Sunday newspaper round-up: North Sea, China devaluation, Farmland returns

A new entrant to the North Sea sector is set to join existing small-cap explorers in snapping up low-cost oil assets in the aftermath of the global oil market collapse. Mayfield Energy has emerged as one of a handful of independent players in a position to benefit from the oil price crash by cherry-picking oil assets from the heavily indebted incumbent groups which are under pressure to shore up their battered balance sheets. The new firm is backed by a board of North Sea industry veterans who have already begun talks to pick up oil fields, and stakes in existing projects, up to $400m in value. - The Sunday Telegraph

A top adviser to the Chinese government has warned that Beijing risks a currency blow-up akin to Britain's traumatic ordeal in 1992, if it continues trying to defend its exchange rate peg amid a deepening deflation crisis. Yu Hongding, a director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China is caught in two concurrent "deflationary spirals" that are feeding on the other. A major devaluation and a blast of well-targeted fiscal stimulus will be needed to break out of the trap. - The Sunday Telegraph

English farms have seen the steepest fall in their value since financial crisis, as investors worry about the risk of a loss of farm subsidies in the event of Britain voting to leave the European Union. Values fell 3.0% in the quarter to March in a farmland index by estate agent Kinght Frank, the largest quarterly drop since the end of 2008, ending a bull run of spectacular farmland returns. Average values have risen by nearly 180% in the pasty decade, Knight Frank said. - Financial Times

Australian investment giant Macquarie is set to cash out of Thames Water a decade after it bought Britain’s biggest water company in a controversial debt-fuelled deal. It is understood that Macquarie has hired Nomura, the investment bank, to find a buyer for its 26% holding in the company. - The Sunday Times

The global growth slowdown has no end in sight as policymakers drag their heels on reforms and a “robot revolution” threatens living standards, the World Bank’s chief economist has warned. Ahead of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring meetings this week, Kaushik Basu said he expected the global economy to expand by just 2.5% this year. This is down from the World Bank’s forecast in January of 2.9pc and well below the 4pc growth seen just before the crisis. - The Sunday Telegraph

The owner of BHS joined a secret company in Panama with a convicted fraudster weeks after buying the struggling department store chain for £1 from Sir Philip Green. Dominic Chappell, a former racing driver and two-time bankrupt, and Paul Sutton, his on-off business partner, each owned 50% of Clarberry Investments. It was incorporated in the tax haven on April 1 last year — less than a month after Chappell’s consortium, Retail Acquisitions, took over BHS from Green, the billionaire owner of Arcadia Group. - Sunday Times

At least 9,000 pupils in Edinburgh have nowhere to go at the end of their Easter break after the emergency closure of 17 PFI-built schools due to safety concerns. Councils across Scotland have been asked to check their school buildings as fears grow that all schools built under the same private finance initiative could pose a safety risk to children and staff. - The Guardian

George Osborne is facing calls to reveal whether he has ever benefited from offshore tax havens, after David Cameron bowed to public pressure over the Panama Papers by releasing a summary of his tax returns over the past six years. Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader in Westminster, has written to Cameron to demand that all cabinet members make statements in the wake of the scandal triggered by the biggest leak in history. - The Guardian

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and other leading figures campaigning for Britain to leave the EU could be offered senior cabinet roles after June’s referendum, under plans being considered by the prime minister. Sources have told the Guardian that David Cameron is keen to undertake a “unity reshuffle” in an attempt to heal wounds in the party, whose Eurosceptic wing is furious at the government’s handling of the plebiscite. - The Guardian