The Business Matrix: Saturday 24 November 2012

Lenders mull over Greek delay

Greece's international lenders are mulling more breathing space for the beleaguered nation to secure bailout funds and avoid default. Release of €44 bn (£35.5bn) has been delayed by a row between the EU and the IMF. With EU finance ministers meeting on Monday, options include cutting interest rates and extended loans.

ENRC chairman's powers boosted

Kazakh mining giant Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) has beefed up the role of its chairman. Mehmet Dalman. The former Commerzbank banker who took charge in February, now has responsibility for finance, risk, human resources, legal & compliance, and investor relations at ENRC.

'Olympics helped London pubs'

The boss of the pubs company behind London Pride is predicting a boon to the city from this summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games, pictured – in the future. Fuller, Smith & Turner chairman Michael Turner says: "It marketed London brilliantly We are as well placed as anybody to benefit from that."

Consumers shun festive turkey

Hordes of consumers are buying less-traditional meats this Christmas, with venison, lamb and pork replacing turkey on many festive household menus, says the grocer Waitrose. This came as Waitrose revealed it grew its sales 8 per cent over the 12 weeks to 28 October.

Future looks ahead to digital

Magazines group Future has swung back into the black and claimed digital could represent half of the business by 2015. Chief executive Mark Wood said tablets are already bringing in readers who hadn't previously bought print and are willing to pay.

Argentina 'must pay bondholders'

Argentina today said it will appeal against a US court ruling ordering it to pay $1.3bn (£800m) to overseas bondholders after it defaulted on payments in 2001. The Latin American country was given a deadline of December 15 to pay the money to hedge funds who have turned down offers of exchanging discounted bonds.

UBS faces £50m fine over trader

UBS faces an FSA fine of possibly up to £50m for management and supervision failures that failed to check the activities of rogue trader Kweku Adoboli, jailed this week after losing more than $2bn on unauthorised trades that stretched back to 2008. Swiss and UK regulators have been investigating.

Beancounter for Supergroup

Supergroup has hired an experienced beancounter on to its board, following a profits warning the fashion retailer suffered in April related to "arithmetic errors". Minnow Powell, who served at the accountancy firm Deloitte for 25 years and is also a director at Tui Travel, is joining the owner of SuperDry.

Corsair shows interest in RBS

Corsair Capital, the private equity firm where former Standard Chartered chairman Lord Davies of Abersoch is a partner, is the latest potential bidder for 316 branches of Royal Bank of Scotland which it has to sell off. Last month Santander pulled out of a £1.7bn deal.

Severn Trent in licence change bid

Severn Trent, the water company, yesterday wrote to its industry regulator asking it to change new licence proposals. Ofwat had said it wanted to sever the link between water prices and inflation, and warned of a Competition Commission referral.