Qatar, the natural gas-rich Middle Eastern state which owns stakes in Barclays and Sainsbury's, could invest in Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, the banking groups part-nationalised at the height of the financial crisis. The Treasury owns about 83% of RBS and about 40% of Lloyds, with the stakes managed by UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body set up after the two were rescued by the taxpayer, writes the Independent.The UK's biggest shopping centre owner is refusing to back an eleventh-hour plan to stop JJB Sports from tipping into administration, piling pressure on the retailer ahead of crucial talks with its bank on Thursday. Capital Shopping Centres (CSC), which owns Lakeside in Thurrock and Gateshead's MetroCentre, said it would vote against the JJB's proposed company voluntary arrangement (CVA) - a legal agreement struck with landlords that is designed to slash store rent costs - which could see up to 95 shops close, the Guardian reports.Libya's descent into civil war has led to drastic cuts in oil shipments and prompted warnings that an escalation of the crisis could see Brent crude prices double to $220 a barrel. Nomura's commodity team said oil prices risk vaulting to uncharted highs over coming weeks if chaos hits Algeria as well, reducing global spare capacity to the wafer-thin margins seen just before the first Gulf War, writes the Telegraph.America's financial watchdog has expanded its inquiry into the growing market for buying and selling shares in private companies, which has led to sky-high valuations for internet groups such as Facebook and Twitter. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is thought to be studying the potential for conflicts of interest among firms trading in the stock of these companies, writes the Times.The merger between Orange and T-Mobile has started to bear fruit after the enlarged company added 300,000 contract customers over the Christmas quarter. The move to allow roaming between the two networks paid dividends with 4.3 million customers opting into the service before it formally started, the Times reports.The French bank that owns the Esporta health club chain is understood to be considering its options for the business after receiving unsolicited approaches from rival operators. Interest in the chain, which is controlled by Société Générale, is believed to have been sparked by the bank's decision last autumn to test the water on a possible £200 million sale and leaseback of 17 of Esporta's tennis-based clubs, according to the Times.The Telegraph reports that a member of the US Federal Reserve has called for Wall Street's financial giants to be broken up to avoid another another crisis. "I am convinced that the existence of too-big-to-fail financial institutions poses the greatest risk to the US economy," Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig said. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, and Boris Berezovksy, a fellow oligarch and foe of Vladimir Putin, are set to lock horns in a high-profile court battle. The stage was set for the eagerly anticipated public showdown between two of the world's richest men after the Court of Appeal refused to strike out Mr Berezovsky's £2bn lawsuit, the Telegraph reports.Accountants, law firms, marketers and other companies serving businesses have enjoyed their first quarter of significant growth in almost three years, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has reported. Firms offering business and professional services saw their volumes of business grow at the fastest pace since mid-2008 in the three months to February, according to the business group's latest quarterly survey of the huge services sector, according to the Telegraph.Barclays could be forced to take a writedown running into hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of a court ruling over its 2008 acquisition of Lehman Brothers' US business. A New York bankruptcy judge rejected claims that Barclays had cheated Lehman's creditors out of billions of dollars, and will not have to pay up to $11bn (£6.8bn) extra for the deal that transformed it overnight into a Wall Street powerhouse, writes the Independent.The recession could result in permanent youth unemployment levels of over 20 per cent even after the economy recovers, a think tank warns today. The warning comes as new official figures are published on the numbers of young people that are considered to be "Neets" - not in education, employment or training. Demos estimates that the ranks of unemployed young people could grow over the next five years to 1.2m, the Independent writes.A two-speed global economy has left Europe and the west vulnerable to a weak recovery and emerging economies facing severe overheating, the International Monetary Fund said in a report on the G20 finance ministers' meeting last weekend. Europe's financial sector remains fragile and could suffer further shocks while countries like Brazil and China are grappling with rising demand and soaring inflation from jumps in commodity prices, according to the Guardian. Companies are to be urged to increase female representation in their boards in the next two years or face Government quotas. Former trade minister Lord Davies of Abersoch, who has spearheaded a government drive to get more women on board, is expected to call for a fifth of FTSE 350 board members to be women by 2013, rising to a quarter by 2015, reports the Daily Mail.
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