Tuesday newspaper round-up: AstraZeneca, rental housing, BT, BP

A big financial institution suffers a rapid, destabilising share price fall; talk spreads through the market of ‘another Lehman moment’. Such a concern has been fanned by the poor performance of European banks with lenders in Italy and now Germany attracting hefty scrutiny from investors. Among the ranks of underperforming banks, Deutsche’s recent travails have electrified the conversation over systemic risk and whether the post-financial crisis reform of derivatives faces a serious test. - Financial Times

Almost 1.8m new rental homes are needed by 2025 to keep up with current demand, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). New figures reveal that 86pc of landlords have no plans to increase their rental portfolios this year. Rics has forecast that this trend will continue for the next five years, causing a shortfall in private rented sector homes. - Various

The US said on Monday it was suspending negotiations with Russia over a ceasefire agreement for Syria, a final recognition that the peace plan announced three weeks ago has collapsed. The state department said Russia was either “unwilling or unable” to get the Syrian regime to adhere to the deal and had instead decided to intensify military action against the opposition. - Financial Times

Bosses at Sky and TalkTalk have launched an 11th-hour bid to persuade the regulator to split up BT, as a key deadline for industry submissions over its future ends today. They want Ofcom to force Openreach, which looks after the cables and wires that make up the UK's telecoms network, to break away from parent company BT as they claim this will speed up investment in fibre cables and create greater competition. - Daily Mail

Technical problems have caused a leak at one of BP’s North Sea oil platforms and prompted environmental campaigners to demand more detail about how much crude has been spilt. The company is still investigating the problem that led it to shut down the Clair platform to the west of Shetland on Sunday. - The Times

Doughnut-maker Krispy Kreme is understood to have abandoned its planned £200m London flotation in favour of a sale to its US parent. Private equity group Alcuin Capital, which controls the UK operations of the global brand, was preparing to join a wave of autumn floats in a deal being handled by Investec. - Telegraph

Facebook will attempt to corner yet another digital market with the launch of a system that allows its users to trade books, furniture and other goods. Facebook Marketplace will put Mark Zuckerberg’s company in direct competition with eBay, whose shares fell yesterday after the social network announced the launch. - The Times

ING’s plans to shed 7,000 jobs and invest in its digital platforms to make annual savings of €900m by 2021 has drawn swift criticism of the Netherlands’ largest financial services company from unions. The layoffs represent slightly less than 12% of ING’s 52,000 workforce, because nearly 1,000 are expected to come at suppliers rather than at the bank itself. - Guardian

Britain’s flagging power as a seafaring nation could put the country’s economic security at risk, according to maritime union Nautilus. The body is warning that decades of decline in the number of British-registered vessels means the UK’s Merchant Navy is becoming “so depleted that our economy could be held to ransom” by other nations with stronger shipping industries. Britain depends on the shipping industry for almost all of its goods exports and imports and Nautilus claims that without government action to protect the industry, it could become a danger to the UK’s prosperity. - Telegraph

The future of Stanley Gibbons was under a cloud yesterday after the 160-year-old stamp and collectibles group slumped to a £29 million loss and admitted it had uncovered “fundamental errors” in previous accounts. The revamped board has embarked on asset sales and cost-cutting measures but conceded that if it failed to keep a lid on its liabilities and trading did not improve it was likely the group would breach its banking covenants. - The Times