Wednesday newspaper round-up: Interest rates, National Express, Tigers, helicopters

Interest rates are likely to remain at their record low level for months to come after falling food prices brought a surprise drop in inflation. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, openly encouraged the Bank to keep rates on hold, saying the UK economy "needs" low rates to recover, the Telegraph reports.A top 10 institutional investor at National Express delivered a rebuke to rebel shareholder Elliott Advisors on Tuesday, accusing the hedge fund of trying to appoint inexperienced board members and causing an unnecessary distraction for the group. The Co-operative Asset Management, which speaks for 2.68 per cent of the shares, said it would oppose the move by Elliott to appoint three new non-executive directors and call for a strategic review at the annual meeting on May 10, the Financial Times reports.BP is scrambling to reach a deal on a buy-out of its Russian billionaire partners in TNK-BP and save its alliance with Rosneft before an April 14 deadline. Pressure on BP is mounting ahead of its annual meeting on Thursday amid increasing investor concerns over its handling of the Rosneft alliance, says the Financial Times.The US should make a 'down payment' this year on tackling its budget deficit, the International Monetary Fund has warned, as it emerged that the world's biggest bond investor is shorting the country's bonds. America will rack up a budget deficit of 10.8pc of gross domestic product this year, the largest of any of the developed economies, the IMF said in its latest Fiscal Monitor report, according to the Telegraph.Skrill, the online payments group that operates as Moneybookers, has shelved plans for a £160m listing, becoming the latest UK company to have its initial public offering shunned by investors. The UK-based group, which is majority owned by Bahrain-based Investcorp and competes with companies such as PayPal, on Tuesday failed to draw enough demand for its offering, despite an attempt to cut the amount it planned to raise to £110m, from a planned £160m, the Financial Times reports.Leicester Tigers, champions of and current leaders of rugby union's Aviva Premiership, are reviving flotation plans after raising more than £4.4m to develop the Welford Road stadium. Peter Tom, chairman and former player, said a listing on Aim would mark the latest transition for the club, which was once a friendly society and now wants to diversify, according to the Financial Times.Alliance Trust's chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox yesterday took on a challenge to her leadership of the £3bn investment trust head on. "Today's the day we come out fighting," she said in response to hedge fund manager Laxey Partners' attempt to force Alliance to adopt a discount control mechanism. "Laxey is only interested in our company for a short-term gain," Mrs Garrett-Cox said, according to the Independent.The oil price tumbled by as much as $3.25 a barrel on Tuesday after the world's biggest commodity trader called the top of the market for crude and a range of other commodities - at least for the time being. Goldman Sachs advised its clients to sell their investments in oil, copper, platinum and cotton, arguing that record levels of speculative trading in crude have pushed their prices up so much in recent months that "in the near term, risk-reward no longer favours" holding those commodities, the Guardian reports. Household goods group Unilever has become the latest firm to drop its final salary pension scheme in a move that will affect more than 5,000 staff. The Guardian reports that the group, whose products range from Persil to Marmite, said it was closing the scheme after it became "increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable".Swiss commodities giant Glencore has strenuously denied an accusation that it evaded taxes in one of the poorest nations on earth, days before it launches a £7billion float that will make multimillionaires of its top executives. A group of five non-governmental organisations lodged a complaint with the Organisation for Eonomic Co-operation and Development (OECD), citing 'financial and accounting manipulations' by Glencore's Zambian subsidiary Mopani Copper Mines (MCM), the Daily Mail reports.One of the world's biggest helicopter makers is looking to list in London as part of moves to raise $500million (£306million). Russian Helicopters, which made the machines used by the Soviet army during its own intervention in Afghanistan, makes the world's most widely used medium-lift helicopter, the Mi-8, as well as helicopter gunships.