News round up: Barclays, Fuel strike, Executive pay, Exillon Energy and Santander UK.

Nomura has maintained its neutral rating and 268p target for UK lender Barclays plc (LON:BARC) saying that while the first-quarter results were slightly better than expectations, the second-quarter outlook is "deteriorating".

Barclays said that while the first-quarter performance was "encouraging", "the continued challenging market conditions mean it is too early to establish the trend for the year."

According to Nomura, "The share price is likely to respond to expectations of future trends, rather than those of Q1; market sentiment has weakened since the first quarter and considerable macro uncertainties remain."

Fuel strike

Motorists are facing the renewed threat of a crippling fuel strike after union leaders urged tanker drivers to reject the latest offer from their employers to end the long-running dispute. About 2,000 staff across seven separate firms have been told to turn down a peace deal aimed at averting industrial action. A meeting of union delegates voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of recommending rejection of the proposals. Eight days of talks had been held at conciliation service Acas to try to head off the prospect of strike action over issues including drivers’ terms and conditions, pensions, and health and safety, The Scotsman reports.

Executive pay

Business leaders have launched a robust defence of executive pay, claiming that the idea of a "cosy club" of directors patting each other's backs and setting salaries for one another is a "myth". In its submission to the Government consultation on improving transparency over executive pay, which closes on Friday, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said high pay is justified in return for excellent performance.

The business group warned of misreading a widely-quoted survey from last year, which claimed chief executive pay had risen by 49% in just 12 months. The survey from pay consultancy Incomes Data Services, which used average figures, was "skewed" by very high salaries awarded to the very few, the CBI said, The Telegraph reports.

Exillon Energy

Russian oil company Exillon Energy paid out nearly £1m on private jets, school fees and credit card payments for its former chairman Maksat Arip - but failed to disclose the payments. The money was used to fund Mr Arip's international lifestyle shuttling between Britain, Russia and Dubai, and for his children's private education.

But it has emerged that the company executive who approved the payments could not speak English, and therefore apparently would not have been able to read the rules concerning the disclosure of payments to directors, none of which had been translated into Russian. A Financial Services Authority investigation has concluded that although there was nothing wrong technically in the company paying the cash to its former chairman but that Exillon should be censured for failing to disclose the payments, The Telegraph reports.

Santander UK

The stock market listing of Santander UK is set to be shelved until 2014 after the bank warned that profits this year and next would be lower than it had hoped.SUK posted a 40% drop in first-quarter pre-tax profits to £347m.

Rising mortgage arrears and a blow-out in bad debts on non-core loans to shipping and infrastructure companies and aircraft leases led to a 39% rise in impairments to £179m. The bank was also hit by an increase in the cost of funding, with higher interest rates paid to depositors and to wholesale lenders shrinking the key net interest margin from 1.77% to 1.57%, writes The Times.