The Times
XSTRATA HEAD'S PAY RISE
Xstrata's chief executive, Mick Davis, received a pay rise of 41 per cent last year, taking his pay to 7.7 million dollars after his bonus was reinstated. Davis was paid a two million dollar short-term bonus last year and received no bonus in 2008 after the miner's share price collapsed due to the fall in commodity prices.
HOTELS SALE
Royal Bank of Scotland is to sell the 1,019-room Cumberland Hotel in central London at a rumoured price of 250 million pounds. RBS has also put up for sale four Hilton hotels and Grosvenor House, valued at up to 550 million pounds.
TIDDLER TO WATCH
Shares in Vatukoula Gold Mines had a rollercoaster ride on Friday, eventually closing down 0.09 pence at 2.2 pence. The miner is rumoured to be ready to upgrade its gold resources and is set to give a trading update on Monday.
NEED TO KNOW: ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
Oil major Royal Dutch Shell and its Canadian partner Nexen have announced that they have made a significant oil discovery 25,000 feet below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico
NEED TO KNOW: BRADFORD & BINGLEY
Bradford & Bingley has reported annual losses of 196 million pounds after an almost doubling of write-offs on fraud and bad debts. The result was better than expected in the nationalised lender's business plan and was less than the loss of 278 million pounds in 2008.
NEED TO KNOW: MITCHELLS & BUTLERS
John Lovering, the new chairman of pub company Mitchells & Butlers, will on Wednesday announce plans to take a more aggressive stance on disposals and cost-cutting. Lovering will also announce the speeding up of existing plans to expand six brands, including Harvester, Sizzling Pub Company and Toby Carvery.
The Daily Telegraph
EADS CALLS FOR FAIR CONTRACT BIDS
EADS has said it would consider making a new bid for a 50 billion dollar contract to build a fleet of tanker aircraft for the US Air Force as long as the competition was not skewed in favour of rival Boeing. The European aerospace manufacturer, parent company of Airbus, dropped a possible bid for the contract last week as it had decided conditions in the request for bids were biased towards the plane Boeing was offering. EADS said that before it goes ahead with a bid, it would need a 'significant' extension to the period for submitting proposals and a 'fair chance to win'.
OMEGA REPLACES CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Lloyd's of London insurer Omega Insurance has replaced its chief executive Richard Tolliday with Richard Pexton. Omega has been trying to reshape its strategy and appointed a new board last week. Chairman John Coldman said: "Richard Pexton is a highly experienced industry professional with a proven track record of managing and developing insurance businesses. Richard and I will bring stability and leadership to the Omega team."
The Independent
WHITBREAD RISES AS BEAR CHANGES HEART
Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Inn hotel chain, saw its shares rise by 21 pence to close at 1,540 pence on Friday after Societe Generale abandoned its 'sell' view saying that Whitbread had "weathered the crisis surprisingly well", managing to hold on to average room rates at Premier Inn, and extending the reach of the Costa coffee shop chain, with the "pace of expansion largely offsetting the expected decline in unit revenues". Societe Generale now forecasts a one per cent increase in revenue per available room at Premier Inn.
GO-AHEAD FOR DEEP NORTH SEA GAS FIELDS
French oil giant Total is investing 2.5 billion pounds to develop two new gas fields in deep water off the West of Shetland. The Laggan and Tormore fields had been ruled too expensive for commercial exploitation due to being in a highly hostile environment, but Total says that a drop in contracting costs and changes to taxation have allowed the programme to go ahead. Construction is to start immediately with first production expected in 2014.
The Guardian
DSG SPEEDS UP CURRYS REVAMP AS BEST BUY INVASION LOOMS
DSG International is speeding up its plans for a chain of PC World and Currys megastores in Britain in order to fend off competition from US firm Best Buy which will shortly open its first UK stores. The stores, which will have coffee bars and cooking demonstrations, are part of a move by chief executive John Browett to take the electrical retailer upmarket. Over nearly two years of restructuring, DSG has sold off underperforming stores and revamped those retained. Thurrock, Essex, where the local market is worth 523 million pounds, will be a key battleground with Best Buy opening its store just across the road from Currys.
LABOUR CONSIDERS IMPOSING LOW CARBON OBLIGATION ON ENERGY FIRMS
The government will on Wednesday signal a move towards the introduction of a 'low carbon' obligation, forcing UK energy suppliers to buy a percentage of their power from clean coal and nuclear plants. The low-carbon obligation idea has been championed by Paul Golby, chief executive of energy supplier E.On UK, which says that the nuclear power stations it wants to build will not run commercially without a change to the market. Sources say that there will be no hard recommendations contained in the energy market assessment but that it will reveal a 'narrowing of options' to give a clear indication of the direction in which ministers are moving.
Keywords: PRESS DIGEST BRITISH BUSINESS PRESS MARCH 20
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