Friday newspaper round-up: Tote, Sterling, Rolls-Royce...

The former chief executive of Ladbrokes is being tipped as a frontrunner in the race to buy the Tote after saddling up with partners prepared to back a bid of at least £200m.The Times understands that Chris Bell, who left Ladbrokes in January after almost 20 years at the bookmaker, has joined forces with GI Partners, the transatlantic private equity firm, and Royal Bank of Scotland. His team includes Piers Pottinger, the racehorse owner and the deputy chairman of Chime Communications, as well as former Ladbrokes colleagues.Pimco boss Mohamed El-Erian upgraded his growth forecast for America on the same day 10-year yields hit a six-month high. The chief executive of Pimco, which manages the world's biggest bond fund, said on Thursday that he sees the US economy growing 3% to 3.5% in the fourth quarter of next year from the same period of this year, the Telegraph reports.Campaigners accused the Government of "going soft" on banks as it unveiled details of its £2.5bn banking levy. The proposed new tax, to be paid by up to 40 banks and building societies, will be 0.05% of their global balance sheets in its first year. This is more than the initially proposed level of 0.04%. In subsequent years it will be charged at 0.75%, rather than the planned 0.7%, the Independent reports. However, other aspects of the levy have been tweaked to make it easier on banks, which will also benefit from a steep cut in corporation tax planned by the Government.The pound could be set to surge back to heights last seen during the 2008 banking bailouts as rate increases loom, according to City forecasts issued after the Bank of England's latest policy decision. Sterling may reach $1.82 against the dollar by the end of next year compared with $1.57 yesterday, amid stronger economic growth, Coalition budget cuts and the prospect of rising interest rates, Barclays Capital said in its annual Global Outlook, the Times reports.The Government of Iceland has been given more than 35 years to repay the UK and Dutch governments for the money they forked out to reimburse savers who lost money after the collapse of Landsbanki. Britain and the Netherlands refunded about £3.5 billion to 400,000 people who had savings in Landsbanki's online Icesave account in 2008 when the Icelandic bank failed, the Times reports.Plans to make Britain a world leader in a key new environmental technology were dealt a blow last night after the company behind one of only two remaining UK "clean coal" projects collapsed into administration. Powerfuel, the group founded by Richard Budge, the northern mining entrepreneur, which had planned to build the world's largest clean coal power station at Hatfield colliery in Yorkshire, called in KPMG to act as administrators, the Times reports.The government threw a sop to wealthy investors yesterday by confirming plans to scrap the rule that forces them to buy an annuity when they reach 75. Now they will be able to defer the decision indefinitely as long as they have the resources to maintain an income of at least £20,000 a year, the Independent reports.More than 50,000 high earners face a crackdown on offshore trusts used to avoid tax on bonuses, in a move tax planners said could disrupt the current round of bankers' bonuses.The plans, unveiled by the Treasury on Thursday, are expected to raise £500m a year and will affect about 5,000 businesses, ranging from big banks to companies with a single employee, the FT reports.Rolls-Royce could face costs of $500m (£380m) over the next few years to deal with the consequences of an explosion last month in one of its Trent 900 engines, according to some aviation experts. The estimates, which include the cost of redesigning key parts of the engine and potential compensation to customers, are considerably higher than the $66m that the company believes will be the approximate reduction in its profits this year that can be attributed to the mishap, which took place on a Qantas Airbus A380 flight out of Singapore on November 4, the FT reports.Allied Irish Banks was under fire from politicians and senior business figures after it emerged that staff are to receive €40m ($53m) in bonuses in spite of the fact the bailed out Irish lender has taken €3.5bn in state support and could end up with the government as 90% shareholder by early next year, the FT reports.