Thursday newspaper round-up: Greece, Xstrata, Icap

"Workers at one of Britain's largest car plants are facing new concerns about their future as General Motors considers restructuring its loss-making European arm with "everything on the table". Sources close to GM Europe say the company is suffering from "overcapacity" as carmakers endure a slowdown in European sales. (...) Nonetheless, Karl-Friedrich Stracke, the chief executive of Opel and Vauxhall, is understood to have told employees in a letter that cuts do need to be made by the company and they will be informed of the measures after annual results are published next week," The Telegraph writes.The euro neared a two-month high amid speculation that Greek politicians were ready to yield to the demands of their troika paymasters. However a meeting of Greece's ruling coalition ended last night without an agreement, after the party leaders failed to sign off on pension cuts, one of the austerity measures demanded to secure a €130bn (£109bn) bail-out . Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was meeting with the troika - the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - in the early hours of this morning to try and resolve the pensions issue. Greek news reports said the party leaders may meet again after that, and will come to an agreement later today, when Eurozone finance ministers are due to meet, The Telegraph says. Mick Davis has waived a multimillion-dollar bonus that he was due for merging Xstrata with Glencore as he moves to head off a potentially explosive row with shareholders.Investors, already deeply unsettled by the terms of the $90 bn tie-up with Glencore, have made clear privately that they would object to the $14.2m (£8.9m) award for Xstrata's chief executive. "We just don't want to see these sorts of special payments going to Mick," one top ten shareholder said. Under the terms of his employment contract, a "change of control" at Xstrata triggers a payout for Mr Davis worth a year's salary, as well as an annual bonus worth up to 300% of his pay and the vesting of all deferred share awards, The Times explains.Icap is looking into the conduct of three of its staff in regards to an alleged manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. One employee at the interdealer broker has been suspended pending an internal investigation and two others have been placed on administrative leave. Icap took the action itself, although the Financial Services Authority has been informed. Icap declined to comment. The move is believed to be part of an inevitable expansion of regulators' investigations into US and European banks that help to set interbank lending rates towards interdealer brokers, which acts as a go-between with banks, according to The Times. Santander has raided rival Lloyds Banking Group as it looks to beef up its Scottish presence. The Spanish lender yesterday said it had made four key appointments north of the Border, including a trio of bankers with a collective 58 years' experience at Lloyds and its Bank of Scotland subsidiary. Graham Silcock takes up the role of regional director for Scotland following 15 years at Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds. Based in Glasgow, he will lead the corporate and commercial banking team, as well as support the expansion of the group in Scotland. Andy Mallin, who has spent 26 years at BoS/Lloyds, joins as regional director for commercial property, while Jonathan Kelly comes on board as relationship director for large corporate customers in Scotland and Northern Ireland. He spent 17 years at BoS/Lloyds. The fourth appointment sees Nick Elder join from Royal Bank of Scotland as Santander's regional director for education, healthcare and community, The Scotsman reports.Troubled Tesco Bank will update the market later this week on the progress of its latest experiment into in-store banking following disappointing results from its pilot branches. The Edinburgh-based bank has two test operations in Worthing, Sussex and Coventry in the West Midlands where it hopes for a better response after shutting down branches in Glasgow's Silverburn shopping centre, Blackpool, Bristol, Long Eaton and Oldham. Coventry was among that first batch and has been refitted for the re-launch. Almost 40 staff were axed or redeployed, The Scotsman says.AB