News round up: Shell, Glencore, Xstrata, Euro, Greece, Job creation fund, Standard Chartered, Second-quarter earnings season.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS.A) is paying Nigerian security forces tens of millions of dollars a year to guard their installations and staff in the Niger delta, according to leaked internal financial data seen by the Guardian. The oil giant also maintains a 1,200-strong internal police force in Nigeria, plus a network of plainclothes informants.

The documents show that nearly 40% of Shell's total security expenditure over the three year period – $383m (£244m) – was spent on protecting its staff and installations in Nigeria's volatile Niger delta region. Activists expressed concern that the escalating cost of Shell's security operation in the delta was further destabilising the oil rich region and helping to fuel rampant corruption and criminality.

"The scale of Shell's global security expenditure is colossal," said Ben Amunwa of London-based oil watchdog Platform. "It is staggering that Shell transferred $65m of company funds and resources into the hands of soldiers and police known for routine human rights abuses." The financial documents, passed to Platform, suggest Shell's worldwide security costs almost doubled between 2007-2009, coinciding with the rise of armed insurgency in the Niger delta, the Guardian reports.

Glencore - Xstrata

The Qatari state investment fund has pushed the world’s largest merger, between Glencore and Xstrata, to the brink of collapse this weekend after building up a stake nearly large enough to block the deal. Qatar Holding, the financial vehicle of the gas-rich emirate, spent more than 5bn dollars on Xstrata shares to make it the second-largest investor — Glencore owns 34 per cent — before demanding improved terms. It has vowed to vote against the deal unless Glencore offers at least 3.25 shares for each Xstrata share, rather than the agreed 2.8 ratio.

Glencore has so far refused to budge. Ivan Glasenberg, its chief executive, has hardened his stance as commodity prices have fallen. Qatar did not own a large enough stake to block the deal on its own. Over the past fortnight, however, it has been buying shares almost every day. As of Friday, its stake was 11.7%. Bankers said it could block the deal on its own with as little as 12 per cent because Glencore is barred from voting on the deal, writes The Sunday Times.

Euro

Lord Rothschild has taken a near-£130m bet against the euro as fears continue to grow that the single currency will break up. The fact that the former investment banker, a senior member of the Rothschild family, has taken such a view will be seen as a further negative for the currency. RIT Capital Partners, the investment trust which Lord Rothschild has led since 1988, had a -7% net short position in terms of principal currency exposures on the euro at the end of July, up from -3% at the end of January.

Given a net asset value of £1.836bn at the end of July, the position is worth £128m. Sources close to RIT suggested that the position was not a dogmatic negative view on the euro as a currency, but rather a realistic approach on a currency that remains relatively weak, The Sunday Telegraph says.

Greece

Greece must remain in the euro to survive according to its finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, as the country’s leader prepares for a week of crucial meetings with Eurozone authorities which could ultimately determine its fate. Stournaras said the country must press ahead with the spending cuts demanded by its fellow Eurozone members because its membership of the single currency was essential.

"We have to stay alive and remain under the umbrella of the euro, because that is the only choice that can protect us from a poverty that we have not experienced," Mr Stournaras said. "If we don’t take the measures ... then our stay in the euro is threatened. We have the most expensive welfare state in the Eurozone. We can no longer maintain it with borrowed money," according to the Telegraph.

Job creation fund

A government job creation fund will badly miss its target to get money to businesses in employment blackspots. Nearly two thirds of the cash promised — some of it offered 16 months ago — is still sitting in the Treasury. The £2.4bn Regional Growth Fund, which has been fronted by Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, was due to have fully allocated £1.4bn of funding to 176 bid-winning companies and organisations by the end of next month.

However, it has emerged that by last month’s parliamentary recess — when officials had privately expected to get most of the initial money signed off — only £502m had been disbursed to 46 winning bids, The Times reports.

Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered is thought to be just months away from recruiting at least two new independent directors as it shores up its boardroom in the wake of damaging sanctions-busting allegations involving Iran. The bank’s 11-strong group of non-executive directors features seven long-standing board members. Rudy Markham, the senior independent director, has been on the board since 2001, while Ruth Markland and Paul Skinner both joined in 2003. Under the Combined Code rules governing best boardroom practice, a director who has been in place for more than nine years is no longer deemed to be independent.

Mr Markham suffered a mini-protest at Standard Chartered’s annual meeting in May, when shareholders speaking for almost a fifth of the shares that voted opposed his re-election. Standard Chartered signalled at the annual meeting that it was preparing to bring in fresh blood. Although the bank would not be drawn on the likely departures yesterday, or a timetable for them, Mr Markham is thought the most likely to go.

Second-quarter earnings season

A disappointing second-quarter earnings season in Europe has prompted analysts to scale back markedly their expectations for earnings growth for the rest of the year. More companies missed than beat expectations in the second quarter of this year, with 48% of those listed on the Stoxx 600 reporting lower than expected consensus quarterly earnings, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

A remaining 47% beat estimates while 5% reported estimates in line with consensus. "The message is still quite bearish," Karen Olney, Europe equity strategist at UBS said. This is in stark contrast to the US where nearly three-quarters of companies beat expectations in the second quarter, The Financial Times writes.