Monday Papers: BP partners eye pay­out block - money and other news

Financial Times

* BP’s Russian billionaire partners in TNK-BP have called an extraordinary board meeting to discuss withholding the
payment of last year’s final dividend as they step up their fight against the UK group’s proposed Rosneft alliance.

* Dividend payments from listed UK companies will rise 11.5% this year after two years of shrinking, according to a
new study.

* Europe’s banking system is returning to health amid signs that financial institutions are no longer hoarding cash,
according to indicators that show overnight lending rates returning to normal.

* Chris Huhne is at loggerheads with the Treasury over the size and scope of the green investment bank, as officials seek to thwart his attempts to ensure it operates as a fully fledged bank.

* Big banks on both sides of the Atlantic are weighing whether to follow Barclays as it pushes ahead with a plan to pay bonuses with innovative bonds, dubbed cocos.

* Man Group will on Monday launch a new exchange-traded fund designed to outperform stock markets by trading on broker’s tips using computer algorithms.

* Calunius Capital has raised £40 million for a Guernsey-based fund that will invest in commercial legal battles and arbitration.

* Leading oil companies are drawing up a plan to create a safety organisation for deepwater drilling that could
be launched within week.

* New CBI chief John Cridland has promised that Britain’s employers’ group will keep putting pressure on the
coalition government over growth strategy.

* The richest tenth of the population will lose an average 3% of their net income from tax and benefit changes
in April compared with an average of 1% for the population as a whole, according to Institute for Fiscal Studies data.

* Trade tensions between Brazil and China are expected to increase after the Asian country emerged as the biggest
foreign direct investor in Latin America’s largest economy.