Sunday newspaper round-up: Chancellor, General election, Kellogg

The Chancellor has promised a "revolution" in home ownership if the Conservatives win the general election, the Sunday Telegraph reported. George Osborne said he wanted to help more than a million people buy a first home. He proposed expanding the existing Help to Buy programme, in which the Government takes a stake in newly built houses to help first-time buyers. There will also be a "rejuvenated and refreshed" right-to-buy policy that could include letting tenants buy housing association properties. Councils could also be made to sell their most expensive properties to pay for cheaper housing.

Neil Woodford, the influential fund manager, has said the general election could lead to years of turbulence for shares and long-term weakness for the pound. Woodford told the Sunday Telegraph that political uncertainty would make the May 7th election more important than previous polls. Questions about a referendum on European Union membership and a potential second vote on Scottish independence would unsettle investors. Leaving the election aside, Woodford said the market was showing signs of a "mad crowd" that paid insufficient attention to fundamentals. Energy companies have been wrongly demonised by politicians and the press.

Kellogg has warned that its profits could be cut materially by the drive in the UK and other countries to clamp down on corporate tax avoidance, the Sunday Times reported. The world's biggest cereal maker said in its annual report: Contemplated changes in the UK and other countries of long-standing tax principles, if finalised and adopted, could have a material impact on our income tax expense." Kellogg issued the guidance days after the so-called Google tax took effect in the UK. The diverted profits tax is meant to stop companies moving profits overseas to avoid tax.

Afren has selected Alan Linn, the former head of Australia's Roc Oil as its new Chief Executive, the Sunday Times reported. Afren has lacked a full-time boss since it fired Osman Shahenshah and other top executives in October over their acceptance of payments from a partner in Nigeria. Linn, who is working as a consultant for Afren, ran Roc Oil for four years before a Chinese conglomerate bought the explorer last year. His appointment is imminent but he will not start work until the completion of a rescue financing for Afren in June.

The number of shoppers on UK high streets slumped over Easter weekend because of bad weather and the rise of internet shopping, the Mail on Sunday reported. Figures from shop monitor Springboard showed high street shoppers were down 10% from a year ago on April 3rd, and by 8% at lunchtime on April 4th. Better business at out-of-town stores took the total figures to minus 4.2% on April 3rd and 5.8% on April 4th. Springboard said wet weather was one reason but also that shoppers no longer felt the need to hit the stores at Easter because they can shop online.

Standard Chartered's balance sheet faces a further blow from troubles at London-listed coal miner Asia Resource Minerals (ARM), the Sunday Times said. The bank has lent $740m to Borneo Lumbung, an Indonesian coal miner that is the biggest investor in ARM. Borneo's cash balance is down to $2.7m from $740m in the past nine months and it will struggle to make an imminent $100m payment to Standard Chartered. Borneo's stake in ARM will be halved if it cannot take part in ARM's upcoming rights issue.

Hedge funds have bet on a fall in the share price of Carillion, according to the Sunday Times. The percentage of shares out on loan has hit 15.6%, research firm Markit said. It is one of the biggest short positions in the FTSE 350. The short sellers are targeting the construction company's lack of growth, exposure to slumping oil markets and pension deficit. Short sellers borrow a company's shares and sell them, hoping to make a profit by buying them back if the share price falls.

The ex-Chairman of Alliance Trust has said she will support the company's management against an attack by Elliott Advisors. Lesley Knox wrote to the Sunday Telegraph to say she would vote against Elliott's three nominees to the Alliance Trust board at the company's annual meeting on April 29th. Knox said: "I very much doubt that Elliott's time horizon is a long one and do not believe it is aligned with why I am a shareholder in Alliance Trust." She said she invested with Alliance Trust for certainty of returns and not for high investment risk and volatility.

EE, which BT is buying, has suffered a £336m one-off charge from the collapse of Phones 4U, the Sunday Telegraph said. The big write-down was revealed in information for BT shareholders preparing to vote on their company's £12.5bn takeover of Britain's biggest mobile operator. The charge is for the commission Phones 4U was paid for signing up new EE subscribers but had not yet booked. It was the main reason for a 22% plunge in EE's annual earnings to £987m. BT used adjusted figures that showed earnings rose.

Greece's prime minister is holding emergency talks on April 5th with the head of the International Monetary Fund to try to secure funds to keep the country afloat, the Sunday Times said. Greece has tried to ease fears that it will miss the April 9th deadline to pay the IMF €460m and repay €2.4bn of government bonds in April. Yanis Varoufakis and the IMF's Christine Lagarde will have an "informal discussion" about Greece's plan, the Greek finance ministry said.

The majority of FTSE 100 chairmen polled by a recruitment firm think Ed Miliband would be a catastrophe as Prime Minister, according to the Sunday Times. The survey by Korn Ferry found that 70% of the chairmen who answered the question said Miliband would be bad for the economy. A FTSE 100 boss said businesses could work with Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and Shadow Business Minister Chuka Umunna but that Miliband's rhetoric was disturbing.

Neil Utley, a City tycoon, is likely to have his stake in Hastings Direct valued at about £200m when the car insurer floats, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Hastings Direct could be valued at up to £1bn when it sells shares after the general election. It has hired Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse to advise on the listing. Utley owns about 20% of the business after selling about half of it to Goldman Sachs in 2013, making about £135m in the process.

More than 200 shops and 7,500 jobs are at risk at the UK's biggest out-of-town retailers as the result of changing shopping habits, the Sunday Telegraph said. The paper totted up announcements made by supermarkets and home improvement chains to arrive at the figures. Almost 100 proposed new stores have also been cancelled. The numbers show how pressure on UK high streets have spread to stores on the periphery of towns to stores run by Tesco, Morrisions and Kingfisher's B&Q chain.

Elegant Hotels, a chain frequented by the pop star Rihanha, is preparing for a £100m London flotation. The Sunday Times reported that the company, which runs five resorts in Barbados, is likely to sell shares on the AIM market in the next few months. The money will be used to buy more hotels in the Caribbean and Vision Capital, the private equity firm, will cash in millions of pounds.