Sunday newspaper round-up: Barclays, Carney, BP

Barclays is planning a swoop on the financial markets to raise billions of pounds of new capital ahead of a showdown with the Bank of England. Sources close to the bank say it could launch the move within weeks to kill off questions about its financial strength. All Britain's banks are on edge as they await the findings of the inquiry into their capital positions ordered by Sir Mervyn King's new financial policy committee. King, the Bank's governor, has warned that there could be a black hole of up to 60bn pounds in the books of Britain's banks. He has accused them of hiding problem loans in their books, using misleading accounting techniques and failing to set aside enough cash for any future fines over Libor-rigging, mis-selling payment protection insurance and other scandals. A verdict is expected in about six weeks. According to senior bankers, the final report will put a much lower figure on the extent of the capital shortfall. It remains unclear whether the Bank will publish any number at all, The Sunday Times says.Mark Carney, the next Governor of the Bank of England, was making some of his most detailed comments since he was announced as the surprise choice for the post in November. He said that, although price stability was central, there were "tolerances" concerning the speed with which inflation would be brought down if the economy was struggling. "If you are coming from above [the inflation target] and you have a fiscal consolidation you might take a little longer to get back given the issues with output," Mr Carney told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Once the goal is set, the central bank needs to make that determination and there needs to be an understanding of the goals set and of the tolerances that the central bank can operate in," he went on to explain. Using the US as an example, Mr Carney said economies needed to be allowed to reach an "escape velocity" in which they were out of danger of slipping back into recession, The Sunday Telegraph reports.Plans for BP to begin drilling for oil and gas in Libya are in serious doubt in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on its gas production plant in neighbouring Algeria. The company is to launch a review into drilling in the country amid serious concerns over security in the region. BP signed a $900m (£569m) exploration and production agreement with Libya's National Oil Corporation in 2007 but suspended the contract in February 2011 because of the civil war that eventually led to the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. BP subsequently announced a resumption of exploratory drilling - due to begin in September - but has put that on hold following the murder of Westerners working at the Tigantourine facility in the Saharan desert in Algeria. Four BP employees were among 37 foreign hostages who died in the siege. BP's problems in the region are compounded by a Foreign Office warning last week of a "specific, imminent threat to Westerners" in the Libyan city of Benghazi, The Sunday Telegraph says. Sir Michael Rake is stepping down as Chairman of easyJet to ward off a potential corporate governance row as the low-cost carrier hovers close to the FTSE 100. The City veteran is also chairman of BT, a long-standing FTSE 100 constituent, and would be forced to choose between the two companies if easyJet graduates to the top flight index in March as expected. Shares in the carrier last week soared to their highest level since its stock market flotation in 2000 after it reported strong trading over the winter. The airline is currently the 89th biggest public company in the UK by market capitalisation, making it almost certain to enter the FTSE 100 at the next reshuffle in March. Corporate governance guidelines recommend that individuals should not chair more than one FTSE 100 company at a time and Sir Mike said he wanted to make his "position clear" ahead of easyJet's annual meeting next month, The Sunday Telegraph reports. Top investors in Astra Zeneca are urging its new boss to come up with an action plan to improve sales of a heart-attack drug that had been touted as a potential blockbuster. They hope Pascal Soriot, who joined the company in October, will find a cure for its difficulties in developing new best-sellers to replace falling sales of treatments that are going off-patent. They have also urged him to avoid big acquisitions. Results this week are likely to underscore the challenge facing Soriot, who will outline how he plans to turn the company round. Morgan Stanley, joint broker to Astra Zeneca, forecasts a sharp fall in earnings before interest and tax of $7.5bn (£4.7bn). Brilinta, a blood-thinning drug for heart-attack patients, is one of the company's few potential bestsellers, but it has been slow to take off, The Sunday Times writes.Nat Rothschild´s attempt to stage a coup at the London-listed coal empire he created will be hit by a fresh setback this week. Rothschild has tabled a proposal to sack 12 of the 14 directors at Bumi, which he formed by merging a cash shell with the Indonesian mines of the billionaire Bakrie family. The chief executive, Nick von Schirnding, is tomorrow expected to unveil a boardroom shake-up he hopes will convince investors that Rothschild's coup is unnecessary. He will appoint a new chief executive at Bumi's Indonesian operation and cut the board from 14 to 8 directors. He also plans to change the company name to make a clean break from its reputation as a corporate basket case, The Sunday Times says.Morrisons has begun a new round of price negotiations with suppliers just six months after it called them in to ask for discounts. The move came days after the supermarket giant reported a 2.5 per cent drop in sales that left it trailing the growth of rivals. Suppliers that agreed to last summer's discounts of up to £500,000 are understood to have been stunned by the latest conversations. The talks coincide with the appointment of the Groceries Code Adjudicator Christine Tacon last week. Tacon said she was considering setting maximum fines according how much retailers had saved if they changed the terms of suppliers' contracts illegally, according to The Financial Mail on Sunday. AB