Date: Monday 05 Jul 2010
Financial betting against the pound has fallen significantly since the emergency Budget – with hedge funds and speculators closing their positions that anticipated further falls in the value of sterling.In the seven days following the emergency Budget, the number of short positions in sterling fell from 62,267 to 52,397, according to data compiled by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The number of long positions increased slightly over the same period from 15,921 to 17,626, reports the Telegraph.
The governments of Kuwait, China and Singapore could be tapped for funding under a £6bn plan designed to shore up BP’s finances in the wake of the disaster. The oil giant is said to be examining measures to bolster its balance sheet including issuing bonds, a conventional rights issue or accepting a cash injection from sovereign wealth funds in exchange for a slice of equity in the company, the Times reports.
The England football team is set to suffer another painful loss as Nationwide terminates its £20m sponsorship contract after 11 years. A spokesman for the building society, whose sponsorship deal with England expires at the end of the month, said that the group was "pleased" with the relationship that had "helped raise its profile with customers" but confirmed that the contract was "unlikely to be renewed", reports the Telegraph.
Kraft Foods has axed nearly three-quarters of Cadbury's staff who were covered by global contractual terms at the confectionery giant's head office, The Independent has learned. Of the 165 senior managers at the company's headquarters, just 45 have been found new jobs within the enlarged Kraft Foods business, which took over Cadbury in January for £11.7bn after a bitter takeover battle. The remaining 120 have all been made redundant by the company, whose global headquarters are in Chicago, Illinois.
Ministers have held confidential talks over changing union strike laws as the Government prepares plans to shed up to a million public sector jobs. Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, met Boris Johnson ten days ago to discuss the need for new curbs on industrial action supported by only a small proportion of the workforce. The Mayor of London was sounded out because of his experience in dealing with unions during two years in office, the Times reports.
Ministers are preparing emergency legislation to slash the redundancy terms for500,000 civil servants, just ahead of tens of thousands of their posts being cut as the coalition government seeks to cut the UK’s deficit, the FT reports.
More than £1.5m of taxpayers’ money was spent on the collapsed trial of four British Airways executives accused of price-fixing. The Office of Fair Trading brought criminal cartel charges against the executives after the airline admitted fixing the price of fuel surcharges with Virgin Atlantic between 2003 and 2006. But the prosecution was blighted from the start and was stopped for legal arguments three times before it collapsed in May, the Times reports.
Asian investors have shunned shares in Prudential after it listed in the region in May, providing further ammunition to critics who believe the UK group mishandled its attempt to buy AIG’s local life insurance unit.Fewer than 40,000 of Prudential’s shares changed hands, on average, each day last week on the Hong Kong and Singapore stock exchanges, compared with a daily trading volume above 12m in London, the FT reports.
Recession or not, the UK's top executives are still earning a typical £3.1m a year each – with a "poor correlation" between their pay and shareholder value, according to two of the country's leading authorities in the field. The level of remuneration will fuel the debate about boardroom excesses, with a crucial vote on pay at Marks & Spencer due next week, the Independent reports.
Linklaters will send a shudder through Britain’s commercial legal market today when it reveals a 9% fall in full-year revenue to £1.18bn. The “magic circle” giant suffered a sharp decline in fee income for the year to April 30, despite winning some of last year’s biggest legal mandates, including advising Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland on their reorganisation, and its continuing role on the Lehman Brothers insolvency, the Times reports.
KKR will this week attempt to defy recent market turmoil with a flotation on the New Stock Exchange that is expected to value the private equity giant at as much as $9bn (£5.9bn). The American buy-out fund, which owns some of world's largest companies, including Toys R Us, is expected to announce tomorrow that it has submitted filings to the Securities Exchange Commission, the US regulator, that will lay out the timing and details of the proposed initial public offering, the Telegraph reports. 
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