Sunday newspaper round-up: WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell, contactless fraud, Whitbread, Metro Bank
The Canadian betting giant behind the PokerStars website has this weekend clinched a £3.4bn takeover of Sky Bet. The online betting site is to be swallowed up by Toronto-based Stars Group in a deal that will create the world’s largest digital gaming company. - The Sunday Times
WPP is facing an investor backlash over the terms of Sir Martin Sorrell’s departure which puts him in line for a £20m windfall. One investor told The Telegraph that they were “furious” the business was allowing the advertising tycoon to pocket up to £20m in share bonus awards over the next five years following an allegation of personal misconduct. - Sunday Telegraph
The City of London will come under the spotlight of the International Monetary Fund as part of a crackdown on corruption that will investigate whether and other rich countries are taking tough enough action against bribery and money laundering. In a hardening of its approach, the IMF said it needed to look at those giving bribes and financial centres that laundered dirty money as well as improving the existing clampdown on wrongdoing in poor countries. - Observer
Fraudsters are stealing money from contactless payment cards at the rate of almost £27 every minute, raising fears that the technology is becoming a ‘magnet’ for thieves. Analysis for The Mail on Sunday suggests the security threat is increasing at an alarming rate as the nation’s shoppers turn in droves to convenient ‘tap and pay’ cards and phone apps to ease queue stress. - Mail on Sunday
The boss of Whitbread is expected to open the door to a break-up of the FTSE 100 giant this week, after mounting pressure from an activist hedge fund. Alison Brittain is not “philosophically opposed” to Whitbread spinning off the Costa Coffee chain from its Premier Inn hotels, say City sources. The chief executive will lay out her position at the company’s full-year results on Wednesday and is understood to believe a split is a case of “when, not if”. - The Sunday Times
Metro Bank is facing growing investor anger at the use of company money to fund the lavish lifestyles of its chairman and his wife after new details emerged about corporate expenses. The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that Metro Bank’s flamboyant US founder, Vernon Hill, uses his £120,000-a-year company expense account to help pay for private jet trips for the couple from their home in Pennsylvania to London, and towards renting a flat on Park Lane in Mayfair. - Sunday Telegraph
Labour is to begin courting regional mayors and councils over its plans for £250bn of transport and infrastructure spending, promising to prioritise projects that boost productivity and help the rest of the country catch up with London. Speaking to the Guardian, Peter Dowd, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the party would open a series of consultations with local leaders over the coming months on its proposals to help close the regional divide. - Observer
The UK’s biggest banks are pocketing £1 billion a year by paying stingier rates of interest to long-suffering savers than their smaller rivals. Figures from the Bank of England show that major high street banks pay 0.2 per cent less on average than their competitors. - Mail on Sunday
The FTSE 250 property company Capital & Counties could retreat from the most controversial part of a luxury development in west London by handing back two estates to the council. Capco is in talks to return the Gibbs Green and West Kensington council estates to Hammersmith and Fulham, which has been fighting to block their redevelopment since Labour took control in the 2014 local elections. The estates form part of a bigger £12bn regeneration scheme designed by Sir Terry Farrell. - The Sunday Times
De la Rue’s handling of the new British passport contract has been labelled a “farce” after it drove down the security printer’s share price, leaving it vulnerable to an opportunistic takeover bid from foreign rivals. Activist investor Crystal Amber said that the company’s strategy had wiped almost £150m off its value in just four weeks and left potential buyers “salivating” at the opportunity to swoop on the historic business at a knock-down price. - Sunday Telegraph
The Bank of England is “dangerously ill-equipped” to avert the next recession and remains mired fighting the last downturn, according to a report calling for the introduction of radical new policy tools. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the odds of a recession once every 10 to 15 years mean Threadneedle Street needs additional firepower for when the economy next begins to falter. - Observer
A fraudster is trying to help himself to £3.75m of taxpayers’ money from a compensation payout intended for small savers ripped off by Royal Bank of Scotland, a court has heard. Significant new information has emerged in court following a six-month investigation by The Mail on Sunday that has detailed the deeply concerning background of Gerard Walsh, who co-founded the RBS Shareholders Action Group company. - Mail on Sunday
Embattled outsourcing giant Capita will this week ask shareholders for up to £700m to repair its balance sheet. Capita, which has contracts ranging from electronic tagging of offenders to running call centres for Tesco Mobile, is trying to rebuild after a string of profit warnings. - The Sunday Times
The founders of Cotton Traders are understood to be in talks over a deal to offload the clothing chain to the owners of Sale Sharks rugby club. Former England rugby players Fran Cotton and Steve Smith have been negotiating with investment fund CorpAcq over a potential sale of the 31-year-old business, sources have said. - Sunday Telegraph
A bank originally set up to help countries of the former Soviet bloc is poised to extend its operations into sub-Saharan Africa in order to speed up progress in meeting ambitious development goals set by the United Nations. Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the president of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said his organisation had the money and the expertise to stimulate the growth of strong private sectors in some of the world’s poorest countries. - Observer
Two women who held senior posts at the AA breakdown company are accusing the organisation of sexism after claiming they suffered discrimination when they became pregnant. Lucy Burnford and Sally Matthews both spoke out against the AA this weekend in exclusive interviews with The Mail on Sunday. - Mail on Sunday