Wednesday newspaper round-up: Metro Bank, RBS, Mike Ashley

Metro Bank is slashing the size of its initial public offering by almost a fifth following the recent sell-off across the banking sector, investors in the UK challenger bank were told on Tuesday night. Metro said that it had cut the price of its offering from £24 per share to £20, and reduced the amount it aims to raise from £500m to £400m. – Financial Times

Powa Technologies, one of the UK’s most highly valued technology start-ups, held back staff salaries and payments to suppliers as the company struggled to secure new investment. In a video message to staff late last year that has been seen by the Financial Times, Dan Wagner, founder and chief executive of the mobile commerce group, said that the company was “missing or late with staff payments and salaries”. – Financial Times

Royal Bank of Scotland enjoyed tax breaks and deferrals amounting to an estimated £1bn after financing the film distribution rights to a string of blockbusters including Troy, Batman Begins and two of the Harry Potter series. Tax experts from the bank, which is now majority-owned by UK taxpayers, spent years building a £3.8bn film distribution financing portfolio to exploit generous tax benefits designed by ministers to aid the UK film industry. – Guardian

British businesses could have their gas supplies cut off in order to keep households in other parts of Europe warm, under a proposed new EU law. A new "solidarity principle" would apply to gas supplies to ensure that households, healthcare and security services across Europe were maintained as a priority in the event of a severe crisis. – Telegraph

Germany's powerful central bank chief has said quantitative easing is no longer appropriate for Europe, putting Berlin on a collision course with the European Central Bank over expanding stimulus measures to revive the single currency area. Jens Weidmann, head of the Bundesbank and a member of the ECB's governing council, said QE was "no longer necessary" for the eurozone, despite the widespread expectation that more stimulus will be announced as early as next month. – Telegraph

Four of Britain’s oldest nuclear power plants are to keep generating electricity for up to seven years longer than planned, renewing fears about the capability of Britain’s over-stretched nuclear safety regulator to cope with a growing workload. EDF, the French state-owned energy giant, said the Heysham 1 plant in Lancashire and another at Hartlepool in Co Durham, both of which had been due to be switched off in 2019 because of their advanced age, would be allowed to keep producing electricity for another five years. – The Times

Politicians outraged by Mike Ashley’s refusal to appear before parliament may get the chance to grill the founder of Sports Direct over the running of his sports fashion company. The entrepreneur is reported to have offered to meet MPs and answer any questions about working conditions at the retailer’s headquarters and giant warehouse facility. – The Times