Sunday newspaper round-up: Morrisons, RBS, Betfair ...

Wm. Morrison, the number four player in the UK supermarket sector, is plotting a £1.5bn bid for Iceland, the frozen food retailer, according to The Sunday Times. A takeover of the chain would nearly triple the number of Morrisons stores and bring its market share to within a whisker of Asda and Sainsbury's, and would also beef up its presence in south-east England, where it is not as well represented as its competitors. Iceland has been put up for sale by officials winding up Landsbanki, the failed Icelandic bank that took control of the chain in 2008.Meanwhile, Asda's US owner, the world's largest supermarket group, Walmart, is said to be setting up a London team close to London's Heathrow airport to mastermind its expansion in Europe. European expansion is back on the cards as there is less growth for Asda in the UK and Walmart's home market is also stagnating, The Independent on Sunday reports.Sir Fred Goodwin may have breached an internal code of conduct at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) by failing to reveal details of an alleged affair with a member of staff, The Sunday Times maintains. Under the terms of an RBS code of conduct, all employees are obliged to notify superiors "of any relationship or association that has the potential to create a conflict of interest". Neither Sir Tom McKillop, nor Sir George Mathewson, who both served as the bank's chairman during Goodwin's reign, were alerted to a relationship, senior sources said. Former directors of the bank contacted by The Sunday Times also said the issue was never raised at board level. Still on the subject of RBS, the Sunday Telegraph reports that the part-nationalised lender is expected to come under fire on Monday as official figures will show it missed its lending target for the first three months of the year, a goal which fellow state-owned Lloyds Banking Group exceeded. Bank of England figures will show that Britain's five largest lenders have missed their target on small business lending, despite a pledge to the government to make more borrowing available. Virgin Money has begun to raise the £2bn in funds that it needs to make a serious bid for the packages of branches being put up for sale by Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock, reports the Sunday Telegraph. Although a formal fund raising process has not yet begun, with no official letters of commitment signed, it is understood that Virgin Money is confident it will have the financing in place to make strong bids for each of the respective branch estates, after holding talks on both sides of the Atlantic with private equity houses and wealthy individuals.Online betting exchange Betfair has been rocked by a fresh crisis following a wave of middle-management departures, The Observer claims. The defections come as the company digests the results of a private poll of staff revealing that employees believe their company lacks direction. Director of European and public affairs Tim Phillips, head of strategic programmes Emily Foges, director of site products and services Rob Glynne, head of sports exchange products Alex Deacon, IS director Tony Rigby, and Don Fotsch, vice-president of global user experience, have all recently followed other senior executives through the exit door, the paper reports.Mike Pocock, the chief executive of Yell Group, is to revamp the organisational structure of the publisher of Yellow Pages as part of a strategic review to be announced in July, the Independent on Sunday reckons. He is to create a series of what one source termed "central captains" below main board level. They will largely focus on the digital development of the business, such as online business searches, and could include new heads of information technology development and procurement. Terrestrial broadcaster ITV is exploring a tie-up with the production company owned by two of its biggest stars, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (Ant & Dec), and a rival outfit owned by one of the BBC's most popular presenters, Graham Norton, suggests The Observer. The broadcaster is said to be looking at buying a stake in one or both of the companies, or buying them outright. Industry observers said a deal with Ant & Dec's Gallowgate company made sense as it would give ITV more control over formats that are developed featuring the two stars.---jh