIHAD FLIES IN TO TAKE 3% STAKE IN AER LINGUS
By Gareth Mackie
Etihad Airways yesterday bought a 3 per cent stake in Irish carrier Aer Lingus in a deal that could trigger more consolidation in the airline industry. Aer Lingus said talks with the Middle Eastern group, which operates ten flights a week between Abu Dhabi and Dublin since launching the service in 2007, so far have centred around a code-share agreement and have been extended to include cost savings through joint procurement.
…. AND FINALLY ….
GUARDIAN
PARKING MAD: THE £525,000 GARAGE
By Hilary Osborne
A Knightsbridge estate agent is selling a freehold double garage 'moments from Harrods' for in excess of half-a-million pounds. Proof, if it were needed, that the property market in London's poshest neighbourhoods is a law unto itself. The freehold double garage on Rysbrack Street is up for sale for a considerably above-the-average-house-price cost of £525,000. That's about £1,500 a square foot, which is less than the going rate for Knightsbridge, according to Savills – but then this place does lack a Poggenpohl kitchen and marble bathroom.
