The Times
Bankers try to ease fears over shares rollercoaster: Central bankers on both sides of the Atlantic moved to soothe investors’ nerves as fears about a damaging slowdown in China sent share prices around the world gyrating for another day.
Bonuses rise to pre-crisis levels (but not in City): Bonuses have climbed back to all but match the level of payouts before the financial crisis, although bankers are receiving less.
Towergate to pay £20 million over poaching claim: Towergate and its majority Owner face a £20 million bill after settling a breach of contract claim over its poaching of several Executives from its broking rival Arthur J Gallagher.
Maersk plans redundancies in North Sea: Hundreds more jobs in the North Sea are under threat after Maersk Oil said that it was planning to close one of its production units as it battled to cope with the plunge in the price of crude.
$15 billion oil takeover sparks jobs alarm: Thousands more job cuts were forecast in the oil industry after a big U.S. oilfield services group launched a $14.8 billion bid for an equipment maker.
Crude price slump forces Transocean to scrap dividend: The plummeting price of oil has forced one of the world’s biggest operators of offshore drilling rigs to scrap its dividend for the rest of this year as it said it expected to book a $2.1 billion loss.
Health Chiefs told to end hospital shop rip-offs: The Department of Health has urged NHS trusts and retailers to ensure that patients and their families are not being “ripped off”, after The Times revealed that customers are routinely charged more in hospital shops than the high street.
Hollister helps teen retailer to mix it up: Abercrombie & Fitch has finally delivered some good news to the market. The preppy American fashion chain reported an 8% fall in second-quarter revenue to $817.8 million, the slowest decline in four quarters, helped by better demand for dresses and jeans.
Not plain sailing, but Sorrell stays upbeat: The world’s largest advertising group has soothed concerns that its full-year targets were at risk after reporting a bounce in like-for-like revenue for July.
The Independent
Review concedes vehicle agency ‘wasn’t ready’ for privatization: The botched part-privatisation of the agency that approves vehicles for use on Britain’s roads failed because the terms offered by the Government were “very unattractive” to bidders, according to an internal review document seen by The Independent.
Wall Street rallies as policy makers shift away from rate rise: A 4% surge on Wall Street in late trading capped another roller-coaster day for global stocks, after a key member of the U.S. Federal Reserve gave the strongest hint yet that U.S. interest rates will stay at historic lows next month.
Financial Times
Private equity ‘secondaries’ evolve with Palamon deal: A private equity firm has allowed its existing backers to sell to new investors at the same time in a single transaction, in a sign of the industry’s maturing “secondary” market.
Chilcot resists push for deadline on Iraq war report: Sir John Chilcot has resisted calls to set an immediate deadline on when he will publish his report into the Iraq war, saying he is still undergoing the “Maxwellisation” process of consulting those he intends to mention by name.
Complaints about packaged bank accounts hit 1,000 a month: Growing dissatisfaction with paid-for bank accounts has fuelled a sharp rise in non-PPI related complaints about financial products in the first half of the year.
India’s LIC salvages $1.4 billion Indian Oil share sale: India’s Life Insurance Corporation has bailed out the government by buying nearly all of a public offering of shares in Indian Oil Corporation, salvaging New Delhi’s ill-timed privatisation sale amid this week’s global market turmoil.
Schlumberger to buy Cameron International in $14.3 billion deal: Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil services group, has become the latest company to take advantage of the plunge in crude prices, agreeing a $14.3 billion deal to buy energy equipment manufacturer Cameron International.
Green groups threaten to sue U.S. watchdog over fracking quakes: Green groups are threatening to sue the U.S. environmental regulator, alleging it is failing in its duty to tackle a surge in earthquakes that they blame on the American shale revolution.
Groups race to offload pension liabilities with insurer megadeals: Companies are racing to do megadeals with insurers to offload their pension scheme obligations, as a looming overhaul of financial safety standards threatens to push up the costs, consultants have cautioned.
Union says 250 jobs cut as Tata mothballs South Wales steel plant: The British steel industry was dealt a further blow on Wednesday as Tata Steel announced the mothballing of a plant in South Wales for the third time in six years, potentially putting 250 jobs at risk.
Angry Birds maker sheds another 260 jobs in effort to stay aloft: The freefall of the maker of Angry Birds continued as Rovio Entertainment said it would cut another 260 jobs, taking total losses in the past year to half the workforce at the Finnish company.
India food watchdog leaves foreign groups wary: Nestlé’s Maggi noodles were not the only food to disappear from India’s shop shelves in June, after regulators banned the snack amid concerns over lead levels. Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever and Japan’s Nissin Foods recalled their Knorr Chinese noodles and Top Ramen, while other companies quietly stopped selling other products, such as jams.
Facebook creates AI-powered virtual assistant: Facebook has created a virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence that can do everything from organising birthday parties to calling companies so users do not have to spend hours on hold.
Mexican watchdog probes Carlos Slim’s fixed-line Telmex group: Mexico’s telecoms regulator is investigating whether Telmex, Mexican mogul Carlos Slim’s fixed-line telecoms group, breached the terms of its concession by being involved with a satellite television service.
Lex:
Schlumberger and Cameron: pump and circumstance: With oil prices in freefall Schlumberger, the U.S. oil services group, decided to go shopping. On Wednesday it agreed to pay more than $14 billion for Cameron, a maker of valve and pump equipment for the oil industry. Cameron shareholders will receive $66 a share, a 56% premium to the previous closing price, mostly in shares. Not bad. Cameron has not traded at that price since oil was at $100 last September. Yet not all of Cameron’s businesses seem an obvious fit for Schlumberger. Take the drilling division, for example, which accounts for a third of Cameron’s operating profit. Schlumberger does have a business in this area, but with offshore drilling in decline, does it need this extra exposure? The company thinks so. But it will need to extract some savings to make the deal work. Cameron’s shares, meanwhile, rose more than 40%. But even that left them at $60, well below the deal price. So there are some doubts, though that will not be because of regulatory worries. Business overlap looks minimal, so antitrust regulators should not object. Another hopeful sign is that Cameron’s Chief Executive will keep the same role as head of the new company. That is partly an acknowledgment of decent progress at OneSubsea. While Schlumberger did not pick up a bargain in the sales, this deal looks reasonable if — and it is a big if — the worst has past for oil. Best to keep that receipt.
Uber: Chinese traffic jam: Is investing in Uber — the ride-sharing app, which has had two of its Managers arrested, drivers’ cars torched and equity valued at 125 times trailing revenues — just a little too tame? Welcome to Uber China. Uber, which has a valuation of $50 billion, is going all guns blazing into the world’s most populous market and it needs more ammunition. It is already spending more than $1 billion a year in China in an effort to recruit drivers and customers. It has claimed early success, with a fast-growing presence in 16 cities and more than 1 million trips a day — although even Uber acknowledges that some of those are fraudulent. If it is successful, Uber would accomplish what no U.S. internet company has managed. Google, Yahoo and Amazon have bet on China and got burnt. As it tries to amass its own powerful investors in China, one option is going to individuals. A term sheet that has circulated shows Citic-CP Asset Management offering to wealthy Chinese people who have at least Rmb3 million the chance to invest in the ride-hailing app, suggesting returns of up to 109%. Uber, however, says there is no authorised distribution to individuals and the target is institutions. It will have to emerge from this with a big list of them to fuel the quest for China domination.
Sberbank: one steppe at a time: Sberbank, the country’s biggest lender by assets and market capitalisation, actually beat expectations in its second quarter. Perhaps there is reason for confidence in the country after all. But not even that obscured the tough underlying picture. The bank’s profits fell more than two-fifths against the same period a year ago as the (oil-price-driven) economic slowdown hurt. Sberbank’s shares fell harder than the market on Wednesday. Like its European peers, SocGen and the much smaller Raiffeisen Bank International — which earns half of its profits in Russia — Sberbank managed to turn rouble woes into opportunity with a sharp increase in currency trading. That partly offset declining net interest income resulting from higher funding costs, and bad debt provisions that rose by over two-fifths. Too bad that lumpy trading income lowers earnings quality. Sberbank’s asset quality is bearing up. True, bad loans climbed to 4.9% of its loan book at end-June from 3.4 a year ago, but the uptick was not as bad as feared. Sberbank is in any case conservative with provision coverage. Given the risks ahead, though, it needs to lift its core tier one capital ratio (still under Basel I!) of only 9.6%. Trading on a lowly 0.8 times tangible book value, Sberbank is more resilient than its bearish valuation suggests.
Lombard:
Perpetual promotion: Private equity firms believe in permanent marketing, just as Maoists believed in permanent revolution. Investing in companies is a prelude to selling those businesses, itself an overture to raising another fund. Many PE groups are beginning the third phase of that cycle with the pre-promotion of multibillion European funds that are expected to close next year. Advent, BC Partners and Cinven are among those tipped to assail the wallets of investors. The last bumper year was 2013, according to Prequin. There is a psychological difficulty, though. A fund Manager whose quoted portfolio is tanking does not want a returns spreadsheet. He wants a paper bag to breathe in and out of. It can be easier to raise a €5.3 billion European equity fund, as Permira did in June last year, when markets are stable. Some private equity firms were caught out by the 2008 crash, having raised capital at the top of the market. Those that are still in the game should have done better this time, selling swaths of businesses when prices were high. But private equity types should eschew buying back companies they floated not long before. Low cunning is best deployed discreetly.
Floppy bird: Rovio Entertainment, producer of the mobile game Angry Birds, is cutting another 260 jobs. It is a difficult time and Managers should act in accordance with the values that everyone at the Finnish group holds dear: they should erect a giant catapult atop Rovio HQ and use it to ping employees out on to the jobs market. OK. It’s tough losing your job. But an employer that hit the jackpot with a single, mobile game was always a risky employer. The shark’s fin sales pattern for computer games is the stuff of textbooks. Instead of creating another shark’s fin, Rovio tried to stretch out the first one but with limited success. As to catapult delayering, there is probably some pettifogging law that prevents it. Similar red tape prevented the great publicist Jim Moran from staging a novel candy promotion, prompting his remark: “It’s a sad day for capitalism when a man can’t fly a midget (sic) on a kite over Central Park”.
The Daily Telegraph
China cracks down on ‘rogue’ traders after Black Monday fears come back to spook investors: China has embarked on a criminal pursuit of rogue banks and brokerages in a crackdown designed to stop money fleeing the country as it struggles to stave off a stock market collapse.
Veep creator Armando Iannucci tells BBC to stop interfering with programme makers: One of the country’s top TV comedy producers has called on BBC Executives to interfere less to allow writers and Directors to make programmes that can compete with the best of American television.
China turmoil makes U.S. rate hike in September ‘less compelling’ says Fed Chief: The threat of a slowdown in the Chinese economy and falling commodity prices have made a U.S. interest rate hike next month “less compelling”, according to the president of the New York Federal Reserve.
Barclays ‘dark pool’ lawsuit thrown out by judge: Barclays has won a significant legal battle after a judge ruled the bank will not face a lawsuit by investors over claims it favoured certain traders in its so-called “dark pools”.
British steel jobs to go as strong pound and cheap imports hit Tata: Britain’s steel industry has taken another blow with Tata Steel mothballing one of its Welsh mills.
Shopa shuts down just months after raising £7 million in growth capital: Dotcom darling Shopa, which promised to reinvent online shopping through social sharing, has stopped trading after three years in business.
Scotland and Wales lead mortgage boom as London housing market cools: London’s housing market slowed sharply in the summer, industry figures show, while the market perked up in Scotland and Wales.
WPP cautious on advertising industry despite rise in profits: International advertising giant WPP has said optimism in the industry “seems misplaced”, despite the group announcing a rise in reported revenue of 6.8% to £5.8 billion in the first half of the year.
Candy Crush ‘guru’ wins Google Ventures’ first investment in mainland Europe: The “Games Guru” behind Candy Crush Saga has secured the largest funding round to date for a virtual reality (VR) games developer and landed Google Ventures’ first European investment outside the U.K.
Qatar Airways relaxes controversial pregnancy and marriage rules: Qatar Airways has relaxed controversial policies which saw cabin crew sacked if they became pregnant or got married within the first five years of employment.
The Guardian
Petrol marked down and 200 North Sea jobs on line amid oil price drop: The economic winners and losers from plunging oil prices were highlighted on Wednesday when supermarkets slashed the cost of petrol but a North Sea operator cut jobs and warned it would shut down production.
U.K. interest rates on hold until autumn 2016, City predicts: The first rise in U.K. interest rates could be delayed until autumn 2016, according to City expectations, as market turmoil in China raises the prospect of historically low borrowing costs staying in place for longer than expected.
Daily Mail
Sainsburys shop staff get biggest pay boost in over a decade with a 4% pay rise: Shop staff at Sainsbury’s are set for a pay rise of 4% – the highest pay increase the grocer has awarded in more than a decade.
Retail sales bounced back in August thanks to summer clothes and supermarket sales, says CBI survey: Retail sales picked up pace this month thanks to a welcome bounce back for under-pressure supermarkets and strong demand for summer clothing, a report showed.
China pumps £14 billion of emergency funds into banking system as cash supply panic mounts: Beijing injected £14billion of emergency funds into the Chinese banking system as shares in the country continued their stomach-churning decline.
Daily Express
Bank Holiday getaway blow for British tourists as pound plunges against euro: British holidaymakers heading to Europe this Bank Holiday weekend have been dealt a huge blow after the pound plummeted against the euro over the past week.
FTSE 100 sinks again to lose £26 billion as China panic continues: The FTSE 100 plummeted by more than £26billion as panic spreading from China returned to plague Britain’s premier share index.
Buy-to-let home bubble set to burst: Buy-to-let has been one of the most successful investments of all over the past 20 years but the good times may soon be over.
The Scottish Herald
Stagecoach feels impact of lower oil prices in U.S. coach and bus operations but U.K. rail strong: Stagecoach has reported a sharp year-on-year fall in revenues in its North American business, with lower fuel prices causing people to make more journeys by car rather than bus.
Food and drink firms plan jobs bonanza: Scotland’s burgeoning food and drink sector has declared its intention to create an additional 14,000 jobs by 2020, as companies forecast achieving average annual turnover growth of 19%.
Oil price fall cuts both ways for Iona Energy in North Sea: North Sea-focused Iona Energy has slashed the valuation of a field again but expects to make big cost savings developing another one reflecting how the plunge in the crude price is impacting on firms in the area.
Edinburgh shopping app firm enjoys surge in business: Fashion shopping app Mallzee has quadrupled user numbers this year as the company capitalises on the trend for people to use mobile phones to hunt for things like the clothes they want to wear.
Funding shortage for medium sized firms hampers growth in Scotland: Medium sized firms punch above their weight in Scotland but are being stopped from achieving their potential by a lack of affordable long term funding, sector champions have said.
BrewDog to open second Stockholm bar: Brewdog has announced it will open its second bar in Stockholm – and third in Sweden – later this month.
Sanmex profits bounce back as new contracts boost sales: Sanmex International, the Glasgow-based aerosol manufacturer, saw pretax profits jump to £506,993 last year, a rise of over £300,000 from the £206,308 in 2013.
Scottish Gas to recruit 30 apprentices: Scottish Gas has pledged to recruit 30 apprentices for smart metering roles around the country.
The Scotsman
Scots food and drink firms upbeat on prospects: Food and drink producers across Scotland are predicting further growth in the coming years despite rising costs and increasing regulation.
SRC seeks reform of £2.8 billion rates system: The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) called for an overhaul of the £2.8 billion business rates system in an effort to prevent more shops from pulling down their shutters.
All bets on for Betfair and Paddy Power merger: Bookmakers Paddy Power and Betfair unveiled a possible agreed £6 billion merger that would create one of the world’s biggest online betting and gaming businesses.
Edgar Stewart to inject £120k into start-ups: Edgar Stewart, the Edinburgh-based recruitment specialist, has unveiled plans to invest £120,000 in Scottish start-ups in the industry.
City A.M.
Optimal Payments to join FTSE 250 after €1 billion Skrill takeover: Payments processor Optimal Payments will rebrand and join the FTSE 250 in the wake of its €1.1 billion (£805 million) takeover of rival Skrill.
Apax’s buyout assets drive listed fund up: A listed fund floated by private equity firm Apax earlier this year unveiled an eight% rise in the adjusted value of investments in maiden results.
YouTube gives Twitch a run for its money with a new live gaming service: After months of development, YouTube Gaming has officially been launched. The live-streaming video gaming service, which comes as an app and a website, will take on rivals such as Daily Motion and Amazon-owned Twitch.
BlackRock buys robo-adviser firm FutureAdvisor for estimated $200 million: BlackRock is buying FutureAdvisor, a company that develops robo-adviser technology, for between $150 million and £200 million.
