Wednesday newspaper round-up: Aberdeen Asset, WPP, BAE Systems
Aberdeen Asset Management is considering abandoning the UK as its headquarters for tax purposes as speculation mounts that a wave of British fund managers could head for the exit in frustration at Treasury tax changes, reports the Times.
WPP Group, the UK advertising giant, is considering making a hostile approach for Taylor Nelson Sofres as leading shareholders in the market research company demand that a £950m offer must be "substantially" improved. One leading shareholder told The Times: "Sorrell is going to have to offer a lot more. We would want substantially more - at least 300p per share."
In a note to clients, Tony Shiret, a retail analyst for Credit Suisse, said yesterday that Marks & Spencer's profits in two years' time could fall £250m below the near-£1bn expected to be reported this month for 2007-08. Shiret criticised M&S for moving too downmarket and urged the retailer to suspend its buyback programme, consider acquisitions and review whether its overseas expansion could succeed before rushing into an opening programme, reports the Times.
Crude oil prices could surge to $200 a barrel in the next two years, according to the Goldman Sachs analyst who three years ago correctly predicted a price "super-spike" above $100 a barrel. The warning by Arjun Murti came as oil prices hit a fresh high above $122 a barrel, boosted by supply disruptions in Nigeria, lower output in Russia and continued robust demand in China ahead of the Olympics, writes the FT
One of the most senior private bankers at UBS, the world's leading wealth manager, has been detained by authorities in the US investigating whether the Swiss bank helped its American clients evade tax. Martin Liechti, the Zurich-based head of North and South America for UBS's international wealth management business, was held in connection with a US justice department investigation into investment advice that UBS gave its American private banking clients between 2000 and 2007, says the FT.
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The chairman and chief executive of the Financial Services Authority both criticised the Government yesterday for being slow in granting the City watchdog new powers to tackle market abuse, reports the Telegraph.
The Independent adds that the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority are engaged in a turf war over which regulator should decide when to take control of a failing bank, it emerged yesterday.
Lloyds TSB, the country's fourth largest mortgage lender, heaped new misery on homeowners yesterday after forecasting a 10% fall in house prices over two years. The forecast was made as the bank indicated it would not need to follow Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS in raising new capital, reports the Telegraph.
The board of France's EDF, which runs the country's nuclear power industry, is expected to meet today to finalise a possible takeover offer for British Energy ahead of Friday's deadline. According to several sources, there is unlikely "at this stage" to be a role for Centrica, the UK power company which is keen to be part of a bid consortium for BE, writes the Telegraph.
BAE Systems, the defence giant which has been dogged by corruption allegations, has admitted ethical failings in the conduct of its business, a report revealed yesterday. An independent inquiry chaired by the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, revealed that "both the chairman and the chief executive [of BAE], in discussions with us, acknowledge that the company did not in the past pay sufficient attention to ethical standards," writes the Independent.
