Thursday newspaper round-up: British Energy, BSkyB, Xstrata
Hopes of a bidding war for British Energy were dealt a blow on Wednesday after it emerged that Vattenfall, Suez and Eon were not planning to bid for the UK nuclear group, says the FT.
BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch said he would look at making an offer for Tiscali, the UK pay-TV and broadband operator, as he unveiled a third-quarter increase in net subscribers of 60,000, reports the Telegraph.
Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata effectively issued a call to rivals to "come and get us" yesterday, as chief executive Mick Davis said he would have no issue with the company being taken over, provided it brought shareholder value, writes the Telegraph.
Supermarket groups have warned that consumers would be hit in the pocket after the Competition Commission confirmed plans to set up an "ombudsman" service to police parts of the grocery market, says the Independent.
Britain's banks are overstating losses from the turmoil in the credit markets and the sub-prime lending debacle, the Bank of England says, according to the Independent.
Britain's big banks stand to lose as much as a fifth of their profits as the commercial property market implodes, adds the Telegraph.
The blow to tax revenues from the credit crunch is set to send the Chancellor plunging £16 billion or more deeper into the red over the next two years than he has planned, calculations for the Times indicate.
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The confrontation between the trustees of the EMI pension scheme and Terra Firma, the company's new owner, breaks new ground for the Pensions Regulator. This week, it emerged that the trustees and EMI had reached an impasse in their discussions on how the retirement scheme for the highly indebted music publisher should be funded, reports the FT.
Tesco plans to have a second stab at Britain's property market with the launch of a new online estate agency service, writes the Telegraph.
Trading in residential property derivatives has slowed almost to a standstill, owing to widespread fears about the housing market, which have hit direct sales. Bankers say there are few buyers for residential derivatives, which allow investors to bet against movements in the house price index, according to the FT.
Baugur, the Icelandic investor, was on the verge of selling troubled retailer Mk One last night but has also drawn up contingency plans to place it into administration if a sale cannot be secured, says the Telegraph.
Prudential has used £1.6bn ($3.2bn) of the surplus in its life fund to pay the cost of compensating policyholders who had been mis-sold pensions, it told a group of MPs on Wednesday, writes the FT.
Emirates is poised to overtake British Airways this summer as the world's largest operator of long-haul aircraft after another record-breaking year for the Dubai-based airline, reports the Telegraph.
