BP Share News (BP.)

BP is preparing for a long legal battle that could delay for several years the financial impact of Thursday's court ruling that it acted with gross negligence and wilful misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Financial Times reported."It's going to be a long time before we resolve this," Brian Gilvary, BP's chief financial officer, told the FT. "The appeals process could take a number of years. This is just another step in the process." He said BP was financially strong enough to cope with the potential penalties of up to $18bn that could arise from the ruling.BP shareholders are expected to push the company to settle with the US government after a court ruling left BP facing billions of dollars in new damages on top of the $43bn it has paid or set aside for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Sunday Times said.BP investors fear the company will have to cut its dividend and reduce its share buyback programme after the court's ruling, the Mail on Sunday reported. Analysts expect BP's cash flow to be flat over the next two years. This is enough to cover expected capital spending but it leaves little room to pay the dividend and a big fine could wipe out the payout to shareholders.Morrisons will pledge to stand by its £300m dividend despite one analyst describing the move as "bonkers", the Sunday Times said. Dalton Philips, Morrisons' Chief Executive, is expected to "deliver" the interim dividend on September 11th and stand by a plan to increase the annual payout by 5% even after Tesco slashed its interim payout by three quarters. A source close to the company told the paper: "This is a management team that wants to keep its promises."Morrisons' half-year profits are expected to have halved after sales plunged at the supermarket group, the Mail on Sunday said. Barclays analysts expect interim profits to have dropped to £165m from £344m a year earlier. Dalton Philips, the chief executive, will say Morrisons' loss of market share is coming to an end because of the price cuts he has introduced to combat Aldi and Lidl.UK shares will continue to rise this year even though they are close to their record high, the Sunday Times said, citing brokers. The paper said analysts believe the equity market is "a long way" from unrealistic valuations seen in December 1999 when the FTSE 100 hit its last peak. Nick Nelson, head of European equity strategy UBS, said: "I think the FTSE 100 will end the year higher than the current levels of close to 7,000. But there are some specific UK risks that will hold it back [including] politics, currency and interest rates."The Serious Fraud Office's inquiry into Rolls-Royce has hit a glitch after two men arrested in connection with the investigation had bail lifted, the Sunday Times reported. Sudhir Choudhrie and his son Bhanu were arrested in February but the lifting of bail indicates they are unlikely to play any further part in the investigation. A spokesman for the Choudhries told the paper they "deny any wrongdoing and have co-operated fully with the authorities".The European Central Bank (ECB) has a tacit policy to devalue the euro by 10% to ward off a deflationary spiral, the Sunday Times reported, citing analysts. The ECB has cut deposit rates and announced a big programme to boost bank lending, seen as a prelude to quantitative easing. "The message is implicit, but the framework [of Draghi's package] gives the ECB an indirect foreign exchange policy. At the very least, it appears to be trying to take the euro lower," Mark Wall, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, told the paper.A judge has attacked British Airways for expecting trustees of its pension fund to pay their own legal defence costs in a dispute over pension contributions, the Sunday Times reported. BA is suing trustees of its Airways Pension Scheme (APS) for increasing payments to its 29,000 mostly retired members after the scheme was tied to the lower consumer prices index (CPI) rate of inflation, instead of the retail prices index (RPI). A High Court judge said BA was "entirely unrealistic and unreasonable" for trying to make the trustees pay defence costs.The Treasury will clash with the European Union on September 8th by laying out objections to the EU's cap on bankers' bonuses, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Lawyers will argue at the European Court of Justice that the cap is an unjustified intrusion on banks. Most of Europe's highly paid bankers are based in London.Gusbourne, the Aim-listed English wine producer, is set to raise up to £5m in a rights issue to fund expansion, the Sunday Telegraph said. The fundraising could come as soon as Monday to plant more vines and spend money on marketing. Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative peer, owns 64.4% of Gusborne.