Below are the key morning headlines from today's papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
- Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) chief executive has said that he expects an insider trading fine to be overturned within months. Ayman Asfari, a Conservative Party donor, made more than €300,000 in December 2012 by betting on a share price fall at Saipem, an Italian rival, hours before the shock resignation of Pietro Franco Tali, its chief executive, over a corruption inquiry.
- Ailing Wonga holds crisis talks with City watchdog. The City watchdog has held crisis talks with Wonga about the troubles facing the payday lender, potentially delaying its collapse into administration.
Officials from the Financial Conduct Authority are understood to have met representatives of Wonga in recent days to discuss the anticipated appointment of administrators to the business, which only a month ago raised £10 million from shareholders.
- The Venezuelan government has seized control of paper packaging company Smurfit Kappa’s operations in the crisis-hit country for alleged price fixing. Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) has been operating in Venezuela for nearly 80 years and employs 1,600 staff there. It has denied the government’s accusations and stated that, as a result of the actions, it would not be held responsible for its operations in the country while under state control, which the government has said is temporary and would last for 90 days.
- Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) cheers multi-billion dollar contracts despite swinging to half year loss. The contractor has revealed a fresh $600m deal to provide engineering and construction services at a major gas project in Algeria. This brings its pipeline of new contract orders to $3.3bn, despite fears that its legal wrangling with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) might dampen its chances of winning bids
- Johnston Press (JPR) has had to hand more than £500,000 to a clutch of senior staff to prevent them from deserting. The owner of the i and The Scotsman newspapers said that several managers had been approached by rivals. In the first half of the year the publisher paid £507,000 in retention bonuses to keep key employees. David King, who became chief executive in June, said that neither he nor his predecessor had received any loyalty payment
- Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) is pushing further into the fields of submarine rescue and offshore wind turbines after increasing profits by more than a quarter in the first half of year. The FTSE 250 business has been building up its presence in the renewables market, repairing blades on wind turbines and monitoring cables. Earlier this year, the company signed its maiden long-term maintenance contract for the largest wind farm in the world in the Thames Estuary
- A New York-based hedge fund and activist investor has been pressing the takeover watchdog to force Disney to raise its offer for Sky (SKY) to more than £15 a share. Elliott believes that the Takeover Panel should set a floor of £15.01 for a possible mandatory bid for the broadcaster. It led a group controlling more than 9% of Sky and hired Greenhill, an investment adviser, to argue its case, the panel said yesterday.
- Diploma (DPLM) chief fired four months into job. Richard Ingram left with immediate effect after the board concluded that replacing him was “in the best interests of the company and its shareholders”, John Nicholas, the chairman said.
