BP Share News (BP.)

Goldman Sachs has awarded a £9m bonus to the joint head of its London business, risking a further backlash over giant City pay deals.The investment bank's share award to Michael Sherwood, 45, was revealed in American regulatory filings late last week. It is likely to rank as one of the biggest paydays in Britain this year. Goldman Sachs has awarded a £9m bonus to the joint head of its London business, risking a further backlash over giant City pay deals. Sherwood's bonus, which will not pay out in full until 2016, is even bigger than that of Goldman's chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, who has been awarded £7.9m plus a 330% rise in his basic salary, the Sunday Times reports.George Osborne demanded yesterday that big business stop hoarding cash and use it to create jobs and help Britain's faltering economic recovery. The chancellor told the World Economic Forum in Davos that his big challenge was to convince chief executives to loosen the purse strings. "My frustration is that British companies are sitting on cash equivalent to 5% of GDP. I have to persuade them to invest that cash," he said. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, said that companies would have to start investing if the economic recovery was to continue, the Sunday Times reports.Institutional investors have written to BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto demanding that they ditch ambitions for "wasteful megadeals" and each embark on multi-billion pound share buy-back schemes instead. The shareholders, who have written individually rather than collectively, have asked for commitments from the boards of the mining giants that they use their strong balance sheets to return cash to investors, the Sunday Telegraph reports.The chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Lord Adair Turner, has given a stark warning to Britain's banks that society still needs assurance that a financial collapse could never happen again and that there is more regulation ahead. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Lord Turner made it clear that it was time to "move on" and that the finance sector still had to rectify the problems that created the financial crisis.BP is trying to head off a showdown with its Russian partners as it prepares to reveal its first annual loss in nearly two decades. The FTSE 100 group offered a "fast-tracked" arbitration in Sweden to resolve a conflict that has arisen over the share swap and an Arctic exploration deal that it struck two weeks ago with Rosneft, Russia's state-controlled oil giant. The four oligarchs who own half of TNK-BP, its other Russian joint venture, argue it breaches its shareholder agreement stipulating that TNK is the "primary vehicle" for growth in Russia for both sides. A London court will decide on Tuesday whether to grant an injunction, the Sunday Times reports.Bob Dudley, BP's chief executive, will scrap the company's production targets when he lays out his vision this week for a smaller, more exploration-focused company after last April's Gulf of Mexico disaster. Analysts expect that BP will pump about 3.6m barrels of oil and gas a day this year, a tenth less than in 2009, when it overtook US group Exxon Mobil to produce more than any other non-state-controlled company, the Observer reports.Banks could be forced to reopen tens of thousands of mis-selling complaint cases over payment protection insurance and pay compensation of more than £4bn following a legal investigation. Even consumers who have never complained about the sale of a policy with a loan or a mortgage could find themselves being contacted by their provider and offered compensation, the Mail on Sunday reports.Big Brother is expected to return to British TV screens this summer after Endemol, the reality show's owner, restarted talks with Channel 5 over a new broadcasting deal. Richard Desmond, the Daily Express tycoon who acquired the channel last year, believes he can breathe new life into the show's format, which could be heavily promoted in his publications, the Sunday Times reports.Russia's second-biggest bank is poised for a $3.7bn (£2.3 billion) London share offering, as the number of Russian firms aiming to tap City investors for cash grows. VTB, which is second only to Sberbank in Russia, is 77%-owned by the government. It is one of a pack of Russian financial, infrastructure and resources firms that want to raise funds after weathering the financial crisis. Analysts expect Russian companies to raise up to £13 bn this year through floats in London. The country's economy is set to grow 4.2% this year ? more than twice the rate forecast for Britain, according to the World Bank, the Sunday Times reports.Blackstone has raised $15bn (£9.4bn) from investors in one of the biggest ever private equity fundraisings, furnishing the firm with a war chest for acquisitions in Britain and around the world. The company, headed by Stephen Schwarzman, is understood to be looking at possible UK acquisitions in areas that include healthcare, media, leisure, engineering and technology, the Observer reports.Shoppers will spend more this year than last as they "trade up but buy less often," according to a group of top retail advisers and analysts. KPMG/Synovate, which is due to publish its findings this week, predicts the sector might not be hit as hard this year as first thought. The think tank's white paper, What are the prospects for UK retail in 2011, said there is "some optimism" for this year, beyond the first quarter, the Sunday Independent reports.One of China's leading economists has said that the country is facing the possibility of a dangerous real-estate bubble and rising inflation which could put growth at risk. Yu Yongding, senior fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and former member of the monetary policy committee of the People's Bank of China, said that the demand for new property was so high that prices were in danger of soaring out of control, the Sunday Telegraph writes.Fashion chain SuperGroup has vowed to continue to fight to protect its brand after winning a legal case alleging an infringement of design rights. The company, which owns the Superdry brand, has nearly 100 legal actions under way alleging copyright or design rights infringements. It received a judgment in the High Court on Friday in respect of its Superdry Lumberjack range of hooded shirts, which retail at £54.99, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the planes-to-pizza's entrepreneur, is planning to drive his easyBus venture across Europe as part of a multi-million pound expansion. The Sunday Telegraph understands countries earmarked for the initial expansion include France, Spain and Germany, with other parts of continental Europe being considered.