Friday newspaper round-up: City bankers, Amazon, Rolls-Royce

More than 4,000 City-based bank workers were paid more than €1m (£850,000) in 2015 – including one fund manager who received nearly €34m. New data from the European Banking Authority, a pan-European regulator, showed that 80% of the EU financiers classified as high earners – those receiving more than €1m a year – were based in the UK. – Guardian

Amazon had a bumper holiday, as the online retailer announced a 55% rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday for the three months ending 31 December, but its share price fell in after hours trading after the retail and services giant narrowly missed Wall Street’s sales expectations. For years, Amazon eschewed profits for growth, to the criticism of many investors. Profits for the final quarter of 2016 rose to $749m from $482m a year earlier, the seventh straight profitable quarter for Amazon. – Guardian

Rolls-Royce engines will power a fleet of new trains connecting cities in the Midlands and the North. The FTSE 100 engineer is supplying 140 environmentally-friendly power plants for 55 two and three-car commuter trains capable of hitting speeds of up to 100mph and which will be operated on the Northern Connect network. – Telegraph

Leaving the European Union will create opportunities for the UK life sciences sector, the chief executive of AstraZeneca has said. Pascal Soriot said the FTSE 100 company had been working closely with the government on Brexit and spoken with ministers about it this week. “As business people we have to look for opportunities and make the best of it. And there are opportunities for the country, industry and for our company,” he said. – Telegraph

Partners at one of the City’’s largest law firms are being forced to inject £50 million into the practice as its cash holdings tumbled by more than 67 per cent. The cash call at Hogan Lovells, one of the Square Mile’s growing breed of transatlantic law firms, will continue over the next five years and involve about 500 full equity partners paying in an average of £100,000 each. The firm confirmed yesterday that partners will, on average, have to increase their capital contributions by 7.5 per cent until 2021. Individual partners could pay much more, depending on their position on the equity ladder. – The Times