MONDAY
SIR RICHARD SYKES, a leading adviser to the Government, prepares to set out a “last-ditch” campaign to attract panicked investors back to the stock market in an effort to stem the savings crisis. The former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline and current Rector of Imperial College, is calling for a code of good behaviour to restore trust in financial services. Brian Gilbertson, chairman of Vedanta Resources, suffers the humiliation of having to delay the mining group’s first results since its stock market flotation last December. JP Morgan Partners, the private equity firm, prepares to bid for Odeon. MGM Mirage stands on the verge of creating the world’s biggest casino company as it reaches a tentative agreement to buy Mandalay Resorts for $4.8 billion (£2.6 billion).
TUESDAY
ALAN GREENSPAN moves to calm market fears of a half-point rise in US interest rates later this month, despite an oil-driven surge in inflation. The Federal Reserve Chairman’s reassurance comes as it emerges that inflation in Britain jumped to its highest in more than a year last month as petrol prices increased. Headline consumer price inflation climbed to an annual rate of 1.5 per cent in May, up from April’s
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1.2 per cent. Whitehead Mann, the global headhunter, moves to restore its reputation in the wake of Sainsbury shareholders’ rejection of Sir Ian Prosser as the retailer’s chairman. The Times learns that Jarvis has backtracked on plans to move into a new £30 million building in London after conceding that this “would look bad” to shareholders.
WEDNESDAY
GORDON BROWN is given an embarrassing warning by Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, about the state of Britain’s finances. Meanwhile, the attempt by the Daily Mail group to buy The Daily Telegraph, collapses after the price rises too high for the company and its bid partner, CVC, the venture capital firm. Earlier, The Daily Telegraph’s parent, Hollinger International, admits that it is conducting a new internal investigation into overstated circulation figures for its Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. Marks & Spencer rejects a revised takeover offer from Philip Green, the retail developer, which valued the retailer at £8.4 billion. This comes after Stuart Rose, the new chief executive of M&S, had given himself a month to devise an emergency plan to defend the retailer.
THURSDAY
MERVYN KING, Governor of the Bank of England, vents his anger over the Bank’s embroilment in the BCCI court case, which is set to cost it up to £100 million to defend. Shell confirms that it is considering merging its two businesses, Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport & Trading, for the first time. The oil group reveals it will name its new finance director before its June 28 annual meeting; the appointment is likely to be external. JP Morgan Chase, the US investment bank, holds out the prospect of an out-of-court settlement with Poste Italiane after the state-owned post office’s filing of a lawsuit to recover a €40 million (£27 million) loss on a derivative deal.