Wednesday newspaper round-up: StanChart, G4S/Serco, Oil services firms

The Financial Times says that outsourcing groups G4S and Serco both won Whitehall contracts despite being “on probation” with the Cabinet Office having barred the companies from winning new government work.

Oil services firms are quickly rising to the top of the leader-board of the companies which hedge funds most like to short sell, writes The Times. Petrofac is now the third most widely shorted stock on the top-flight index, behind J Sainsbury and Wm Morrisson. Amongst its peers in the ranking of those who have fallen foul of investors are AMEC and Wood Group, followed by the likes of Ophir Energy and Tullow Oil.

Ukraine’s financial fortunes are hanging by a slim thread, according to the Financial Times. To avert a collapse, Western governments will need to plug a $15bn shortfall in the terms of its bail-out, the International Monetary Fund said. That sum would be in addition to the $17bn rescue unveiled in April. It is the result, in part, of the collapse in exports to Russia. A sovereign debt default may also loom.

BG Group has raised $5bn from selling a gas project in Australia, reports The Telegraph, “as the UK-listed energy giant focuses on exploration amid falling profits”.

“The government’s official statisticians have admitted that they overestimated Britain’s exports to the US by more than £40bn over four years,” according to The Times. The paper reports that the Office for National Statistics made the announcement “quietly” last month. £40n represented 20% of total UK exports to the US between 2009-2012.

Should the price of oil hold lower then the price of a litre of oil will fall to nearly £1.05, Goldman Sach’s Kevin Daly says, according to The Telegraph. That is in line with estimates from recent estimates from other experts. The impact will be to boost consumer confidence, as people are more concerned by their own pockets than they are by the warnings of shadows looming over global growth prospects, Daly added.

Edward Glazer, one of the sons of the late Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer, is to sell down his stake in the football club, writes The Scotsman. The paper says the former is planning to sell 3m shares and could net him $50m.