Thursday newspaper round-up: RBS, Opec, Glencore
The TUC has urged the next government to take action to boost pay as it warned that borrowing to top up wages was poised to breach the record levels hit just before the financial crisis of a decade ago. Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, expressed alarm at the steady increase in unsecured debt – which excludes mortgages – and called for a higher minimum wage and an end to the tough pay curbs in the public sector. – Guardian
British car manufacturing went into reverse in April, with production falling at the fastest rate in more than two and a half years. A total of 122,116 cars rolled off UK production lines last month, 18% fewer than in April 2016, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). - Guardian
Online wedding company Prezola has received a multi-million pound investment from the Business Growth Fund as it looks to branch out into mobile app technology. The wedding gift list service, which also allows customers to create customisable wedding websites, has received a £3m backing from the BGF, which invests in small and mid-sized firms in the UK. – Telegraph
A£200m settlement between Royal Bank of Scotland and thousands of aggrieved shareholders has been hit by further delays after it emerged that lawyers were having difficulty tracking down some investors to ask them to agree to the deal. A High Court trial into RBS’s £12bn rights issue at the height of the financial crisis has now been adjourned until June 7 after Jonathan Nash QC, who is acting for the investors, said there had been “logistical” problems contacting some of the claimant shareholders to put a settlement offer to them. – Telegraph
Opec oil ministers will meet in Vienna today amid claims that some members are cheating on production quotas, undermining efforts to drive prices higher by extending a deal to curb output. As officials from the 13 member states gathered for a biannual policy meeting in the Austrian capital, there was mounting tension over suspicions that some countries in the organisation, which pumps a third of the world’s oil, are failing to honour their commitments under an agreement signed with other exporters in November to slash supply by 1.8 million barrels a day. – The Times
The senior independent director at Glencore was rebuked by shareholders yesterday over the commodity group’s unusual board structure and opaque pay arrangements. Fourteen per cent of investors who cast a vote voted against the re-election of Peter Grauer, who is also the chairman of Bloomberg, while 5 per cent vetoed the re-election of Tony Hayward, the ex-BP chief who chairs Glencore. – The Times