PRESS DIGEST - British business - April 13

FSA PREPARES FILE ON CATTLES AMID CONCERN OVER BLACK HOLE

The Financial Services Authority is preparing a file on Cattles(CTT.L), as shareholders become increasingly concerned as to how the company's 700 million pound black hole in its loan provisioning was kept secret from them for more than two years.

Cattles blamed a "breakdown in internal controls" on the long-running risk-mismanagement scandal and suspended six executives as a result.

Directors at the subprime lender are believed to be in close contact with the FSA and have passed on Deloitte's draft report which provides some details on where the black holes occurred.

BT FACES MULTIMILLION HIT ON NHS COMPUTERS

BT Group's (BT.L) struggling Global Services Division is expected to become the third major contractor in as many years to take a multimillion pound writedown on its work with the NHS' computer system. The writedown, to be announced next month, is likely to be coupled with news of thousands of job losses in a drive to cut costs.

There are also fears that BT could be forced to double its pension scheme contributions to between 500 million to one billion pounds, placing the group's final dividend in doubt.

Accenture and Fujitsu have already quit similar contracts with the National Programme for IT, writing off hundreds of millions of pounds in the process.

Prepared For Reuters by Durrants

The Times

BARCLAYS FUND MANAGERS SET TO WIN HIGHER CASH PAYOUTS.

Hundreds of fund managers at Barclays (BARC.L) will scoop multimillion-pound windfalls if the sale of Barclays Global Investors is completed.

CVC Capital Partners agreed last week on a 2.8 billion pound deal to purchase iShares, which accounts for a fifth of BGI's assets under management. These assets total one trillion pounds. Barclays is examining the sale of the whole of BGI as part of a contractual 'go shop' agreement with CVC.

Completion of a BGI sale would mean that about 200 BGI staff, who hold equity in the assets manager, will share a total payout of about 90 million pounds in cash.

ONLINE PRICE WAR LOOMS AS WAITROSE ENDS DELIVERY CHARGE

As Waitrose announces it is scrapping delivery costs for online purchases, pressure is mounting on big grocery chains such as Tesco (TSCO.L) and J Sainsbury (SBRY.L) to follow suit. A price war in online food shopping will place greater pressure on margins, which could prompt grocers to seek further price cuts from suppliers.

Waitrose said that it would waive delivery charges for purchases in excess of 50 pounds, beginning on Wednesday. At present, delivery charges vary and can cost up to seven pounds a time. The move would be costly for Waitrose's rivals to follow but would cut customer's bills for internet purchases by between five and ten per cent.

UNION FURY AS VIRGIN MEDIA PLANS BONUSES AFTER JOBS CULL

A few months after laying off 2,200 employees, Virgin Media has announced plans to award executives bonuses equivalent to up to 100 per cent of their basic salary.

Trade unions expressed their displeasure at this drastically different treatment of employees and management. "At a time when people are losing their jobs and there's a lot of uncertainty, the executives should be taking a lead and looking to forgo these bonuses," said Grace Mitchell of the Communication Workers Union. T

he company stressed that only staff who had hit performance targets would be considered for bonuses.

Daily Telegraph

BANKS THREATEN TO WITHDRAW SUPPORT FOR TIGER TIGER

Novus Leisure, the firm that operates the bar chain Tiger Tiger, wrote to landlords last week asking for rent cuts, with Novus' lenders RBS (RBS.L) and Barclays (BARC.L) threatening to put Tiger Tiger into administration if it is not made more cost efficient.

Accountancy and restructuring firm Grant Thornton has been brought in to assist with negotiations between Novus and its landlords, which include Land Securities and Prudential (PRU.L). An offer by Novus' private equity owners Cognetas to invest 15 million pounds into Novus was rejected by RBS and Barclays in March.

DEBT FOR EQUITY SWAP FOR FOXTONS

A row is brewing between Foxtons, its owner and its lenders over a rumoured debt-for-equity swap. Reports suggest BC Partners,

Foxtons' private equity owners, are in talks with Bank of America and Mizuho to write off between 60 and 90 million pounds in return for taking a large stake in the business, with BC Partners injecting a further 50 million pounds into the estate agent.

Sources close to the lenders have confirmed the negotiations, but people close to BC Partners have dismissed all claims. Foxtons was bought by BC Partners in 2007 for 370 million pounds.

HSBC PUTS LONDON HQ BACK ON MARKET

HSBC's (HSBA.L) Canary Wharf headquarters have been put back on the market, just months after it re-acquired the property from Metrovacesa (MVC.MC). HSBC sold the tower in 2007 in a sale and leaseback deal, but bought it back in December making a profit of between 250 and 300 million pounds.

Sources claim HSBC is once again looking to sell the building as part of a global series of property sell-offs which it hopes will raise around 2.5 billion pounds. It is unclear why HSBC is selling several prized properties at a time when the commercial property market is falling.

The Independent

BT POISED TO CUT 10,000 MORE JOBS AND SLASH FINAL DIVIDEND

BT (BT.L) is to announce a further 10,000 jobs cuts, writedowns of about 1.5 billion pounds and a 60 per cent cut in its dividend, as it tries to turnaround the Global Services division.

The redundancies will be spread across the global workforce and follow the 10,000 jobs it has already culled over the past year. Global Services, which provides IT and telecoms services to multinational companies and government bodies, suffered a 501 million pound loss for the third quarter to December 31. The firm will also likely be hit by contribution to address an eight billion pound pension fund deficit.

JJB SEEKS TO IDENTIFY WHO BOUGHT TEN PER CENT STAKE

JJB Sports (JJB.L) is to send out 793 legal notices to investors, as it tries to unearth who bought a ten per cent stake in the troubled sports retailer, which was then sold off two weeks ago.

While the FSA is looking into the purchases, no party has yet been confirmed or found. It comes at a critical time for JJB, which is trying to safeguard its future through a company voluntary arrangement.

On 31 March, administrators at collapsed Kaupthing Bank sold off a 23 per cent stake in JJB. Monecor had bought a 13 per cent stake, and 10 per cent still remains unaccounted for.

STANDARD CHARTERED BANKER POCKETS 16 MILLION POUNDS

Singapore based Karam Butalia received a 16 million pound pay packet after leaving Standard Chartered (STAN.L) early last year.

The pay deal for Butalia makes him Britain's best-paid employee at any British bank, and comes from a string of private equity deals he engineered over his six years at the bank. The bank's former global head of private equity received a package four times larger than that received by Peter Sands, Standard Chartered's chief executive.

The revelations about the award, comes at a time where banking bonuses have come under intense public scrutiny.

The Guardian

CITY WATCHDOG TO INVESTIGATE TOP BANKERS' FAILURES AT RBS.

The Financial Services Authority is to investigate the conduct of Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS.L) and HBOS' HBOS.L executives in the days leading up to the banks' state rescues.

The 'big four' accountancy firms - KPMG, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young - are believed to have been invited to bid for work relating to the investigation, which is expected to launch within weeks.

The government needed to inject 20 million pounds to save RBS and waive competition rules to allow LloydsTSB (LLOY.L) to rescue HBOS. The FSA is not expecting to uncover criminal wrongdoing, but will examine whether shareholders received enough information.