Wednesday newspaper round-up: Greece, BHS, Monsanto

Greece's international creditors have bought time to secure the country's financial future after agreeing broad but inexact principles to ease its debt mountain and break an impasse between Germany and the International Monetary Fund. After almost 11 hours of talks in Brussels, eurozone finance ministers and the IMF agreed to a range of measures to restructure Greece’s debts when its €86bn bailout ends in 2018 — but put no figures on the concessions and left them subject to political decisions by eurozone countries. Most significant decisions would be taken after the German federal elections next year. – Financial Times

Leaving the EU would cost British consumers and businesses billions and force the UK to suffer the ignominy of renegotiating the terms of its membership in the World Trade Organisation, a body whose predecessor it was instrumental in founding, its director-general has warned. – Financial Times

A former managing director of Mothercare and Burton is leading a bid for BHS backed by a wealthy Portuguese family, which has emerged as the frontrunner to rescue the department store chain. Greg Tufnell, the brother of former England cricketer Phil Tufnell, has been holding talks with administrators. It is understood that Tufnell aims to become BHS chairman. – Guardian

The boss of one of Britain’s biggest estate agent chains appears to have called the top of the property market, saying there has been a big slump in demand from buyers after the nation has “reached the limit” on house prices. Paul Smith, whose company operates Haart, Felicity J Lord, Spicer McColl and Darlows chains across the UK, said there was “trouble in paradise” and sellers would have to cut prices to find buyers. – Guardian

US agricultural business Monsanto rejected a $62bn takeover offer from German drugs and crops giant Bayer yesterday as it believes the current proposal is “incomplete and financially inadequate”, but said it is willing to engage in further negotiations. The firm said it was “open to continued and constructive conversations” with Bayer to assess whether a transaction “in the best interest of Monsanto shareholders can be achieved”. - Telegraph

British banks are increasingly willing to scrap the accounts of charities, small businesses and fintech firms in a bid to cut the cost of regulatory compliance and anti-money laundering controls, according to a report commissioned by the Financial Conduct Authority. Official crackdowns on money laundering and corruption have forced banks to work harder to ensure they are not inadvertently letting dirty money into the financial system. – Telegraph

The scale of the task facing George Osborne as he fights to get Britain’s finances in order looks as big as ever, the latest borrowing figures show. In April the government borrowed £7.2 billion to make ends meet, £600 million more than forecast, according to the Office for National Statistics. – The Times