Friday newspaper round-up: Productivity, Opec, Stagecoach, IAG, RBS

The world’s major oil producers have extended production cuts through to the end of 2018, in a bid to tackle a global glut of crude and keep prices buoyant. Members of Opec, the oil cartel, and other major producers including Russia agreed that the curbs, which started in January and have lifted a barrel of Brent crude from $40 to $50 last year to more than $60 now, will continue for a further nine-months. - Guardian

Britain cannot afford to borrow more without jeopardising the country’s financial stability, a senior Bank of England official has warned. Richard Sharp said the Government had already borrowed an extra £1 trillion since the 2008 financial crisis. - Telegraph

Labour has accused the transport secretary of misleading parliament over the early termination of the East Coast rail franchise as it emerged that the operator, Stagecoach, had been due to pay the Treasury more than £2bn in the final four years of its contract. A new rail strategy announced by Chris Grayling on Wednesday contained plans to replace the Virgin Trains East Coast (Vtec) contract running to September 2023 with a model of a partnership between track and train operators from 2020. - Guardian

The London Stock Exchange has been forced to set out the rationale for the departure of chief executive, Xavier Rolet, citing his “operating style” and questions from shareholders about how long he intended to stay. The exchange provided the explanation in a 20-page circular setting the date for the shareholders’ meeting demanded by an activist investor which wants to oust the company’s chairmanover his handling of Rolet’s departure. - Guardian

British Airways owner IAG is reportedly considering once again bidding for Austrian airline Niki, as Lufthansa faces pushback from competition authorities over its purchase. Lufthansa signed a €210m (£184m) deal to buy half of the assets of collapsed carrier Air Berlin in October, which included the Niki and LG Walter businesses, together with around 20 planes. - Telegraph

The Serious Fraud Office has charged a pair of oil executives at services group SBM Offshore with fraud as its probe into the Unaoil corruption scandal rolls on. The SFO’s latest charges are against Paul Bond and Stephen Whiteley for conspiracy to make corrupt payments to the controversial Monaco-based "middleman" to secure engineering contracts. - Telegraph

Royal Bank of Scotland has closed its “bad bank” which was set up to handle toxic loans after the financial crisis. It marks another milestone for RBS, which has made profits in its past three quarters and is gearing up for the government to sell more of its shares. - The Times

Lloyds has made a breakthrough in its efforts to deal with the aftermath of one of Britain’s biggest financial frauds, agreeing a settlement with the couple who played a critical role in uncovering the scam. The bank said its long-running dispute with Paul and Nikki Turner, who were among scores of small business owners who lost their livelihoods to a group of corrupt bankers and consultants, had been fully resolved and that it was sorry for the significant personal distress that the couple had suffered. - The Times

Nightclub owner Deltic has reignited its advance on rival Revolution Bars after its merger attempt was spurned earlier this year. Deltic, which owns 57 clubs under brands including PRYZM and Fiction, was knocked back last month by Revolution’s board, which at the time was trying to see through a £100m approach by Slug & Lettuce owner Stonegate. - Telegraph

Labour leader Jeremey Corbyn said Morgan Stanley was right to regard him as a threat, accusing the US bank of being part of the same “speculators and gamblers who crashed our economy in 2008”. In a video posted on social media, he also promised a new approach to financial services regulation. “Nurses, teachers, shopworkers, builders, just about everyone is finding it harder to get by, while Morgan Stanley’s CEO paid himself £21.5m last year and UK banks paid out £15bn in bonuses,” Corbyn said. - Guardian

G20 nations have thrashed out a deal to tackle massive over-capacity in the global steel industry that was the root cause of the crisis in the UK sector two years ago, costing thousands of British jobs. Ministers from the world’s leading nations have agreed a deal aimed at removing excess steel production capacity. - Telegraph

The British Business Bank has stepped in to support a new technology fund after the EU’s investment agency denied it cash in the wake of last year’s Brexit vote. Episode 1 Ventures, an early-stage tech investor set up by Simon Murdoch, the entrepreneur who launched Amazon in the UK, has raised £60m to launch its new fund. - Telegraph

A third of new cars will run on either plug-in hybrid power or pure electric batteries within five years, according to industry research. With these vehicles currently making up just 5 per cent of new sales, it suggests an acceleration in hybrid and electric vehicles amounting to annual growth of more than 40 per cent. - The Times

The Adani Group is likely to again have to answer allegations it siphoned more than US$600m (£445m) into overseas tax havens after senior Indian finance authorities recommended an appeal of a judgment clearing the mining giant. The Indian finance secretary has confirmed to local media the August decision clearing the Adani Group had been reviewed by senior officials in November who ordered an appeal to be lodged by 14 December. - Guardian

US diplomats have dropped plans for Donald Trump to conduct a visit to Britain in January amid a war of words between the two countries’ leaders. Mr Trump, the US president, had been penciled in for a ‘working visit’ in the first month of 2018 to formally open America’s new London embassy. - Telegraph

The main lender to Four Seasons Health Care has urged the troubled care homes operator to agree to a debt standstill before an interest payment deadline threatens to push it into administration. H/2 Capital Partners, the dominant owner of Four Seasons’s £525m bonds, said it had offered a deferral on a £26m bill due on December 15. It urged immediate action to take the pressure off stalled restructuring discussions. - Telegraph

The boss of Fortnum & Mason says the world famous London store is struggling to recruit staff after the Brexit vote with the situation most acute in its restaurants. Fortnum’s chief executive, Ewan Venters, said one in five of the chef posts across its six restaurants were unfilled as the fall in sterling’s value and concerns about anti-migrant attitudes deterred applicants. - Guardian