Sunday newspaper round-up: ENRC, Bank Commission, Vodafone...

Sir Richard Sykes, former chairman of Glaxo Smith Kline, the drugs giant, faces the risk of being "blackballed" from the City in a growing row over a disputed African mining deal.Some of the Square Mile's biggest investors are furious with Sykes over his role as senior independent director of Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), the FTSE 100 miner. The Kolwezi mine was reposessed last year by the Congo government from First Quantum, the London-listed miner. The following day ENRC announced its $175m (£112m) acquisition of exploration rights to the disputed Kolwezi mine and several other concessions, the Sunday Times reports.The Government inquiry into UK banks is to go much further than the issue of splitting the banks apart and look at the lack of competition in the retail sector. The Independent Banking Commission (IBC) will reveal this week that it will put competition, for both business and retail customers, at the centre of its investigation. It will also look at whether banks still pose a "systemic risk" to the UK economy, despite assurances last week from Barclays new chief executive, Bob Diamond, that the taxpayer will never have to bail out the financial sector again, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Vodafone shareholders are in line for a £3bn-plus dividend windfall following secret talks between the British company's boss, Vittorio Colao, and Ivan Seidenberg, head of US group Verizon Communications. The two men met in New York to discuss the future of Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, the US group's mobile subsidiary, which suspended dividend payments to Vodafone in 2005, the Observer reports.The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is preparing a private approach to US rival Boeing to end their long-running trade feud, in an attempt to avoid emerging nations eating into their market. The olive branch is being offered in the wake of a World Trade Organization (WTO) report last week that, despite being confidential, is understood to have decided that US subsidies paid to Boeing worth between $3bn and $5bn were illegal. Airbus, which is owned by pan-European aerospace group EADS, which queried $23.7bn of aid, took the case to the WTO through the EU, the Sunday Independent reports.The gold price surge, which saw the precious metal reach record highs last week, will not turn into a bubble that will burst, says a new report. The World Gold Council looked at previous bubbles, where prices rapidly surged and then just as quickly collapsed, such as the dotcom boom of the late 1990s and the US housing collapse of 2006-07, the Sunday Independent reports.HSBC is poised to appoint a new chairman in the next 10 days, amid mounting speculation that the post could be filled by City veteran Sir Simon Robertson. John Thornton, a former senior executive at Goldman Sachs, has been viewed as the leading contender to fill the vacuum left by the departure of Stephen Green to become trade minister in the coalition government. Thornton is already a non-executive director and has strong connections in China, where the bank is expanding. However, it is understood the bank is now considering the appointment of Robertson on a temporary basis, the Sunday Times reports.Economists have become increasingly pessimistic about Britain's recovery, with six leading forecasters slashing their 2011 growth projections in the past month. One investment bank said there was now a "good chance" of a double-dip recession. Another has cut its 2011 growth forecast to an anaemic 0.6%. Many of the analysts believe the British economy is about to enter a soft patch ahead of the coalition government's tax rises and spending cuts. Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas and Schroder Investment Management have all revised down their expected growth for 2011. So, too, have IHS Global Insight, Daiwa Capital Markets and ING Financial Markets, the Sunday Times reports.Poor wheat and sugar crops are expected to increase British food prices by as much as 10% over the next year, economists have warned. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) is also calling for urgent reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy to boost agriculture production and mitigate further price rises. Official inflation figures last week showed that food prices have increased by 3.9% over the past year, with fish, vegetables, fruits and cooking oils among the fastest risers, the Sunday Times reports.Lloyds Banking Group is investigating plans to buy back shares worth several billion pounds from the taxpayer. Some of the bank's biggest City shareholders believe it has accumulated a mountain of surplus cash. New international bank capital rules, agreed last weekend, appear to be far more generous to Lloyds than expected. Analysts at UBS believe the bank now has up to £9bn of surplus capital, the Sunday Times reports.The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is planning for the exit of Chris Gibson-Smith, its chairman, by sounding out potential non-executive directors about their interest in the role. The Sunday Telegraph understands that MWM Consulting - the headhunting firm led by Anna Mann - is in the process of finding a new non-executive director who will be positioned to take over from Mr Gibson-Smith when the time comes.Future generations should not expect to inherit wealth from their parents following the ravages of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, a new report has warned. Of 6,010 Europeans questioned, just 10% said they were actively intending to pass on "significant wealth" to their children, according to a survey of consumer finances by Janus Capital Group, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Thousands of British investors in Santander could swap their shares for stock in a London-listed bank under plans for a flotation that would value its UK business at £20bn. About 1.8m British investors own shares in Santander, a legacy of the Spanish bank's acquisition of Abbey in 2004 and Alliance & Leicester in 2009, the Mail on Sunday reports.