Vodafone is preparing to raise more than £4bn by selling its shares in China Mobile, the first in a string of planned disposals by the mobile-phone giant.

Managers of Britain's biggest banks can claim little credit for the sector's return to profitability this year, according to Standard & Poor's.

One of Britain's most notorious fugitives will return to the UK voluntarily today to face multimillion-pound fraud charges after almost two decades abroad, it was reported last night. Asil Nadir, 69, who was a Conservative party donor, fled to his native northern Cyprus in 1993 to avoid a £34m fraud trial centred on the collapse of his Polly Peck business empire, according to the Guardian.

Investors fled to the safety of government bonds yesterday amid growing fears of double-dip recessions in Britain and America.

Britain faces a "significant" risk of a renewed slide into recession, a leading policymaker at the Bank of England warned yesterday.

Sab Miller, the giant brewer, is considering a £7 billion takeover of its iconic Australian rival, Foster's. The London-listed group, which owns the Peroni, Grolsch and Miller brands, is plotting a move for Carlton & United Breweries, the beer-making arm of Foster's, the Sunday Times reports.

South Korea's national oil company was on Thursday night on the brink of launching a £1.67bn hostile takeover bid for Dana Petroleum that could be announced as early as Friday, reports the FT. The move would mark the first time an Asian state-owned oil company has made a hostile approach in the UK, and signals an unexpected shift in the battle for overseas reserves by the region's national oil companies.

Nick Clegg promised a crackdown on tax avoidance yesterday as a division emerged between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over the appointment of a billionaire to help to cut public spending.

Dana Petroleum is under pressure from investors to state whether it plans to buy a string of North Sea oil projects and so clear the way for Korea's state-owned oil corporation to make a £1.6 billion hostile bid. The Times has learnt that Schroders — Dana's biggest shareholder — has asked the company publicly to outline details of a deal to buy oilfields from Suncor Energy, of Canada.

Leading Aviva shareholders are to press the UK insurer to reconsider its dismissal of a £5bn ($7.8bn) offer from rival RSA for its UK, Ireland and Canada general insurance business. The two insurers opened up a war of words after RSA responded to Aviva's confirmation on Monday of the dismissal with a public declaration of its value, writes the FT.

A landmark £30 million deal to settle corruption allegations against BAE Systems has been delayed amid fears that it could be thrown out in court. The plea agreement with the Serious Fraud Office, which brought an end to a six-year investigation into suspected bribery, is unlikely to come before the courts for approval before November, the Times understands.

Leading shareholders in insurance group Aviva have criticised the company's management for withholding details of RSA's £5bn bid for its general insurance business.

Around 1,200 holidaymakers have been left stranded in Spain and elsewhere following the collapse of tour operator Sun4u. The Birmingham-based firm announced it had ceased trading on its website. It is understood that the firm was a victim of the ash cloud crisis earlier this year, says the Times.

BP has agreed to put up its US production revenues, which account for about a quarter of its annual output, as collateral to guarantee the $20bn compensation fund for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, under a deal with the White House unveiled on Wednesday, says the FT.

The Federal Reserve warned last night that America's recovery was losing steam as it announced a shift in its economic stimulus programme.

Fears of a new slide in house prices emerged yesterday amid signs that the economy is sagging again, the Times reports.

The Bank of England has warned Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland that they could face penalties from Brussels if there was an extension of the special funding scheme put in place during the financial crisis.