Monday newspaper round-up: Barclays, McColl's, Randall & Quilter

(Sharecast News) - Barclays has avoided nearly £2bn in tax via a lucrative arrangement in Luxembourg that allowed it to pay less than 1% on profits in the tax haven for more than a decade. A Guardian analysis of Barclays' tax bills shows it is still benefiting from a controversial decision in 2009, in which it booked profits from the $15.2bn sale of a fund management business in Luxembourg rather than in the UK where it is headquartered. - Guardian The Conservative party donor at the centre of a bribery scandal that drew in two former prime ministers is to leave the oil group he ran for 20 years. Ayman Asfari, the Syrian-born executive who built London-listed Petrofac into a global oil engineering company, will leave the company next year. - Guardian

Morrisons sought to gatecrash a takeover for failed convenience store chain McColl's last night in a snub to the billionaire owners of Asda who were on the brink of securing a deal. Morrisons, which is owned by the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, has made a second offer to buy McColl's that includes a pledge to repay its lenders in full immediately, one of the key sticking points of the supermarket's previous bid, Sky News reported. - Telegraph

A new nuclear reactor plant in Essex is at risk of collapse because of political opposition to a Chinese investor's involvement, French energy giant EDF has warned. The Big Six energy supplier has told investors it has no obligation to keep funding the project in Bradwell, Essex, and that there is now "great uncertainty" over whether it can be delivered. - Telegraph

One of the biggest shareholders in Randall & Quilter has rejected a £482 million takeover bid to take the Aim-listed insurer private. The decision by Slater Investments to oppose the deal raises the risk that the sale of the insurer to Brickell, an American investment vehicle, falls apart. - The Times