Qatar Holding, Xstrata's second largest shareholder, has come out against the terms of the miner's merger with Glencore. Qatar called for Glencore to increase the ratio of its shares it would offer for each of Xstrata's from 2.8 to 3.25, the FT reports. Investors have also expressed dismay at retention payments for Glencore and Xstrata executives, Reuter says. Alternative pay package plans are being drawn up for Xstrata, but Glencore is likely to resist reopening talks on the ratio for the exchange of shares. News Corp's board will decide on Wednesday whether to split entertainment businesses from its newspaper arm, creating two publicly-traded companies. News Corp could announce a move as soon as Thursday morning, the WSJ says. The Murdoch family would retain 40 per cent voting rights in both companies, while Rupert Murdoch could remain executive chairman of each, according to the FT. Lloyds Banking Group is close to the "broad commercial terms" of selling its Verde branches to the Co-op, which would avoid an IPO of the business, the FT says. Lloyds has become more flexible on price while the Co-op has offered to meet regulatory concerns over the takeover by adding its bank to the branches, injecting capital. Italy's prime minister has warned Germany he will press on with ambitious eurozone bailout proposes at this week's summit. Mario Monti told the Italian parliament that he would not "rubber-stamp" decisions at the summit, while calling out the president of the Bundesbank for having "badly misunderstood" his proposals, the FT reports. "I don't see total debt liability as long as I live," German Chancellor Angela Merkel meanwhile told members of her coalition on Tuesday, Reuters says. RBS is considering suing a US technology supplier in response to last week's retail software glitch. People familiar with a strategy meeting at the bank said that problems had been caused by a CA Technologies software system, according to the FT. RBS, which faces millions of pounds in staff overtime costs from the incident, will also launch a full internal review. The SEC voted to file a civil lawsuit against Phil Falcone and Harbinger Capital. Falcone said he plans to vigorously contest the suit, the WSJ says. SEC enforcement officials have been looking at allegations that Harbinger failed to disclose a loan from the fund to Falcone which he used to pay his taxes, and that some investors were favourably treated above others. Martin Wolf looks for "something in between" euro break-up and full federal union. Nick Clegg likes some EU banking unions more than others. Bad loans in Brazil are at a record high. Asia's least-loved stock is... a Singapore-based shipbuilder. Asian markets Nikkei 225 up 44.60 (0.51%) at 8,708.59 Topix up 1.94 (0.26%) at 740.83 Hang Seng up 211.32 (1.11%) at 19,193 US markets S&P 500 up 6.27 (0.48%) at 1,319.99 DJIA up 32 (0.26%) at 12,534 European markets Eurofirst 300 up 0.22 (0.02%) at 986.63 FTSE100 down 3.69 (-0.07%) at 5,446 CAC 40 down 8.93 (-0.3%) at 3,012 Dax up 4.30 (0.07%) at 6,136.69 Commodities ($) Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.16 at 92.86 Light Crude (Nymex) up 0.17 at 79.53 100 Oz Gold (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 1,574 Copper (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 331.55 10-year government bond yields (%) US 1.62 UK 1.71 Germany 1.50 CDS (closing levels) Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe unchanged at 300.06bp Markit iTraxx Europe +2.3bps at 179.50bp Markit iTraxx Xover unchanged at 712.3bp Markit CDX IG unchanged at 118.76bp This entry was posted by Joseph Cotterill on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 at 5:25 and is filed under Uncategorised.