Barclays Share News (BARC)

Matteo Renzi will on Monday be formally handed the job of forming Italy's fourth government in less than two years with the aim of presenting his reform programme to parliament by the end of the week. The 39-year-old leader of the centre-left Democrats, who ousted prime minister Enrico Letta in a party power struggle, has a mid-morning appointment at the presidential palace where he is expected to receive the mandate to govern from Giorgio Napolitano, Italy's 88-year-old head of state. - Financial TimesWilliam Hill is poised to fire the starting gun in its search for its new Chief Executive as it seeks to replace Ralph Topping a year earlier than expected. Britain's biggest bookmaker is odds-on to appoint somebody from outside the company amid indications that the leading internal candidates are not yet ready for the role. - The TimesThe row at Essar Energy has deepened after one of the struggling oil and gas group's biggest shareholders publicly condemned an attempt by its majority owner to take it private. Standard Life Investments, a top five institutional shareholder, described the move by Essar Global, the vehicle of the founding Ruia family who own 78% of the company, as "cynical opportunism" taken at the expense of the minority owners. - The TimesA new furore is growing around Barclays and its pay and bonus policy after it emerged that some of its biggest shareholders plan to approach its chairman directly to voice their concern. Several of the bank's leading institutional investors will seek meetings with Sir David Walker or will write to him over the course of the next two weeks. - The TimesReader's Digest has been sold for just £1 by Better Capital to a venture capitalist whose former TV company created Bob the Builder. The sale for a nominal amount marks another chapter in the magazine publishing company's chequered history and a steep writedown for Jon Moulton's listed private equity firm. Better Capital bought the business out of administration for £14m in 2010. - The Daily TelegraphParts of Britain may be under water after the worst floods in half a century, but a team of top academics from Newcastle and Oxford University is warning that the country is at risk of water shortages that could shut down power stations and paralyse electricity supplies. "It is difficult to fathom we should start to think about water shortages in the middle of these storms but only two years ago areas of Britain were suffering from severe droughts," said Ed Byers, a researcher at Newcastle University's engineering and geosciences department. - The GuardianAB