Tuesday Papers: Apple loses big slice of tablet market

Top stories

• Financial Times: Apple’s share of the global tablet market has fallen from two-thirds to a half in the past six months, market researchers say, raising the stakes for its new iPad mini against a slew of new challengers using Google’s Android and Microsoft's Windows software.
• Financial Times: HSBC is bracing for a settlement with US regulators that could top $2 billion, according to analyst estimates.
• Financial Times: Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro’s wholesale banking division, an Australian judge has ruled.
• The Daily Telegraph: A "rogue trader" in the US who took an estimated $1billion gamble on Apple shares that quickly turned sour has left his company fighting for survival.
• The Guardian: Goldman Sachs has dropped 33 partners since it last disclosed the number of elite bankers at the firm, according to regulatory filings.
• Financial Times: HSBC, Barclays and Santander, three of the UK’s biggest banks, have told MPs they should be allowed to sell simple derivative products from within their retail banking operations, a key flashpoint in banking reform.
• The Independent: Directors at Britain's top 100 companies picked up 10% more pay last year despite taking home smaller bonuses.
• The Daily Telegraph: Selling arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is "legitimate and right" as autocratic countries have a right to self defence, British PM David Cameron has said.
• The Independent: Nat Rothschild had tabled an alternative proposal for Bumi under which Bakries, who own 23.8% in the company, and their associates would be replaced with a new group of investors as well as the departure of chairman Samin Tan, who also has a 23.8% stake.
• Daily Mail: Shares of mobile handset maker Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) shot up 32 per cent today after Citigroup upgraded the stock to a 'buy' and said it expected the firm to start assembling iPhones this year.
• Daily Express: Coal miner UK Coal has warned its investors that it could collapse unless they back a shake-up.
• Financial Times: Nicholas Levene, the former City stockbroker also known as “Beano”, was jailed for 13 years on Monday for cheating investors out of £32 million.

Business and economics

• Financial Times: Oyu Tolgoi, Rio Tinto’s flagship Mongolian copper-gold mine, is set to begin production in less than three months after finally resolving the issue of power supply from neighbouring China that had caused delays to the nearly $6 billion project.
• Financial Times: Petrobras said on Monday that it may have to pay a $2.35 billion decade-old tax claim related to the lease of foreign offshore oil platforms after a judge threw out an injunction allowing it to avoid payment.
• The Daily Telegraph: A group of London's largest institutional shareholders are to call on the UK Government to use its £151 million aid budget to Tanzania to tackle growing corruption in the east African state.
• The Daily Telegraph: Banks have lost the right to shape their own future and will have to accept whatever changes are imposed by regulators, according to Douglas Flint, the chairman of HSBC.
• Financial Times: The Financial Stability Board, made up of central bankers and regulators, announced on Monday that “uneven headway” had been made on solving the problem of banks that were seen as “too big to fail”.
• Financial Times: France risks falling behind crisis-hit Italy and Spain if it does not reform its economy, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
• The Independent: Two-year German bond yields fell below zero on Monday as low-risk assets rallied before an uncertain United States presidential election and another make-or-break parliamentary vote in Greece.
• The Daily Telegraph: British Chancellor George Osborne and German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble issued a rare joint statement demanding "concerted international co-operation to strengthen international standards for corporate tax regimes" at the G20 meeting in Mexico City.
• Financial Times: Goldman Sachs has continued its independent board member recruitment spree with the appointment of Mark Tucker, chief executive of pan-Asian life assurer AIA Group and former head of Prudential Plc.
• Financial Times: Toyota on Monday said it expected to earn a net profit of Y780 billion ($9.7 billion) in the financial year ending next March, up from a previous projection of Y760 billion.
• The Daily Telegraph: Production of the new Toyota Auris started at its Derbyshire factory on Monday.
• Financial Times: Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker by sales, is set to replenish its capital reserves following a spate of acquisitions and planned investments by issuing at least €2 billion of debt that must be converted to equity.
• The Guardian: Ryanair’s net profit for six months to end of September rose €596 million from €544 million a year ago thanks to higher fares and a lower fuel bill.
• Financial Times: As many as 1,500 full-time jobs are to be created in the East Midlands by DPD, the parcel delivery group, which has pledged to spend £175 million to expand its UK capacity to cope with growing demand for retail goods ordered online.
• Financial Times: Overall revenues at Inmarsat, the satellite communications company, fell 10.5% year-on-year to $325.9 million, mainly because of the demise of LightSquared, the 4G wireless company founded by hedge fund billionaire Philip Falcone.
• The Guardian: Netflix shareholder rights plan, which could scupper any takeover bid, comes as activist investor snaps up 10% stake.
• Financial Times: NYSE Euronext has become the latest exchange operator to try to break into the fast-growing Brazilian market, teaming up with Rio de Janeiro-based Americas Trading Group to create a new equities platform.
• Financial Times: The pace of US bond deals has accelerated sharply in the wake of Hurricane Sandy; the sale on Monday by Abbott’s AbbVie pharmaceuticals unit was set at $14.7 billion, surpassing a $9.8 billion sale in May from United Technologies.
• Financial Times: Italian police have confiscated €65 million of assets, including a 15th century castle, from the Marzotto family and its business associates for suspected tax evasion connected to the 2007 sale of the Valentino luxury fashion brand.
• The Independent: More than 320,000 savers were dealt an expensive blow on Monday when Government-backed National Savings & Investments cut its Direct ISA interest rate by 10% to 2.25%.
• The Daily Telegraph: Marks & Spencer has turned to Victoria’s Secret, the luxury lingerie brand, in an attempt to stop a decline in clothing sales.

Share tips, comment and bids

• Financial Times: Nike is nearing a deal to sell its lossmaking Cole Haan shoe and bag brand to private equity firm Apax Partners for about $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
• Financial Times: KBW, a boutique investment bank that lost scores of employees in the World Trade Center attack but managed to rebuild in the years since, was acquired by Stifel Financial for $575 million in cash and shares.
• The Independent: The family behind Lacoste, the famous French casualwear brand, is at war over the possible sale of the label to Swiss giant Maus Frères.
• The Guardian (Comment): Whoever wins the US election on Tuesday will find themselves standing at the edge of fiscal precipice.
• The Daily Telegraph (Comment): America's self-aggrandising regulators are biggest risk to HSBC.
• The Daily Telegraph (Comment): UK jobs miracle is based on some unsound foundations.
• Daily Mail (Comment – Alex Brummer): One might have hoped that given the levels of austerity and hardship in the economy boards would have learned some hard lessons.
• Financial Times (Lex): HSBC: the bank has more than doubled its provision for a US money laundering fine, which clouds the investment case – but the underlying business is encouraging.
• Financial Times (Lex): Hyundai and Kia: Korean carmakers’ response to the overstatement of fuel economy seems tailored to their selling point of above-and-beyond customer care.
• Financial Times (Lex): Ryanair: Irish carrier’s record and strong balance sheet deserve a premium, but the differential is starting to look pricey.
• Financial Times (Lex): Netflix: ‘Poison pill’ move against Icahn suggests that a screwball comedy phase has begun for the video streaming company.