Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Lloyds Banking is believed to be considering plans to hive off a portion of its giant commercial property portfolio into a separate, tax-efficient company. Senior figures within the bank are thought to have put forward the idea, which would see some of the £50bn to £75bn worth of assets and loans inherited by Lloyds following its merger with HBOS spun off into a real estate investment trust (Reit), says the Independent on Sunday.KKR, the private equity firm, is in talks with Warner Music to launch a break-up bid for Warner's rival, EMI. The two have met in recent weeks to discuss how they would structure a deal for EMI, which is expected to be put up for sale this summer, writes the Sunday Times.Members of the eurozone are working on the details of a possible bail-out for Greece ahead of a meeting in Brussels on Monday, although obstacles to a final agreement have yet to be overcome, according to several officials, reports the FT.Vedanta Resources, the India-based Ftse 100 miner, is ready to begin a massive break-up of its business with the demerger of its $20bn (£13bn) aluminium division. The new firm will be the world's fourth biggest aluminium player, behind Russia's United Company Rusal, America's Alcoa and China's Chalco, according to the Independent on Sunday.BAE Systems has lost the race to build the British army's next generation of "Scout" armoured vehicles, beaten by General Dynamics of the US in the competition for a contract worth more than £1bn, says the FT.Ex-Lehman Brothers directors and their UK advisers could face a fresh blitz of civil and criminal charges following the publication on Friday of the explosive report into the collapse of the Wall Street bank which claimed it "misrepresented" its financial position, writes the Independent on Sunday.The Sunday Times adds that HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, has been accused of helping precipitate the fall of Lehman Brothers by demanding billions of pounds in collateral days before its collapse. Carlo Pellerani, a former senior executive at Lehman, told an investigation into the collapse that "[HSBC] were not going to allow us to do business. They put a gun to our head." In his first interview since announcing his intention to step down in the summer after three years at the helm, Mr Sants also reveals that the FSA is to expand by more than 10pc and hire another 460 staff to perform its new investigatory role, reports the Sunday Telegraph.Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday warned other countries that pressuring China on currency policy was equivalent to protectionism and insisted that the renminbi was not undervalued, according to the FT.Manchester United is being eyed up by a second potential acquirer, competing with the Red Knights consortium. The rival party was thought to have been preparing a bid worth about £1.2bn, including debt, before the Red Knights consortium revealed its interest in approaching the Glazer family which owns the club, says the Sunday Telegraph.J Sainsbury will accelerate bonus payments for all staff in a move that means staff taking home more than £150,000 will avoid paying the 50% tax rate that comes in on April 6, writes the Sunday Times.The Serious Fraud Office is set to examine the circumstances behind the collapse of British Seafood Group, a frozen-fish company with sales of more than £300m, which failed last month, reports the Independent on Sunday.Thomas the Tank Engine owner HIT Entertainment will breach banking covenants within days, say sources close to the company. HIT, which also owns Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina and Barney the Dinosaur, originally agreed a step-down agreement with the banks in which it agreed over time to raise its profitability relative to the size of its debts, according to the Sunday Telegraph.Prudential's chief executive, Tidjane Thiam, will head to Edinburgh tomorrow to meet fund managers in the Scottish capital after botching a number of meetings with investors in London last week. Mr Thiam is believed to have now met around 30 institutional investors in the company in an effort to persuade them of the merits of the $35.5bn (£23bn) deal to buy the Asian assets of American Insurance Group, says the Independent on Sunday.Net-A-Porter has received a bid approach from Richemont, the Swiss luxury-goods group, that would value the online fashion boutique at about £350m, writes the Sunday Times.Crossrail, the proposed £15.9bn Berkshire-to-Essex rail link that will run through central London, will invite bids this summer to build commuter trains for the project. An industry source estimated that the contract would be worth £600m to £900m, as Crossrail bosses look to get their trains built ahead of the rail link's 2017 launch, reports the Independent on Sunday.