A round up of the top news and views on FT Alphaville and FT.com as at noon, London time.
__
On FT Alphaville this morning,
- Sony Corp plans to raise about $2.5bn by listing its financial unit, in what is expected to be Japan’s largest IPO this year.
- Barclays, Europe’s biggest underwriter of corporate bonds, allegedly used confidential information from serving on creditors’ committees to trade securities of bankrupt companies, according to people with knowledge of a three-year US government probe.
- Apax and TPG have begun to put together their consortia to make a run for Spanish airline Iberia.
- In town for the Russian Economic Forum earlier this week, Ruben Vardanian, chief executive of Troika Dialog, the Russian investment bank, is a model of relaxation concerning the controversy surrounding the event – from which Russian business leaders and officials abruptly pulled out, apparently on Kremlin orders – and about the prospects for Troika in the years to come.
On FT.com this morning,
- Sports Direct, the sports retailer which made a controversial debut on the stock market earlier this year, suffered another blow to its credibility on Thursday after warning that sales growth had slowed from earlier in the year.
- London equities made strong progress on Thursday, helped by robust overnight gains on Wall Street. Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland stayed in the spotlight as their bid battle for control of ABN Amro continued.
_
Click here to sign up for our free 6am Cut email service and ensure you’re getting the news you need to plan your day. You will be asked to complete a short registration process, after which the 6.00 AM Cut will appear in your inbox each weekday.