Thursday paper round-up: Santander, Reckitt Benckiser, Vodafone

Santander is gearing up to list its UK operations on the London Stock Exchange as soon as this autumn in a deal that could raise an estimated £3bn (EUR3.5bn) to fund growth by the acquisitive Spanish bank. The group, which is on the verge of buying a portfolio of 318 UK branches from RBS, needs the money to fund that deal, following a spate of other acquisitions - most recently the EUR555m (£467m) purchase of 173 branches in Germany from Sweden's SEB, says the FT.

Reckitt Benckiser could offload the Scholl footwear business if it wins control of SSL International with a £2.54 billion takeover bid, writes the Times.

The chairman of Vodafone is under pressure from shareholders unhappy with the company's performance and the executive team's management of its global assets. Sir John Bond, the former HSBC chairman, was parachuted into the world's biggest mobile operator in 2006 to soothe investor concerns over the expansion strategy of Arun Sarin, then chief executive, reports the Times.

BP has denied reports that chief executive Tony Hayward is to step down, as the company prepares to sell off assets to pay for the oil spill clean-up, according to the Telegraph.

The FT adds that BP's Bob Dudley has said that the company's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico "will change the industry forever". That is not quite how other companies see it. There is no doubt it has long-lasting ramifications for BP and the US government, whose lax regulators are seen as having contributed to the disaster. But around the world, from Norway to Australia and among BP's peers, remarkably little has changed, at least on the side of prevention.

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, warned of "unusually uncertain" prospects and a "somewhat weaker outlook" for the US economy in comments that sent American investors running for cover, says the Telegraph.

The London cocoa exchange yesterday cleared traders of "abusive behaviour" after prices last week hit a 33-year high of £2,732 per tonne. Cocoa processors across the global industry complained that the price was being hiked by "speculation" after Armajaro - a commodities hedge fund - earlier this month took delivery of an eye-watering 240,000 tonnes of beans, writes the Independent.

Lord Black of Crossharbour walked out of a Florida prison last night in his greatest victory yet in the legal struggle he calls "the fight of my life". Black, who was sentenced to a term of six and a half years in 2007 for defrauding investors in his newspaper empire, left the Coleman Correctional Institute after just 870 days to be reunited with Lady Black, the newspaper columnist Barbara Amiel, reports the Times.

Another long-standing British food company may be about to go under the hammer, as the private equity owners of United Biscuits put out feelers to investment banks over a sale that could reach £2bn. Blackstone and PAI Partners are trawling for advisers on the sale of the group which owns a host of favourite brands including McVitie's, Hula Hoops and KP Nuts, according to the Independent.