he Prudential was frantically renegotiating its $35bn bid for AIA last night in the face of growing shareholder opposition to the deal. The UK’s biggest insurer is thought to be trying to cut the price it must pay for AIG’s Asian arm to less than $30bn. Tidjane Thiam, the Pru’s chief executive who has been wooing American investors, is believed to be directly involved in the talks, the Times reports.
The FT added that the AIG board and the US government had yet to decide whether to accept a reduced price or scrap the deal and revert to their original plan of listing AIA in Hong Kong. “It is a close call,” a person familiar with the US Treasury’s thinking said. “There is less than a 50/50 chance that the deal with Pru gets done. It is easy for us to go forward with an initial public offering when market conditions permit."
President Obama launched a ferocious attack on BP and the oil industry yesterday as what is now officially the worst spill in US history threatened to derail his presidency. Obama cancelled or suspended dozens of offshore drilling projects and condemned a “scandalously close relationship” between oil companies and government regulators. "“As far as I’m concerned, BP is responsible for this horrific disaster, and we will hold them fully accountable on behalf of the United States as well as the people and communities victimised by this tragedy, he said,” the Times reports.
Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, is planning to raise wages for its Chinese workers by around 20% after a spate of suicides at its main plant in southern China put working conditions at its factories under international scrutiny. Ten workers have died at the Longhua plant since the beginning of the year and another employee tried to kill himself on Thursday but survived, according to the official Xinhua news agency, the FT reports.
Royal Mail stands to gain an additional £75m a year in revenue under proposals announced yesterday, but consumers may face higher stamp prices. Under a new framework put forward by Postcomm yesterday, the postal regulator, Royal Mail will be granted greater commercial freedom. Proposals include removing price controls from all packets and parcels weighing more than 750g, the Times reports.
Directors of the largest UK companies will face re-election every year under a revamp of the code of good practice for British boardrooms. The revised code will also include guidelines to encourage boardroom diversity, make boards more accountable for risk management and ensure directors undergo more thorough evaluations of their effectiveness. Lady Hogg, incoming chairman of the Financial Reporting Council that oversees the code, told the Financial Times: “After the kind of cataclysm that has occurred, the review of the code was necessary and appropriate.”
The US has warned Germany that Berlin’s much-trumpeted crackdown on the financial sector should not be allowed to jeopardise economic recovery. Although Timothy Geithner’s words were clothed in polite talk of “broad agreement” between the two countries, the US Treasury Secretary was in effect rapping the knuckles of his counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, the Times reports.
Spain's parliament has passed a €15bn (£12.7bn) austerity package by just one vote, leaving the Socialist government nakedly exposed to popular fury. Its glaring lack of political solidarity is the latest sign of rising resistance to deflation policies across the eurozone. Prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero had to rely on the abstention of Catalan nationalists to push through public sector wage cuts of 5pc this year and a freeze in 2011, the Telegraph reports.
The chief executive of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, yesterday brushed off news that it had been overtaken by Apple, saying his company would remain more profitable than its US rival. Mr Ballmer was bullish in his response, saying: "I will make more profits and certainly there is no technology company in the planet which is as profitable as we are," the Independent reports.
Royal Mail stands to gain an additional £75m a year in revenue under proposals announced yesterday, but consumers may face higher stamp prices. Under a new framework put forward by Postcomm yesterday, the postal regulator, Royal Mail will be granted greater commercial freedom. Proposals include removing price controls from all packets and parcels weighing more than 750g, the Times reports.
Directors of the largest UK companies will face re-election every year under a revamp of the code of good practice for British boardrooms. The revised code will also include guidelines to encourage boardroom diversity, make boards more accountable for risk management and ensure directors undergo more thorough evaluations of their effectiveness. Lady Hogg, incoming chairman of the Financial Reporting Council that oversees the code, told the Financial Times: “After the kind of cataclysm that has occurred, the review of the code was necessary and appropriate.”
The US has warned Germany that Berlin’s much-trumpeted crackdown on the financial sector should not be allowed to jeopardise economic recovery. Although Timothy Geithner’s words were clothed in polite talk of “broad agreement” between the two countries, the US Treasury Secretary was in effect rapping the knuckles of his counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, the Times reports.Spain's parliament has passed a €15bn (£12.7bn) austerity package by just one vote, leaving the Socialist government nakedly exposed to popular fury. Its glaring lack of political solidarity is the latest sign of rising resistance to deflation policies across the eurozone. Prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero had to rely on the abstention of Catalan nationalists to push through public sector wage cuts of 5pc this year and a freeze in 2011, the Telegraph reports.
The chief executive of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, yesterday brushed off news that it had been overtaken by Apple, saying his company would remain more profitable than its US rival. Mr Ballmer was bullish in his response, saying: "I will make more profits and certainly there is no technology company in the planet which is as profitable as we are," the Independent reports.
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