Friday newspaper round-up: Goldman Sachs, BP, Sage

16th Jul 2010 06:39

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to settle charges that the Wall Street bank tricked investors into buying a toxic mortgage product during the housing boom. The payout includes $100 million to Royal Bank of Scotland, the Times reports.As part of the settlement, Goldman acknowledged that its marketing of Abacus 2007-AC1, a synthetic collateralised debt obligation (CDO), was flawed. The bank agreed to change its procedures.BP has succeeded in stopping its Gulf of Mexico leak for the first time since an accident on April 20 killed 11 men and triggered a giant oil spill. The company on Thursday begun a "very, very intricate operation" aimed at sealing the gusher, the day after a leaking valve caused operations to be delayed. It stopped the oil leak after only a couple of hours, having predicted that it might take up to two days for the flow to come to a halt. The company had worried that deepwater pressure could cause more ruptures, worsening the situation, the Telegraph reports.George Osborne tried to deflect intense criticism about the way the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has operated by announcing yesterday that the Treasury select committee would have power of veto over the chairman of the new body. The Chancellor said he was advertising for a new permanent head of the OBR after it emerged recently that the interim its leader, Sir Alan Budd, is to retire this summer. Mr Osborne said the new appointment would be made by "mid-August", the Independent reports.Sage, one of the UK's largest software companies, is poised to appoint Guy Berruyer as chief executive to replace Paul Walker, who is stepping down after 16 years. Berruyer, a 59-year-old French national, is chief executive of Sage's mainland European operations, having joined the accounting software company in 1997. He is also responsible for the group's Asian operations.Berruyer is understood to be the front-runner for the post, with contracts expected to be signed within days, the FT reports.Hundreds of thousands of savers will be freed from the need to lock themselves into poor-value pension deals from April next year, under radical plans outlined by the Government. Mark Hoban, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said that the Government would replace deeply unpopular rules requiring people to use their pension savings to buy an annuity ? a financial product that gives a set income for life ? introducing greater flexibility for everyone, the Times reports.One of the City's most powerful investor pressure groups was hunting for a new boss last night after Kerrie Kelly quit the Association of British Insurers barely six months into the job. Ms Kelly, 54, will be returning to her native Australia after stepping down as the ABI's director-general with immediate effect last night. In a short statement, the association said that Ms Kelly, who moved to Britain with her husband last year to prepare for her new job, was leaving for personal reasons. She has four grown-up children in Australia, the Times reports.Fidelity's renowned investment guru, Anthony Bolton, said yesterday that he was backing Chinese domestic demand as the company revealed details of its star fund manager's strategy for his new Chinese fund. Mr Bolton, who relocated to Hong Kong in March to manage the Fidelity China Special Situations Fund, said he had positioned his portfolio to "benefit from the structural changes I believe are taking place in China," the Independent reports.A shareholder action group wants Sir Victor Blank, former Lloyds Banking Group chairman, to be extradited to the US to defend the controversial takeover of HBOS in 2008. Lloyds Action Now (LAN), made up of shareholders in the bank, is trying to bring a lawsuit in America, alleging that Sir Victor and the chief executive of Lloyds, Eric Daniels, misled investors about HBOS's dire condition when they thrashed out a takeover of the bank at the height of the financial crisis, in September 2008. Sir Victor subsequently stepped down, the Times reports.The US Senate finally passed a landmark reform of Wall Street on Thursday, delivering President Barack Obama's second big legislative victory and ushering in a raft of restrictions on banks. Obama will next week sign into law the Dodd-Frank Act, bringing to a close a year-long effort to overhaul the US financial system and its regulators. "The American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes," the president said, the FT reports.OPEC, the 12-country oil cartel, expects demand for its petroleum products to increase for the first time in three years in 2011. The oil producers, including Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran, predicted that demand would edge up by 1m barrels per day - or 1.2% - next year on China's growing need for energy and an improved world economy, the Telegraph reports.A £350m offer for Crest Nicholson was in jeopardy on Thursday night after advisers to the debt-burdened housebuilder told its lender-owners to reject the bid as too low. A steering committee representing Crest's creditors, which took control of the housebuilder following a £630m debt-for equity swap last year, met with Morgan Stanley on Friday to discuss details of the possible sale of the business, the FT reports.The prospects for the most striking private equity victim of the credit crisis look likely to deteriorate further, as Candover's talks to sell itself to a Canadian pension fund teeter on the brink of collapse. Alberta Investment Management Corporation offered Candover a lifeline by approaching it last year about a possible takeover that would have seen the $70bn (£45.5bn) Canadian fund inject cash into the ailing UK private equity group. But these talks have stumbled after Aimco ran into opposition from some of Candover's bondholders, who must approve unanimously any takeover, the FT reports.