Monday newspaper round-up: China, AB Inbev, Supermarkets

China has opened a new front in its war to curb currency depreciation by buying up renminbi offshore, foiling the burgeoning carry trade and driving the cost of borrowing to a record high. The overnight CNH Hibor, a daily benchmark for offshore renminbi interbank lending, hit a record-high 13.4% on Monday, up from 4% on Friday and the highest level since the benchmark was launched in 2013. The one-week rate surged from 7.1% to 11.2%. - Financial Times

Japanese beverage maker Asahi is planning to wade into the bidding for Grolsch and Peroni, with a £2.4bn bid for the popular European beer brands, the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Shimbu newspaper has reported. Grolsch and Peroni are being off-loaded by Anheuser-Busch InBev, as part of its mammoth takeover of FTSE-100 brewer SAB Miller, dubbed “Megabrew”. The $100bn deal will be one of the biggest ever seen. - The Daily Telegraph

The boss of Asda has warned that Britain’s struggling supermarkets will face further challenges in 2016 as it fires the first salvo of the year in the industry’s savage price wars. Andy Clarke has said he is pumping a further £500m into slashing prices at the grocer as it faces another brutal year of intense pressure. - The Daily Telegraph

Britain’s biggest supermarkets will reveal a slide in Christmas sales this week, underlining the pressure placed on the industry by changing shopping habits and the growth of discounters Aldi and Lidl. The grocery market will be in the spotlight as Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco report on their performance during the vital festive period. Sainsbury’s shareholders will be particularly interested in the trading updates as they consider whether to support the company’s plan to bid for Home Retail Group, the owner of Argos. - The Guardian

The amount paid to investors in the form of dividends is expected to slow this year, putting further pressure on company share prices. Total dividend income from FTSE 350 companies is set to fall by 1% to £76bn, or by 3% if special payments are taken into account, according to Markit. - The Times

Five of the world’s largest investment banks have lost nearly £100m in a trading collapse that has caused serious embarrassment in the City. The demise of Invexstar Capital Management has also raised eyebrows about the ease with which a group of Italian financiers were able to trade billions of pounds of bonds with virtually no capital to back their positions. BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley and Nomura are among the banks to have lost at least £97m, although the full scale of the losses is still being assessed months after the collapse. - The Times