Tuesday newspaper round-up: Negative rates, Sorrell, Tata Steel

Investors looking for income may have to give up on UK equity funds. A spate of FTSE dividend cuts has prompted an industry-wide debate about how the term “income fund” should be defined. Some of the most popular products selected by retail investors, income funds have attracted bumper inflows following years of rock bottom interest rates. To qualify for this label, funds must invest at least 80 per cent of their assets under management into UK equities and also achieve an average yield of more than 10 per cent above the FTSE All Share over a three-year period. – Financial Times

Investors ranging from small German savers to global life insurers have long complained about central banks’ use of negative interest rates. Now, however, another group is feeling the pain from negative rates — central banks themselves. European and Japanese rate cuts are putting pressure on many central banks’ returns — a source of income used to cover running costs and to provide finance ministries with profits on which they have come to rely. – Financial Times

Lloyds Banking Group is expected to escape the sharp profit falls which have afflicted US banks this year, because it doesn't have an investment banking arm. Major US banks, including JP Morgan and Bank of America, have seen profits dive because volatility in financial markets has led to a shortage of investment banking deals. – Telegraph

Tata has appointed a new chief executive for its British steel operations as it battles to sell the business, which is losing as much as £1m a day. Bimlendra Jha, an executive committee member of Tata Steel Europe, will take up the role reporting to Hans Fischer, who heads the company’s steel operations across Europe. – Telegraph

Sir Martin Sorrell has defended his bumper pay package, arguing that he has put three decades of his life into building WPP from a maker of wire baskets into a £21bn global marketing business. Sorrell, whose total remuneration is likely to hit £70m when full details are revealed in WPP’s annual report in the summer, is set to face a backlash from shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in June. – Guardian

The man in formerly in charge of overseeing the Libor benchmark lending rate took banks at “face value” when they said it could not be rigged, a jury has heard. Testifying at the trial of five former Barclays employees accused of conspiring to manipulate Libor, the former British Bankers’ Association (BBA) director John Ewan said he had not been concerned that banks were trying to influence the rate. – Guardian

It is where New Labour planned its election victory and was the focus of window-smashing students’ fury during protests against a rise in tuition fees, but now an altogether more peaceful, and less political, future beckons for London’s Millbank Tower. The grade II listed, 118-metre skyscraper overlooking the Thames is to be converted into luxury flats. Last week David and Simon Reuben, the billionaire property investors, were awarded planning permission by Westminster council to redevelop the tower into 207 flats and yesterday they confirmed that would go ahead with the plan. A 150-bedroom five-star hotel also will be built, as well as a three- storey cultural centre and public gardens. – The Times

Tata Steel has appointed Standard Chartered to help it to sound out possible buyers for its loss-making British division after formally kicking off a sales process for Port Talbot and other steelmaking sites. The Indian company, which has close ties to Standard Chartered in India, has asked the bank to work with KPMG, the auditor, to identify a potential acquirer, especially among Chinese steelmakers. – The Times