Royal Mail chief Brydon tilts for IPO - papers

Royal Mail's chairman is advising ministers to plan for a multi-billion pound stock market flotation in an options-open approach to privatisation.

The plans could take could take two or three years to come to fruition, the Financial Times reports.

Donald Brydon says the state-owned postal operator is entering a "new era", with better industrial relations and an opportunity finally to sort out its pension deficit, regulation and ownership.

He says: "The one way to do this sensibly is to work on the assumption you are going to do an IPO, because to do that you have to be able to answer every question you need to answer."

"If good alternative buyers emerged, ministers would then have a benchmark against which to judge offers."

The coalition Government is drawing up a bill to open up Royal Mail to private capital.

Mr Brydon adds: "This is about defining the postal market for years to come and working through the right regulatory framework, the right economics for this business, the right balance between competitive access and making certain the last mile gets delivered."

Only then, he said, could the company be structured in the right way and private capital introduced.

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Fitch warns need for massive ECB asset purchase

Fitch Ratings warns massive asset purchases by the European Central Bank may be needed to bring Europe's sovereign debt crisis under control, the Telegraph reports.

Brian Coulton, the agency's head of sovereign ratings, says German members of the ECB appeared to be blocking the intervention in southern European bond markets needed to restore investor confidence.

"There has been an unwillingness to follow through, and markets are going to want to see the ECB's money. It will require hundreds of billions in my opinion," he told a global banking conference.

In April, the ECB agreed to start buying Greek, Portuguese, and Irish bonds in April to help buttress the EU's `shock and awe' package, known as the European Financial Stability Facility. Total purchases so far have been €47bn (£39bn).

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Tesco investors in revolt over big bonuses

Tesco could face an investor revolt next month as a number of shareholder lobby groups line up to vote against the level of boardroom pay at the supermarket group, the Guardian reports.

Leading US investor CtW Investment Group today wrote an open letter to Tesco shareholders urging them to take a stand on what it describes as "excessive" pay at next month's annual meeting.

RiskMetrics, whose Research Recommendations and Electronic Voting (RREV) service provides voting advice to UK pension funds, and Manifest, which also advises pension funds, have both raised a red flag over executive pay.

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