Friday newspaper round-up: Royal Bank of Scotland, Wheat, Barclays

Royal Bank of Scotland is today expected to announce the sale of the UK's leading credit card payment processing business to private equity in a £2bn ($3.18bn) deal expected to generate an £800m to £900m book gain.People close to the transaction said RBS hoped to announce the sale of its Global Merchant Services arm to Advent International and Bain Capital with the bank's first-half results today. Both sides were still negotiating the deal last night, however, the FT reports.Europe is enjoying an unexpectedly strong economic rebound as financial market strains ease, the President of the European Central Bank said yesterday. In a cautiously optimistic assessment, Jean-Claude Trichet said some of the concerns surrounding the future of the eurozone this year have subsided as traders fret about the American economy. Eurozone data from the second quarter and last month have been firmer than the ECB had expected, Mr Trichet told a press conference after leaving interest rates unchanged at 1%., the Times reports.North Sea oil companies, including BP, are considering whether to build a giant cap to contain future oil spills like the Gulf of Mexico disaster in a move that could raise the cost of drilling. Oil & Gas UK, the North Sea industry body, yesterday asked engineers from Wood Group to look at whether it would be economically viable for British companies to build emergency containment systems for potential leaks, the Telegraph reports.Russian premier Vladimir Putin has ordered a halt to all exports of wheat and other grains from August 15, raising the stakes dramatically in the crisis over wheat supplies. "This is very serious," said Abdolreza Abbassanian, chief grain economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. "It's a desperate situation because it has caught everybody off guard. We're not facing the situation of two years ago but there is a risk of destabilising panic," the Telegraph reports.The Independent adds the world faces an inflationary time bomb as shortages of food threaten to push prices to fresh all-time highs. A variety of freakish weather conditions across the world has sent the price of staples including wheat, pork, rice, orange juice, coffee, cocoa and tea to fresh highs in recent weeks. Yesterday's decision by the Russian government to ban the export of wheat to protect home consumers saw grain prices jump 8% on the day, on what was already a two-year high.The scale and speed of cuts to the NHS became apparent yesterday as confirmed job losses this year reached 11,000 and union leaders threatened to take the Government to a judicial review over the pace of reform. Unison, the biggest public sector union, accused ministers of "conning" voters with claims that they were protecting frontline services, the Times reports.3i has hired investment bankers to sell the two biggest companies - with a combined value of more than €1bn (£830m) - in its German portfolio in moves aimed at reducing its debt. Rothschild has been asked to prepare an initial public offering of Norma Group, a maker of metal and plastic engineered joining products, which is planning a listing next year with an enterprise value of about €700m, the FT reports.General Motors raised the bar for manufacturers seeking ways to tempt recession-hit consumers back into showrooms when it became the first carmaker to offer a "lifetime warranty" on all its new Opel and Vauxhall cars in Europe. The US carmaker said the warranty would apply to the first owner of any of its German and UK marques registered from this month, and remain valid through the life of a car until it has registered 100,000 miles, the FT reports.Ofcom has pledged to give up some of its powers over the media industry, amounting to deregulation "in a host of areas". Last month the Government published plans to trim the regulator's remit, with further cutbacks to come in 2012.The head of Barclays has warned that Britain risks becoming an uncompetitive place for banks to be based amid a slew of new taxes and restrictions. John Varley highlighted the new Government's levy on banks' balance sheets, which comes into force in January, as a cause for concern and emphasised the need for a "level playing field", reports the Times.Barclays set aside a £1.7bn bonus pool for its staff in the first half of the year as profits surged to £3.9bn. The bonus pool will be benefit 150,000 staff, but the lion's share will go to Bob Diamond's investment bankers at Barclays Capital. The profit figure was up 44 per cent on the same period last year, although it was flattered by accounting technicalities, adds the Independent.Barclays has launched a spirited defence of its approach of combining retail and investment banking under one roof, with executives on Thursday delivering a thinly veiled warning to the UK government that a break-up could force it overseas. John Varley, chief executive, said Barclays' so-called universal model had proved its resilience and profitability through the financial crisis, the FT adds.