It’s Friday the 13th - unlucky for some like potentially Europe’s bankers but JK Rowling has revealed details of her new book (for adults), ITV says goodbye to Bond and a 4 year old joins Mensa.
FINANCIAL TIMES
EU seeks new curbs to cap bank bonuses
By Alex Barker and Brooke Masters in London
Bankers’ bonuses across Europe would be capped at no more than their fixed salaries under strict new curbs sought by senior lawmakers in response to continued public anger over financial sector pay. In a sign that Brussels is hardening its stance on banker pay, European Union parliamentarians are drawing up new caps on bonuses to be included in the bloc’s latest bank capital rules. The move comes as research from the pan-EU banking regulator reveals huge disparities in bonus sizes across the region and big differences in enforcing existing EU pay rules, which limit the upfront cash portion of a bonus to 25 per cent of the total. The European Banking Authority survey found that the median average ratio of bonus to salary across the block was 122 per cent for executives and 139 per cent for other risk-takers, such as traders. But one country reported an average ratio of 313 per cent for traders and one institution had a ratio of 429 per cent for executives and 940 per cent for other staff.
THE GUARDIAN
BP under fire at turbulent AGM
By Terry Macalister
An attempt by BP management to move on from the Gulf of Mexico crisis that has dogged it over the last two years was undermined at a turbulent annual meeting when the oil group came under fierce fire from its own shareholders. More than 10% of investors voted against a £4m pay package secured by chief executive Bob Dudley while directors were attacked for continuing safety lapses and accused of painting an over "rosy" picture of the US cleanup. The atmosphere among environmentalists at the ExCel Centre in London's Docklands on Thursday was further poisoned by reports of another oil spill in the Gulf that was attributed to Shell plus the continuing gas leak on Total's Elgin field in the North Sea. Bob Dudley, the chief executive who was brought in after the Deepwater Horizon accident to replace the much-pilloried Tony Hayward, thanked shareholders for "sticking with" BP. He admitted the business had come through a "major crisis" but said it was back on track due to the commitment of its staff, a raft of measures to improve safety across the group and a sell-off of non-core assets.
DAILY MAIL
The £54bn pensions 'ticking time bomb' that could drive up council tax
By Becky Barrow
Britain is sitting on ‘a ticking time bomb’ created by the generous pensions enjoyed by council workers, a report warns today. The shocking analysis reveals councils across the UK have a pensions deficit of £54billion – amid warnings it could get even bigger.
Experts warn council tax bills will have to rise sharply in the future to pay for pensions paid to council workers, from bin men to town hall staff. The equivalent of around £1 in every £5 of council tax is already spent on local authorities’ contributions to their workers’ pension scheme, according to the report by campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance. The average pension paid to a council worker is around £4,200 a year, which covers all council workers, many of whom are on very low pay. But more than 2,700 scoop pensions worth at least £37,000 a year and more than 35,000 get at least £17,000 a year, according to official figures.
FINANCIAL TIMES
JK Rowling reveals price of next novel
By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York
A day after her publisher reached a settlement with the Department of Justice that is expected to cut the price of bestselling ebooks in the US to $9.99, JK Rowling announced that the electronic edition of her next novel would be priced at twice that sum. The author of seven Harry Potter books that sold 450m copies said on Thursday her first novel for adults would be called The Casual Vacancy. Little Brown, an imprint of Hachette with worldwide English-language rights to the book, will publish it on September 27. Ms Rowling was a late convert to ebooks, making the Harry Potter titles available online only last month, 15 years after the first title was published in print. With strong demand expected for her first full-length novel in five years, her pricing strategy could be a test of a confused new market for ebooks following the DoJ’s lawsuit.
THE SUN
Yodel demands more cash from top British stores
By Steve Hawkes Business Editor
The cost of home shopping could soar as Britain’s biggest delivery company demands higher payments from stores. Yodel, which holds contracts with Asda, Amazon, Tesco and Littlewoods, wants a “double digit per cent” hike in its fees to cope with the boom in online shopping. Chief exec Jonathan Smith told Sun City retailers had to “work out how we get a fair reward” for delivering the millions of products now bought over the internet. He warned: “We have no choice. We currently have a model that isn’t profitable.” Yodel plans to meet retailers over the next three weeks. The company — slated by some for poor service last Christmas — holds 25 per cent of the market and works with nearly 80 retailers. But it has yet to make a profit since Home Delivery Network bought the DHL domestic parcels empire two years ago and took on the name of Yodel.
THE TIMES
Universities in revolt at curbs for tax breaks on charity gifts
By Roland Watson and David Brown
Oxford, Cambridge and other universities have joined the revolt over plans to curb tax breaks on charitable giving, warning yesterday that the Government’s proposals jeopardise the philanthropy on which they rely. Vince Cable became yesterday the most senior minister to date to voice concerns about the plans after hearing first-hand the concerns of universities, which raised £564 million in donations last year. The Business Secretary is to urge George Osborne, the Chancellor, to rethink his curbs on tax breaks for giving, as a cross-party revolt against the Budget changes gathered pace. MPs said that the Government was in danger of looking incoherent by trying to justify the cap in terms of cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion. David Davis, the senior Tory MP who as a former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has examined the work of the Charity Commission, said: “If you want to cut down on abuse and tax evasion, the way to do it is not to put a limit on giving but to police the charities properly. That could involve either reinforcing the policing arm of the Charities Commission or beefing up the investigatory powers of the taxman, he said. “That would stab the problem through the heart rather than bludgeoning it to death.”
FINANCIAL TIMES
Tesco to focus on smaller stores
By Andrea Felsted, Senior Retail Correspondent
Tesco is poised to slow its store expansion in the UK as part of the strategic blueprint to be outlined next week by new chief executive Philip Clarke. Mr Clarke is under pressure to attract more customers to UK stores and to appease uneasy investors, after Tesco’s first profit warning in 20 years.The company is expected to scale back openings of big stores and store extensions, focusing instead on smaller stores, according to four people familiar with the situation. The move is expected to prompt other supermarkets to follow suit, ending the so-called “race for space” among UK grocers... Nick Coulter, analyst at Nomura, said: “Changes to the store pipeline will take time to work through but by removing the largest extensions and new builds we think the amount of space laid in the UK every year will fall in the order of 15 per cent.“ ... Other analysts suggested the company could be more aggressive, cutting spending on land and building new UK stores by £300m-£400m a year. Tesco, however, is expected to spend hundreds of millions of pounds revamping stores, enhancing its fresh food offering and making its stores feel less utilitarian. It will also continue to open convenience stores.
DAILY EXPRESS
Lloyds Branch Battle
New banking venture NBNK made a fresh bid to snap up 632 Lloyds Banking Group branches yesterday, heaping further pressure on preferred bidder The Co-operative Group. NBNK, led by former Northern Rock boss Gary Hoffman, said its “alternative demerger” plan would see it buy the retail branches, valued at near £1.5billion, and then potentially float them so that Lloyds’ shareholders, including British taxpayers, could benefit... Lloyds acknowledged receipt of NBNK’s revised proposal but said it is ¬negotiating solely with the Co-op. It must sell the branches to comply with European state aid rules.
THE TELEGRAPH
Mothercare to close a further 111 stores, 750 jobs at risk
By Harry Wallop
Alan Parker, the chairman who joined last year, said previous management "were too aggressive in the pricing". A seven-pack of plain, white baby vests is £10 at Mothercare, compared with £7.50 at Asda, for instance.
Mr Parker insisted that lowering prices would not hit profits, because the group would run fewer big promotions and buy more efficiently...
The retailer made its announcement as it reported disappointing fourth-quarter trading, its ninth consecutive quarterly sale decline. It said it needed to close a further 111 shops over the next three years, taking its UK estate down to just 200 outlets. This is a more drastic store closure programme than it announced last year when it said that 266 was a low enough level. Five years ago it had 438 shops in the UK.
THE SCOTSMAN
Economists undaunted by burgeoning UK trade gap
By Scott Reid
Economists yesterday forecast a pick-up in export activity despite Britain’s trade gap with the rest of the world widening more than expected. Official figures showed that the trade deficit on goods and services rose to £3.4 billion in February, up from £2.5bn the previous month and bigger than the £2bn expected by the City. Despite the eurozone debt crisis, the trade gap in goods with countries in the EU narrowed. However, there was a worrying 9 per cent slump in exports to non-EU nations, with fewer cars being sent to China, Russia and the US. The Office for National Statistics also revised up the trade deficit for January, dealing a blow to the coalition government’s hopes for an export-led recovery. Rob Harbron, an economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), said the figures would prove “worrying for UK policymakers” but suggested that weak sterling and global growth would support medium-term prospects.
FINANCIAL TIMES
For Sky subscribers’ eyes only
By Salamander Davoudi
James Bond, the UK’s favourite secret agent, has switched his allegiance after almost 40 years at ITV and has instead been recruited by British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Movies has signed a deal with MGM giving it the rights to broadcast all 24 Bond films in high definition, as well as the latest Bond film, Skyfall, which is due to premiere on pay-TV next spring. Until now ITV has held the rights to repeat old Bond films and broadcast the free-to-air premiere of the new films in the franchise. BSkyB has had the pay-TV rights to new Bond movies since the 1990s, giving the broadcaster the UK TV premiere of each. However, BSkyB has now acquired all of the Bond UK television rights in a 12-month deal. The deal includes the 22 official Bond films made by Eon Productions as well as two non-Eon movies – Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again.
THE INDEPENDENT
Four-year-old girl joins Mensa
By Ben Mitchell
A four-year-old girl has been accepted into Mensa after achieving a score of 159 on an IQ test. Heidi Hankins was spotted as being of a "genius level" of intelligence after she taught herself to read, add and subtract and was able to count to 40 at the age of two. Her father, Matthew Hankins, 46, from Winchester, Hampshire, who works as a lecturer at the University of Southampton, said she had shown signs of high development from a very early age. He told the Hampshire Chronicle: "We always thought Heidi was pretty bright because she was reading early. "I happen to specialise in measuring IQs in children and I was curious about her, and the results were off the scale. "I got her the complete set of the Oxford Reading Tree books when she was two, and she read through the whole set of 30 in about an hour. It's what you would expect a seven-year-old to do."
