Monday paper round-up: Barclays/Lehman, British Airways, Rio Tinto

Date: Monday 15 Mar 2010

Further damaging revelations about the collapse of Lehman Brothers are being held up in the US courts by Barclays.

A 2,200-page examiner’s report into the collapse of the 158-year old institution, published last week, uncovered in forensic detail evidence that Lehman used “balance sheet manipulation” to mislead investors and regulators. It is expected to fuel a series of lawsuits that former Lehman executives and their auditors are already facing in the US courts, the Times reports.

The new owner of Gatwick has told 120 staff that they could lose their jobs as the airport looks to continue its shake-up of executives and distance itself from the management practices of the previous owner BAA. Gatwick has told all the members of its planning and commercial departments effectively to reapply for their jobs as part of an extensive restructuring of Britain’s second-largest airport, the Times reports.

Lord Adonis yesterday became the first senior Labour minister to publicly criticise the Unite trade union, saying the move was "totally unjustified", not just because of the damage to passengers but "the threat it poses to the future of one of our great companies". BA's cabin crew are to walk out for seven days this month after the trade union Unite failed to come to an agreement with the company over cost-cutting measures and pay, the Independent reports.

Finance ministers from eurozone states will today attempt to paper over cracks and try to reach agreement on a €20bn-€25bn aid package to help ease the financial crisis in Greece. The carefully orchestrated series of measures, designed to avoid infringing EU policy banning a bailout for member states in financial difficulties, is seen as a stop gap to help Greece buy more time if it struggles to sell debt in bond markets demanding a heavy premium, the Telegraph reports.

Germany’s trade surpluses built on holding down labour costs may be unsustainable for the other countries in the eurozone, France’s finance minister said in an unusually blunt warning to Berlin. hristine Lagarde said Berlin should consider boosting domestic demand to help deficit countries regain competitiveness and sort out their public finances, the FT reports.

BAE Systems is to offer the Government a jobs and investment package in an effort to persuade ministers to think again about awarding a potential £4bn contract for armoured vehicles to General Dynamics, the US arms manufacturer. Amid fears that BAE's share price could be hit today, chief executive Ian King is expected to table the offer after receiving informal guidance that ministers are poised to name General Dynamics as the preferred bidder for the replacement of the current Scout vehicles because its proposals were more attractive and would support more jobs, the Telegraph reports.

An official Chinese investigation into the failed $19.5bn merger between Chinalco and Rio Tinto casts a dramatic new light on the high-profile collapse, exonerating the Australian miner and blaming China's own dealmakers for political naivety. According to reports today in the Australian media, the Chinese "post mortem" investigation into Chinalco's scuttled bid to buy 18% of Rio Tinto ended with broadly the same conclusions drawn by many other observers: that what would have been China's biggest ever overseas investment fell apart because commodity prices rebounded more strongly than anyone expected, the Times reports.

Britain’s second-largest residential broadband provider is preparing to switch its entire workforce to Apple laptops. In what is one of the largest deployments of the company’s computers in the business market,Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk has decided to scrap its desktop PCs in the office and equip its staff with MacBook Pro laptops, the Times reports.

J Sainsbury is set to beat the UK's tax hike on high earners next month by paying its bonuses early, with experts saying more companies were preparing to do the same.The supermarket group is trialling a "new award timetable" to pay its 1,200 senior managers three months earlier than usual. This will see the pay awards taxed under the current rate of 40 per cent and avoid the rise to 50 per cent for those earning over £150,000 which is introduced on 6 April, the Independent reports.

Jarvis Hotels is in crunch talks with its banks after breaching its financial covenants. The Times understands that the company, which operates 42 hotels and five associate properties under the Ramada franchise, is in advanced talks with Grant Thornton, acting on behalf of the banks, over a refinancing of its £122 million debt facility, the Times reports.

The chief executive of one of Britain's leading mutual insurers has warned the sector may be forced out of business by strict new rules from the regulator. Chris Evans, the chief executive of MGM Advantage, said yesterday: "There has been a change in policy by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), a new interpretation of policy with regard to mutuals and the products they can offer. This will force many mutuals to either consider merging or closing to new business and going into run-off," the Independent reports.