Friday newspaper round-up: Opec, BG, Amazon, Wikipedia

Oil prices plummeted to a new four-year low on Thursday, after members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries could not reach an agreement on cutting output, the Times reports.

Negotiations in Vienna were unsuccessful and that the cartel will now hold production at current levels, as experts warn that the price of Brent could fall as low as $60 a barrel over the coming months.

Pressure keeps mounting for oil and gas company BG, whose shareholders have been urged to vote against £25m pay deal for its new boss, says the Guardian. Investors have warned that the proposed pay award for Hedge Lund may end up being blocked.

Ashley Hamilton Claxton, corporate governance manager at Royal London Asset Management, backed the choice to appoint Lund but said the company made a mistake in disregarding a pay policy it had agreed with its shareholders just over six months ago.

The Telegraph reports that online retailer giant Amazon has defended itself against claims that it was trying to “destroy Royal Mail”. The postal service warned that growth in parcel revenues was slower than expected because of Amazon’s decision to launch its own delivery service.

Christopher North, Amazon UK’s boss said: “Amazon Logistics is not about replacing a carrier, it is about complementing.”

Vincent Tchenguiz has begun a £2.2bn legal action against Grant Thornton, Kaupthing Bank and three individuals he has dubbed “the conspirators” for their alleged role in his wrongful arrest, says the Times.

The embattled tycoon, who has been mired in legal battles since the Serious Fraud Office arrested him three years ago during its failed investigation into Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, said that he believed the defendants had “conspired to instigate” the SFO’s inquiry into his business affairs.

According to the Telegraph, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has drummed up investor support for a £100m London listing of his charity mobile phone company, The People’s Operator.

The business, which donates 10% of every customer’s bill to a charity or cause of their choice, has raised £20m of new money from investors by selling shares in an Aim stock market listing and will begin trading next week.