Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Lloyds will announce within days a controversial £23bn fundraising that will bolster its balance sheet and finally repair the damage caused by its disastrous takeover of rival HBOS, according to the Sunday Times.Stagecoach is putting the final touches to bank financing ready to launch a takeover bid for National Express, the troubled rail franchise which owns the lucrative East Anglian lines. Andrew Fitchie, a Collins Stewart analyst, said: "Any move will need banks to put up finance. But we understand Stagecoach has between £300m and £400m of finance ready to buy National Express." He added that he hoped Stagecoach would make its move "in the coming week or so", writes the Independent on Sunday.Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has given Britain's banks until the end of the week to justify bumper bonus payouts, says the Sunday Times.Investment banks could face a competition inquiry unless they start lowering the fees charged to their clients, Lord Myners has warned, according to the Independent on Sunday.BP's new chairman is preparing a boardroom shake-up as part of far-reaching changes at the oil giant. When he starts work in January, Carl-Henric Svanberg will begin the search for a string of new non-executives to replenish the board, reports the Sunday Times.Chime, the listed public relations firm led by the former Tory spin doctor, Lord Bell, is set to buy Pelham, the City public relations group, writes the Independent on Sunday.Floors-2-Go, the resurrected flooring retailer saved from extinction last year following a pre-pack administration, is close to agreeing an injection of growth capital from new backers, says the Independent on Sunday.Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is set to pocket £400m from a deal in which it will sell half its stake in the world's largest wind farm, according to the Sunday Times.Petroceltic, one of the biggest companies on the Alternative Investment market, is looking to for a partner for an Italian oilfield. The Dublin-based company is looking to start production at the Elsa field off the coast of Apulia, the heel of the Italian boot, in the third quarter of next year. Petroceltic, which has a market capitalisation of £240m, needs a third party to help finance a deal, writes the Independent on Sunday.An influential think-tank, supported by the government, will tomorrow urge £150 billion of new green taxes on businesses and households ? including a £3,300 levy on new cars. The recommendations from the Green Fiscal Commission (GFC), to be presented by Lord Turner, head of the committee on climate change ? and chairman of the Financial Services Authority ? could bring a drastic reshaping of the tax system to curb greenhouse gas emissions and encourage investment in low-carbon technology, reports the Sunday Times.The Sunday Telegraph adds that energy companies have privately warned the Government that its climate change targets are "illusory" and "delusional" as global leaders prepare to sign up to stricter guidelines at the Copenhagen climate change conference in six weeks.Nomura, the investment bank, has quit as adviser to Index-Linked Properties (ILP), the high profile fund launched by Robin Saunders, a former WestLB rainmaker. It's believed that Nomura, which was a co-adviser with Fairfax, the City investment bank, has become frustrated with the project amid apathy from hedge funds and institutional investors, says the Independent on Sunday.Matalan has hired Price Waterhouse Coopers to advise on a possible £1.5 billion sale of the budget fashion chain, according to the Sunday Times.The Icelandic owners of West Ham United have put the Premier League club up for sale. CB Holdings, which runs the east London side, has hired two investment banks to find a new backer, says the Sunday Times.Standard Life, the Edinburgh-based insurer which last week announced that David Nish would be its new chief executive, is believed to have asked its advisers to review the company's Canadian business with a view to a possible sale, reports the Independent on Sunday.JD Sports is preparing to gatecrash the £42.5m takeover of AIM-listed Powerleague, Britain's biggest operator of five-a-side football centres. The sports fashion firm is believed to be taking advice from bankers at Investec, writes the Sunday Times.The British Film Institute, chaired by former BBC director general Greg Dyke, has told the Government the state's vision for a full-blown merger of the BFI and UK Film Council is "not legally possible", according to the Sunday Telegraph.City grandee Sir David Walker will recommend banning banks from paying guaranteed bonuses to staff when he publishes his final review into corporate governance at the end of next month, says the Independent on Sunday.Offices valued at £643m are being marketed for sale in Central London, compared with £2.9bn in 2007 and £2.8bn in 2008, according to research by property agent Knight Frank, commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph.