Naked ambition at Standard Chartered

Incoming Standard Chartered boss Bill Winters has a surname suggesting he possesses a thoroughbred showbusiness heritage, following in the footsteps of his peerless namesakes, Shelley, Mike and Bernie.

The renowned banker is well-known in the City for his entertainment efforts, thanks to his 2013 appearance in a fundraising video for the Young Vic. In it, he starred alongside other financiers, including Icap’s Michael Spencer and Clearbrook’s Robin Saunders in a sketch where financiers pitched a musical version of The Full Monty to the theatre, only with bankers replacing the steel workers as the talent.

Sadly the men failed to follow Saunders’ lead by keeping their shirts on, and Winters then belted out a falsetto almost as wobbly as Spencer’s midriff. It will be difficult to get all of that out of your mind when Standard Chartered (along with Barclays) continues the banking reporting season this week, never mind when Winters takes up his post in June.

However, the current question for Standard investors is this: what will the bank look like when the new boss starts? Banking analysts reckon that Standard Chartered needs to sort out its balance sheet, and could do so via a 30% cut in its dividend or a rights issue. Either could happen soon, and before Winters takes to the City stage.

Glencore undermined

Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg owns shares in the commodity trading group which are worth £3.3bn. That sounds pretty fantastic, unless you can recall the start of his career as a chief exec of publicly listed company in 2011, when that same stake was worth £6bn.

It is the sort of value destruction that would often prompt investors to clamour for the chief exec’s head, but so far Glencore’s second-largest shareholder has resisted the temptation to oust himself, and he will be in the boss’s chair to present the company’s results this week.

The announcement will come in an environment that represents a marked change in conditions from the time the company floated – and then when it overpaid to acquire mining group Xstrata in 2013. After a decade-long investment boom, during which the supply of commodities surged, the sector is now in a downturn. Miners everywhere are being forced to slash costs and ditch expensive projects, and last week Glencore said it was cutting production at its Australian coal mines by 15% this year, to tackle a global glut and weak prices. That’s weak prices plural: in commodities as well as in Glasenberg’s stake.

Not so hacked off at the Mirror?

Trinity Mirror is one of those rare listed companies that’s helping police with their inquires – yet not also operating within the financial services or heavy industry sectors.

The publisher of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror continues to “co-operate with the Metropolitan Police Service in their ongoing investigations” over phone hacking – an issue which, after years of denying it was involved, it has suddenly found something it needed to apologise for.

That mea culpa appeared in its daily paper last month, along with the company telling the City that the cash it has set aside to cover the costs of the civil claims had increased from £4m to £12m.

All of which you’ll be able to read about on the Mirror business pages this week as the company unveils its results – but despite the nasty bits, the City is still expecting a good news story. Numis predicts a reinstatement of the dividend at 3p a share – and while analysts at Liberum flag up the uncertainty of hacking costs, they add: “The question for investors is whether this matter is now materially covered or whether there is the risk of further provisions. Our view is that ... any further provisions are limited.” Even so, the story of hacking at the Mirror may still have some legs.