Friday newspaper round-up: IAG and Aer Lingus, North Sea oil, Unilever and RB...

The Times has printed a story on British Airways owner IAG's revelation that a secret €1bn-plus takeover of Aer Lingus was rejected by the Irish carrier’s board. According to the new source, a takeover by IAG would have seen the airline seize even more highly prized take-off and landing slots at capacity constrained Heathrow airport.

An expert has warned the North Sea oil industry is “close to collapse” as a slump in prices piles pressure on drillers to cut back investing in the region, The Telegraph reports. The paper claimed that Robin Allan, chairman of the independent explorers’ association Brindex, said it is “almost impossible to make money” with the oil price below $60 per barrel.

Consumer-products giants Unilever and RB (formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser) have both been fined by French competition authorities for price-fixing, according to The Times. The companies were hit with fines of €172.5m and €121m, respectively, for fixing the price of personal hygiene and cleaning products sold in French supermarkets.

Vladimir Putin has blamed the West for Russia’s financial crisis and warned that the country faces two years of recession, citing “external factors”, reports the Financial Times. He said in a press conference on Thursday: “They will always try to put [the Russian bear] on a chain. As soon as they succeed in doing so they will tear out its fangs and claws [leaving a] stuffed animal.”

“John Laing is on the verge of being brought back to the stock market seven years after it was taken private,” writes The Times. The paper said that the infrastructure investor and construction project management group will probably be one of the first big flotations of 2015 in London.

Scottish retailers missed out on the Black Friday surge in sales seen in the UK, writes The Scotsman. While British sales rose at an annual rate of 6.4% in November, the strongest growth in a decade, sales in Scotland were down 1.4%.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the €88m in bailout money due to go to Cyprus on Friday will not be paid after parliament delayed a new foreclosure law, The Guardian reports.