Barclays Share News (BARC)

One hundred of the world's largest banks could be dismantled or taken over by more successful rivals within the next couple of years, according to a report by McKinsey & Co.. About a fifth of the world's top 500 banks are at risk of becoming a takeover target due to their underperformance and inability to adapt to market conditions in the wake of the financial crisis. In its closely followed annual report on the banking industry, the firm's consultants said it only thought 10 banks would be able to make the transition from the also-rans to join an emerging group of 90 global financial leaders, The Times reports. After at least two months in secret talks, eight weeks of generating headlines and 10 days of meeting investors in eight US cities, Twitter ended its journey to becoming a public company back where it started: pricing its shares at $26 each. Before Twitter announced its plans to go public at the start of September, shares were priced at $26 on the private market, giving it an equity value of $18bn, the Financial Times reports. Britain must take China's lead and invest in Africa to boost British business, a government minister has said. Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, signalled a move towards trade with countries that have traditionally been the beneficiaries of UK aid. Yesterday, she gave British businesses including JCB, the construction company, SABMiller, the brewer, and Mott MacDonald, the design consultancy, a guided tour of Tanzania to encourage them to invest in the poverty-stricken but gas-rich country, The Times says. Six financial institutions face a record fine of at least £1.3bn for rigging interest rates, it emerged yesterday. Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and the world's biggest interdealer broker ICAP, are among those in line for a penalty from EU antitrust regulators. The fines, likely to be the biggest so far handed out by Brussels, relate to the benchmark 'Libor' interest rate for the Japanese yen, The Daily Mail reports. Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis aims to slash more than 440 jobs in Britain, blaming industry-wide difficulties. Novartis is considering closing its manufacturing site in Horsham, West Sussex, which would lead to the loss of 371 jobs, the company told AFP in an email, confirming a report by the FierceBiotech website. The closure was needed as Novartis attempts to adapt to "a challenging healthcare marketplace", it said, stressing that the decision was still subject to consultations with employees and final approval by its UK board, The Daily Telegraph writes. The economy is cooking with gas and the claimant-count measure of unemployment proves it. That has been what government supporters have been saying in recent months as the dole queues have shrunk. Yet since the new regime for claiming benefits was introduced last October the number of adverse decisions is running at almost two and a half times as high as in the decade 2000-2010. Ministers say that they are providing help as well as penalties, and that those coming off the count are finding jobs. This seems unlikely. Demand for labour remains weak, The Guardian says. AB