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Press round-up

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Monday newspaper round-up: Four-day week, UK energy, Apple
(Sharecast News) - Fraudsters may have stolen £500,000 from a taxpayer-funded scheme aimed at accelerating the removal of dangerous cladding from buildings, the public spending watchdog has revealed. The National Audit Office said the government decision to prioritise speed in handing out money to building owners had increased its risk of losses from fraud. The warning came in an NAO report into the government's progress in remediating dangerous cladding from blocks after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Boeing, Amazon, Harland & Wolff
(Sharecast News) - Striking Boeing workers will vote on an improved contract offer on Monday, which includes a 38% pay rise over four years and a bigger signing bonus, their union said on Thursday. More than 30,000 factory workers who produce Boeing's strongest-selling 737 Max commercial jet and other planes have been on strike since 13 September and have rejected two earlier offers from Boeing. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Lloyds Banking Group, Microsoft, car finance crisis
(Sharecast News) - The former cryptocurrency executive Nishad Singh, who once shared a $35m Bahamas penthouse with the FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was spared prison time by a judge on Wednesday for his role in the theft by his imprisoned former boss of about $8bn in customer funds from the now bankrupt exchange. The United States district judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the sentence during a hearing in Manhattan federal court. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Starbucks, Santander, Alphabet
(Sharecast News) - Starbucks office workers will risk losing their jobs if they fail to comply with the company's hybrid work requirement that employees are in the office three times a week. According to the Wall Street Journal an internal message sent to employees warns that an "accountability process" will start in January 2025. Consequences for non-compliance are "up to, and including, separation", according to the company message. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Brexit border checks, Evri, UK bond sales
(Sharecast News) - A lack of social mobility is costing the UK £19bn a year, a report produced by the cross-party thinktank Demos and the Co-op has found. The Social Mobility Commission, which advises the government, defines social mobility as "the link between a person's occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents". - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Sellafield, HBOS, retail investors
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves has been urged not to carry out mooted funding cuts for nuclear sites including Sellafield amid safety concerns, as it emerged that the number of incidents where workers narrowly avoided harm had increased at the Cumbrian site. The GMB union has written to Reeves, the chancellor, before Wednesday's budget to raise safety concerns after rumours emerged that the budget for the taxpayer-owned Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) could be reduced, which could result in cuts at nuclear sites including Sellafield and Dounreay in Scotland. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Unsustainable, Inheritance Tax, Payslips
(Sharecast News) - The government's debt pile is set to soar to "unsustainable" levels, the Chancellor's new fiscal rules not withstanding, official data reveal. During the previous week, Rachel Reeves binned the old methodology used to measure public debt, which will allow her to foist enormous additional liabilities on future generations of Britons. The new rules will let her borrow £50bn yet claim that she can balance the books. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Tax rises, WiseTech Global, heat network zones
(Sharecast News) - City firms are only rarely docking pay and bonuses in cases of bad behaviour including sexual harassment, bullying and drug use, according to the industry's watchdog, which recorded a 40% rise in complaints about non-financial misconduct last year. The findings are the result of the City regulator's first survey looking at the issue, which was launched in the wake of high-profile allegations of sexual harassment, including those against individuals at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) lobby group. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Boeing, property landlords, HSBC
(Sharecast News) - Boeing workers have rejected the latest offer to end the more than a month-long strike that has crippled the already struggling manufacturing giant. In a blow to Boeing and the Biden administration, which has fought for a resolution to the dispute, 64% of the 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union voted to reject the contract, the union said late on Wednesday. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Water companies, Sellafield, EY
(Sharecast News) - Hundreds of millions of pounds of local transport funding in England could be cut in next week's spending review despite having been agreed with regional mayors, putting bus, tube and tram improvements at risk. The mayors, most of whom are Labour, are engaged in a last-minute lobbying campaign to stop the Treasury raiding their transport budgets as Rachel Reeves looks for immediate savings. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Influencers, Microsoft, Canal+
(Sharecast News) - Britain's financial watchdog has interviewed 20 social media influencers under caution, as it clamps down on "finfluencers" who may be touting financial services products illegally. The 20 were interviewed voluntarily using the Financial Conduct Authority's criminal powers. Potential penalties include fines and imprisonment of up to two years. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Water companies, Sky, Microsoft
(Sharecast News) - Almost half of the UK workforce lack access to workplace health support including winter flu vaccinations and checks for cardiovascular diseases, a report has found. The analysis, by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), looked at data from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) and found that more than 10 million UK workers lack access to services including basic health checks, vaccinations, and smoking or weight loss support, provided by their employer. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Bond investors, Reckitt Benckiser, Tate&Lyle
(Sharecast News) - Government bond investors are signalling to the Chancellor that her plans for an additional £80bn of debt will not trigger and Liz-Truss style panic. But that will only hold true if she first establishes clear annual expenditure plans and lays out the economic case for the projects that she wants to fund. The new borrowing would be on top of spending cuts and tax hikes needed to fill a £22bn hole in the country's finances. Chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, has promised that "independent checks and balances" will be instituted to ensure value for money. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Post Office, bankers' bonuses, new job ads
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is taking action to ensure her budget plan for a multibillion-pound increase in government borrowing to fund infrastructure projects avoids a Liz Truss-style meltdown in financial markets. Ahead of her tax and spending event on 30 October, the chancellor is convening on Friday the first meeting of a taskforce of leading City figures to advise on infrastructure projects. The government will also launch a watchdog to oversee public works and ensure value for money for the taxpayer. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Post Office, Amazon, Stellantis
(Sharecast News) - Tesco has struck a deal to buy enough solar power to run 144 of its large supermarkets, buying almost two-thirds of the entire electricity output from the Cleve Hill solar park in Kent. The £450m solar park is being built on farmland near Faversham by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a London-based firm that invests in renewable and low-carbon energy in the US, UK and Australia. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Energy crisis, Porterbrook, Google
(Sharecast News) - Britain is at risk of experiencing a repeat of the sharp increase in energy costs which has fuelled the continuing cost of living crisis because it relies too heavily on gas, according to an expert panel of industry leaders. The Energy Crisis Commission has warned that the UK is still "dangerously underprepared" for another crisis because it continues to rely on gas for its power plants and home heating. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Harland & Wolff, Post Office, top rate taxpayers
(Sharecast News) - Spanish shipbuilding firm Navantia is in exclusive negotiations to buy Harland & Wolff, the owner of the Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, in a deal that could rescue up to 1,000 jobs. It is understood the group could take control of the group's four yards - in Belfast; Appledore, Devon; Arnish on the Isle of Lewis; and Methil, Fife - as early as next month. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: BP, Smith&Nephew, TalkTalk
(Sharecast News) - Activist investor Bluebell has asked for BP chairman Helge Lund's head due to the oil giant's "embarrassing" share price performance. Whilst Shell or American rivals Chevron and ExxonMobil had doubled down on profitable fossil fuels, BP had followed a green strategy. Reports indicate that BP's new boss, Murray Auchinloss, was looking to pivot back to oil and gas in response to pressure from shareholders. Yet the company had not confirmed those reports and was not due to provide a strategy update until February. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Scottish Power, TGI Fridays, green energy firms
(Sharecast News) - The leaders of the world's biggest green energy companies have promised more than £24bn of new private investment across Great Britain ahead of a meeting with the prime minister on Friday. Keir Starmer is expected to meet the green energy bosses on the sidelines of the first Council of Nations and Regions in Edinburgh to discuss the multibillion-pound projects just days before the government's international investment summit next week. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Workers' rights, UK productivity, downsizers
(Sharecast News) - Rogue employers will be targeted by a beefed-up new enforcement agency to protect sweeping changes to rights at work for millions of Britons, set to be outlined in a "watershed" bill published on Friday. The Fair Work Agency will be created as part of the government's employment rights legislation, which will include stronger protections against unfair dismissal and exploitative contracts. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Telecoms companies, zero-hours contracts, Boeing
(Sharecast News) - The UK advertising watchdog has cracked down on marketing campaigns by telecoms companies including BT, EE, Virgin Media and O2 for misleading consumers about price rises added to their bills during their contracts. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has issued a batch of rulings against ads run by BT, its subsidiaries EE and Plusnet, as well as TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media broadband. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Winter blackouts, Selfridges, Richemont
(Sharecast News) - Ticket sales for the Oasis reunion tour helped to increase non-essential spending by British consumers to the highest level this year in September, amid a bumper month for retailers. In a sign of resilience despite a pre-budget hit to consumer confidence, industry figures show retail sales and discretionary spending on entertainment, meals out and little luxuries rose sharply last month. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Retailers, Telegraph, pension funds
(Sharecast News) - More than 70 retailers, including Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Ikea, are lobbying the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, for a 20% cut to business rates, warning that the property tax could force tens of thousands of shops to shut. In a letter to Reeves coordinated by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), executives are pushing the Treasury to introduce a "retail rates corrector" on the levy, which is a property-based tax charged by local councils and imposed on businesses including retailers, pubs, factories and company offices. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Climate Change, The Telegraph, Stamp duty
(Sharecast News) - Humanity has failed at the goal of keeping the degree of global warming below 1.5C. According to the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Jim Skea, the planet was on course to warm by 3C by 2100. But surface temperatures would rise by more than those of the sea. Furthermore, western Europe and the UK were at threat from even greater warming, possibly as much as 5C by the turn of the century. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Electric car sales, SSE, small businesses
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves is paving the way for a multibillion-pound increase in public-sector investment at the budget after the government announced plans to commit almost £22bn over 25 years to fund carbon capture and storage projects. In what is expected to be one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament, the chancellor, prime minister and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, will unveil the details on a visit to the Liverpool city region on Friday declaring a "new era" for clean energy jobs. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Bank payments, GB News, OpenAI
(Sharecast News) - Sellafield will have to pay almost £400,000 after it pleaded guilty to criminal charges over years of cybersecurity failings at Britain's most hazardous nuclear site. The vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria left information that could threaten national security exposed for four years, according to the industry regulator, which brought the charges. It was also found that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attack. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: CityFibre, Covid loans, FCA
(Sharecast News) - Ministers are being asked to draw up billions of pounds in cuts to infrastructure projects over the next 18 months despite Rachel Reeves pledging to invest more to grow the economy, the Guardian has learned. Members of the cabinet have been asked to model cuts to their investment plans of up to 10% of their annual capital spending as part of this month's spending review, government sources said. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tips, eBay, business confidence
(Sharecast News) - Unions fear some restaurants and other businesses may slip through the net of new legislation over the fair distribution of tips and service charges that comes into force in Great Britain on Tuesday. The government said the long-planned changes would mean workers would be in line for about £200m that may otherwise have been retained by employers. Under the new rules 100% of tips - by cash or card - and any service charge levied on customers must be passed on to staff working in restaurants, cafes, hotels, hairdressers or taxi firms. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Coal power plant, Deloitte, RBS scandal
(Sharecast News) - Britain's only remaining coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire will generate electricity for the last time on Monday after powering the UK for 57 years. The power plant will come to the end of its life in line with the government's world-leading policy to phase out coal power which was first signalled almost a decade ago. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Gambling ads, road building schemes, public sector pensions
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have been urged to intervene to stop football clubs from setting their own rules on curbing gambling advertising, after research showed Premier League fans were bombarded with nearly 30,000 gambling messages on a single weekend. Clubs in the top flight have so far avoided compulsory restrictions on gambling sponsorship, instead addressing public concern through voluntary measures such as a ban on front-of-shirt logos, starting in 2026. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: JLR, electric cars, Royal Mail
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves is pushing for the UK's tax and spending watchdog to upgrade its national growth forecasts to reflect the economic boost Labour says can be achieved from its blitz of planning reforms. In a development that could open up additional spending headroom for the chancellor before next month's budget, the Treasury has held talks with the Office for Budget Responsibility to try to persuade its officials that unblocking the planning system could drive up growth. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Visa, Caroline Ellison, Brookfield
(Sharecast News) - Business leaders have warned that the government's plans for a major global investment summit are in danger of falling flat, amid growing frustrations over high costs of involvement and its timing two weeks before the budget. As a central plank in Labour's proposals to drive up investment in Britain, the party pledged in the general election campaign to host the summit within the first 100 days of winning power to show that the UK would be "open for business" under a new government. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Pubs, petrol prices, passive funds
(Sharecast News) - Fifty pubs a month closed for good across England and Wales in the first half of this year, with experts warning that tax rises in 2025 could make it even harder for some businesses to keep their doors open. Analysis by the real estate intelligence company Altus found that 305 pubs were forced to shut their doors permanently in the first six months of the year, meaning the number of pubs in England and Wales fell to 39,096 at the end of June. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Regulated Utilities, Rolls-Royce, Fuel allowance
(Sharecast News) - Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is among several international investors who have told the government that they will not look at opportunities in the UK regulated utility sector in the wake of crisis around Thames Water. It is understood that one person at the meeting said that the "UK is totally off our radar at the moment" due to regulators having become "too unpredictable". However, GIC was said to remain bullish on other UK investment opportunities notwithstanding their negativity towards UK regulated utilities. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Workers' rights, Wimbledon, Glencore execs
(Sharecast News) - Trade union leaders will meet senior ministers on Saturday for crunch talks on the government's workers' rights package, as the government looks to head off a potentially damaging row at Labour conference. General secretaries from the 11 unions affiliated to Labour will meet Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, on the eve of conference to thrash out details of the package, sources have told the Guardian. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Boeing, zero-hours contracts, voluntary insolvencies
(Sharecast News) - Boeing's CEO said on Wednesday that the company would begin furloughing "a large number" of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week. The chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, said the layoffs would be temporary and affect executives, managers and other employees. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Stellantis, ITV, Philip Morris
(Sharecast News) - Employers who force staff to return to the office five days a week have been called the "dinosaurs of our age" by one of the world's leading experts who coined the term "presenteeism". Sir Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at the University of Manchester's Alliance Manchester Business School, said employers imposing strict requirements on staff to be in the office risked driving away talented workers, damaging the wellbeing of employees and undermining their financial performance. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Airbus, Boden, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - Alison Rose, the former chief executive of NatWest, has taken a job as an adviser to one of the UK's top law firms as she tries to return to the City after a career-damaging row with Nigel Farage last year. Rose is joining Mishcon de Reya as a diversity and inclusion adviser, a role that will involve mentoring some of the firm's partners. She will also work closely with the equity, diversity and inclusion committee at the firm, which is known for having represented Diana, Princess of Wales during her divorce. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Airbus, Boden, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - Alison Rose, the former chief executive of NatWest, has taken a job as an adviser to one of the UK's top law firms as she tries to return to the City after a career-damaging row with Nigel Farage last year. Rose is joining Mishcon de Reya as a diversity and inclusion adviser, a role that will involve mentoring some of the firm's partners. She will also work closely with the equity, diversity and inclusion committee at the firm, which is known for having represented Diana, Princess of Wales during her divorce. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Airport expansion, workplace pensions, ITV
(Sharecast News) - The younger, tormented minister mulling his position before the Labour government granted Heathrow's third runway in 2009 might have been greatly relieved to know that, 15 years later, not a shovel would have touched the ground. But now, returning to power with a revamped energy and climate brief, Ed Miliband again finds himself in a cabinet which, many in aviation hope, may usher in bigger airports and more flights - as well as enough CO2 emissions to outweigh any new solar farms. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: High speed rail line, Boeing, Grangemouth
(Sharecast News) - A plan for a new high-speed rail line linking Birmingham and Manchester has been unveiled, claiming to deliver most of the benefits of the scrapped northern leg of HS2 at significantly cheaper cost and with only slightly longer journey times. The 50-mile track would run from where the HS2 line is now due to end in Staffordshire to join a planned Northern Powerhouse Rail line west of Manchester airport, under a plan unveiled by the mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Telegraph, flexible working, Ford
(Sharecast News) - The owner of the New York Sun has emerged as the latest bidder aiming to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. British-born Dovid Efune, who took control of the assets of the former newspaper the New York Sun three years ago, is understood to be in the running to lodge an offer before the deadline set for second-round bidders on 27 September. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Port Talbot, Amazon, Tripadvisor
(Sharecast News) - The British steel industry is braced for 2,500 job cuts at the Port Talbot steelworks, with thousands more jobs at risk in the UK, as the government prepares a taxpayer-backed deal for the south Wales plant. The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is expected to outline on Wednesday details of a rescue deal which will see the government hand the historic Welsh plant's owners, Tata Steel, £500m to build a new electric furnace - but at the cost of huge redundancies from the closure of its last remaining blast furnace. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Water bills, iPhones, council tax, Audi factory
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves is being urged by a left-of-centre thinktank to announce changes to capital gains tax, inheritance tax and national insurance in next month's budget that would raise more than £20bn a year for the Treasury. With the chancellor looking for ways to plug a £22bn hole that she has identified in the public finances, the Resolution Foundation said it was a time-honoured tradition that taxes were raised in the first budget after an election. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: PwC, UK pension funds, wind farms
(Sharecast News) - The consultancy PwC has told its employees it is going to begin tracking their working locations to ensure that all workers spend "a minimum of three days a week" in the office or at client sites. In a memo sent to its 26,000 UK employees, the big four accounting firm announced that it will start monitoring how often employees work from home in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: X, Marks & Spencer, Volvo
(Sharecast News) - More than a quarter of advertisers are planning to cut spending on Elon Musk's X over concerns about the social media platform's content and trust in the information disseminated, according to new global research. Advertising revenue flowing to X has been in freefall since Musk bought the site, then known as Twitter, for $44bn (£38bn) in October 2022, claiming it had not lived up to its potential as a platform for "free speech". - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Councils, Apple, offshore wind farms
(Sharecast News) - Spending on the UK live music sector and associated businesses has hit a record £6.1bn as a wave of huge acts from Elton John to Beyoncé cashed in on the pent-up demand to attend shows in person. Live, the federation representing Britain's live music industry, revealed that the sector's contribution to the UK economy topped £6bn for the first time last year, as fans denied live experiences in the Covid pandemic rushed to snap up tickets. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Electric cars, Manchester, Mountain Warehouse
(Sharecast News) - Campaigners have called on the chancellor to introduce a controversial pay-per-mile road charging scheme on electric cars, warning of a £5bn "black hole" in tax revenues from motoring. In a letter to Rachel Reeves, the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) urged her to reform vehicle taxes, with fuel duty poised to dwindle in the coming decade as petrol and diesel cars are phased out. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Ride-hailing apps, ticket prices, Abercrombie & Kent
(Sharecast News) - Uber and other ride-hailing apps should be forced to publish data on drivers' workloads so that regulators can tackle exploitation and cut carbon emissions, campaigners argue. Analysis by the pressure group Worker Info Exchange suggests drivers for Uber and its smaller rivals may have missed out on more than £1.2bn in wages and costs last year because of the way they are compensated. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Abercrombie & Kent, Bunzl, John Lewis
(Sharecast News) - Abercrombie & Kent, based in Cheltenham, has started talks with bankers regarding an initial public offering in 18 to 24 months' time. The luxury travel agency's boss, Cristina Levis, thinks the flotation will help the outfit become the LVMH of luxury experiential travel. The company, however, is looking at pursuing a possible listing in New York instead of London. Luxury travel has continued to increase since the pandemic with dramatic growth in demand for destinations such as the Nordics or Japan. In 2022, the company racked up sales of $528m (£402m). - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Train strikes, Lloyds, Reaction Engines
(Sharecast News) - A series of weekend strikes by train drivers on LNER from Saturday has been called off, their trade union Aslef has announced. Passengers travelling between London and Edinburgh had faced the prospect of months of disruption after LNER drivers earlier this month announced 22 days of industrial action from the start of September until early November. On Thursday, Aslef said drivers had reached a resolution with LNER regarding the breaking of agreements. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Energy bills, Qantas, CrowdStrike
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have committed to help households struggling with their gas and electricity bills this winter after energy industry bosses warned that consumer debt had climbed to more than £3bn. With Labour under fire for scrapping universal winter fuel payments to pensioners, ministers met energy industry bosses on Wednesday to discuss ways of supporting struggling households through the coming colder months. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Water companies, Hargreaves Lansdown, Klarna
(Sharecast News) - Water companies will struggle to raise the billions of pounds needed to clear Britain's waterways and fix its creaking infrastructure under the regulator's plan to keep a lid on rising water bills, the industry will warn. The water sector's trade association is expected to warn the industry regulator that its proposals to cap the steady rise in household bills by curbing water company spending may drive away the investors needed for a multibillion-pound overhaul of water infrastructure. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Barclays, Mike Lynch, IBM
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have been urged to intervene to prevent businesses struggling with gas and electricity costs from going bust, as bills are forecast to be 70% higher next year than before the energy crisis. A typical small business such as a pub, restaurant or independent retailer is paying more than £5,000 extra a year on bills than before the energy crisis that began in 2021, research by the forecaster Cornwall Insight shared with the Guardian shows. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Hezbollah, Economic pain, Wealth tax
(Sharecast News) - Approximately 100 Israeli fighter jets launched strikes on around 270 targets located in over 40 southern Lebanese towns and villages. The set of strikes was one of the biggest between the two sides since fighting resumed in October. The bulk of the strikes were against short-range rocket launchers that could be used to hit northern Israel. In response, terrorist group Hezbollah fired over 320 Katyusha rockets at 11 military targets inside Israel. Most projectiles were stopped or hit open areas. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Energy bills, listing rules, aircraft deliveries
(Sharecast News) - Households will begin the run-up to winter with a sharp increase in their energy bills after the industry regulator increased its cap on energy prices by 9.5% from October. Under the new price cap, the average annual energy bill will rise to £1,717 a year for gas and electricity, up £149 from its current level of £1,568, which has been in place since July. The price cap is set every quarter by Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, and imposes a maximum on how much suppliers can charge their 29 million household customers per unit of gas and electricity. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Asda, Post Office, M&S, Frasers Group
(Sharecast News) - The owners of Asda are facing mounting pressure after figures showed the struggling supermarket chain's share of the grocery market reached a "new nadir" as sales fell sharply this summer. The grocer's sales fell 6.4% in the three months to 10 August, equivalent to more than £2bn in annual lost revenues, as it became the only member of the traditional "big four" supermarkets to see sales shrink, according to analysts at NIQ. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Waitrose, McDonald's, Crown Agents
(Sharecast News) - Waitrose is planning to open 100 convenience stores over the next five years as part of a £1bn-plus investment in new outlets and shop refurbishments. The upmarket grocery chain is planning to unveil a revamped outlet in Finchley Road, north London, on Wednesday. This will kick off a new phase of expansion with its first new store in six years in Hampton Hill, west London, by the end of this year. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Missing yacht, City Airport, energy bills
(Sharecast News) - Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer is among those missing after a yacht carrying UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, an Italian official has said. Salvatore Cocina, head of the civil protection agency in Sicily, said Bloomer and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, were among the six people missing. Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, were also unaccounted for as of late Monday. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Ted Baker, banks, Boohoo
(Sharecast News) - Fashion brand Ted Baker's remaining 31 stores in the UK are to close this week, putting more than 500 jobs at risk. Started as a men's clothing label in Glasgow in 1988 by entrepreneur Ray Kelvin and becoming known for its quirky advertising and floral prints, Ted Baker's UK arm entered administration in March after racking up losses. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Ukraine ceasefire, Morrisons, Labour
(Sharecast News) - Moscow has postponed landmark negotiations with Kyiv that might have resulted in a partial ceasefire between the two countries. The two sides had agreed to send delegations to Doha for indirect talks aimed at stopping attacks on energy infrastructure. But the 6 August incursion into Russian territory by Ukraine's troops has been labelled as an escalation and led Moscow to postpone the talks. Some officials had hoped that the negotiations might mark a first step towards a deal to end the war. Nonetheless, Moscow had yet to call off the talks entirely and Kyiv had said that the summit would still go ahead on 22 August via video. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Housing targets, WH Smith, Thurrock council
(Sharecast News) - Angela Rayner has been warned that the government could risk missing its housing targets by placing too much emphasis on creating new towns across England. The deputy prime minister announced plans last month for the "largest housebuilding programme since the postwar period", kickstarted by the construction of a generation of new towns. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Wiz, Port Talbot, John Lewis
(Sharecast News) - Cybersecurity firm Wiz, which last month rejected a $23bn (£18bn) takeover bid from Google's parent company, Alphabet, is to open a European headquarters in London - a move that is a major shot in the arm for the UK's aspiration to be a global tech hub. The new office, the company's first in Europe, will be run by co-founder and research and development head, Roy Reznik, who is relocating from Israel to the UK capital to underscore the company's business ambitions in the region. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Avon, AstraZeneca, Google
(Sharecast News) - Anti-sewage campaigners have warned of "extreme anger" if the Labour government does not radically reform the water regulator. Sources at the Environment Agency (EA) and in the Labour party have told the Guardian that while Labour had spent time considering reforms of the EA and Ofwat in order to fix the sewage crisis, some stricter options that had been proposed were now off the table. -Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Telegraph, UK offices, China
(Sharecast News) - The Treasury has sought to defuse a bitter row with the North Sea oil and gas industry by promising to keep investment reliefs on low-carbon projects, aiming to protect jobs and soften the expansion of the energy windfall tax. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said last month that she would expand the levy on energy industry profits as part of her plan to plug a £22bn "hole" in the public finances that Labour said had been left by the previous Conservative government. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Inflation, water compensation, FTSE 100 bosses pay
(Sharecast News) - The Bank of England is poised for a setback in the battle against high inflation this week amid expectations for a first increase in the headline rate this year, highlighting the pressure from the cost of living crisis. In a week of key updates from the British economy, official figures on Wednesday are expected to show inflation returned above the Bank's 2% target in July, driven in part by fast-rising prices for air fares, package holidays and hotels. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Taxes, BT, Taylor Swift
(Sharecast News) - The Chancellor has ordered cabinet ministers to search for cost-cutting reforms and to gird themselves for difficult choices over government spending. It is understood that Rachel Reeves still requires £16bn to close an estimated £22bn financing gap. Taxes on capital gains, pension contributions relief and inheritances are all being considered as possible avenues to raise funds. The Chancellor however does not dismiss the possibility of tweaks to fiscal rules that would allow her to invest slightly more. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Drax, X, Lord Saatchi
(Sharecast News) - The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK's last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report. The North Yorkshire power plant, which burns wood pellets imported from North America to generate electricity, was revealed as Britain's single largest carbon emitter in 2023 by a report from the climate thinktank Ember. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Ocado, Boohoo, pensions
(Sharecast News) - The UK's largest employers have warned the jobs market is cooling amid a slowdown in wage growth in July and a fall in vacancies, extending an almost two-year downturn in hiring demand for permanent staff. Figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the accountancy firm KPMG showed a fall in permanent staff placements in July as large employers made more redundancies and hired fewer new starters. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Airbnb, Virgin Atlantic, Harland & Wolff
(Sharecast News) - The Royal Mint has unveiled a "pioneering" factory that will recover gold from electronic waste, creating a more sustainable source of the precious metal for the coin manufacturer's luxury jewellery line. The factory in south Wales, which has been under construction since March 2022, is designed to extract gold from up to 4,000 tonnes a year of circuit boards sourced in the UK from electronics including phones, laptops and TVs. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Retail sales, Google, Warren Buffett
(Sharecast News) - The late arrival of warm summer weather drove a recovery in retail sales last month, industry data shows, despite continuing signs of consumers holding back on big ticket purchases amid the cost of living crisis. Figures from the British Retail Consortium showed that UK total retail sales increased by 0.5% year on year in July, a recovery from the washout month of June when colder weather deterred shoppers from spending on the high street. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Manufacturing, defences, financial services jobs
(Sharecast News) - Imported food coming into the UK through Brexit border posts is being sent back to Europe to be tested due to a lack of laboratory capacity in Britain, food bodies have said. The SPS Certification Working Group, which represents 30 trade bodies covering £100bn worth of the UK's food supply, has written to the government warning that members are being advised that some samples of imported foods are being sent to countries such as Germany to be tested before they can be released at the border. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: TalkTalk, Apple, Andrew Bailey
(Sharecast News) - Contacts between TalkTalk and Macquarie aimed at a £450m investment by the latter in its wholesale unit, known as PlatformX, have run into a wall. The news comes as TalkTalk races to refinance its £1bn debt pile in August, which is comprised of a £330m revolving credit facility maturing in November and a £685m loan falling due in February. TalkTalk was set to be seeking a £1.5bn valuation and Sky News reported that Macquarie wanted a 40% stake in PlatformX. The Australian investment bank was still interested but talks had stalled. TalkTalk founder Sir Charles Dunstone was scheduled to meet with banks and bondholders on Monday. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Morrisons, JLR, Intel
(Sharecast News) - Morrisons is testing out raising the temperature of its freezers by 3C in the first move by a UK supermarket to depart from a long-held industry standard, in order to save energy and money. The Bradford-based chain said it would increase the temperature on appliances in 10 of its stores to -15C from -18C, the industry standard set almost 100 years ago and left unchanged. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Meta, Mohsin Issa, Arm Holdings
(Sharecast News) - Meta's shares rose in after-hours trading on Wednesday off the back of a strong earnings report that comes as the company is spending heavily on AI tools. The company's stock price grew around 5% following the report, which revealed the company outperformed analysts' expectations for its second quarter. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, reported $39.07bn in revenue and $5.16 earnings per share. Both results outpaced market predictions of around $38bn in revenue and $4.7 per share, while the company also reported $8.47bn in capital expenditures - lower than analysts expected. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Workplace sickness, Google-Anthropic, Carpetright
(Sharecast News) - The hidden cost of rising workplace sickness in the UK has increased to more than £100bn a year, largely caused by a loss of productivity amid "staggering" levels of presenteeism, a report warns. Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows the cost of staff sickness has grown by £30bn a year to £103bn in 2023. The annual bill was £73bn in 2018, its study found. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: House prices, Ofgem, NatWest
(Sharecast News) - House prices are expected to rise over the second half of the year across the UK, according to a forecast, with the market bolstered by more people selling their homes. Prices are likely to increase by 2% towards the end of 2024, Zoopla has predicted. The improved outlook for the housing market was the result of an increased number of homes for sale, the property portal said. The number of sales agreed in the four weeks to 21 July was 16% higher than the same period a year ago and the average estate agent had more homes for sale than at any point in the past six years. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Clean energy, Evri, UK manufacturing
(Sharecast News) - The chief executive of Vodafone has said Labour will fail to achieve its promise of nationwide access to 5G, which is essential for next-generation technology such as artificial intelligence, by 2030 if the telecom company's £15bn merger with the rival Three UK is blocked. In its election manifesto, the government said nationwide coverage was needed by the end of the decade because the UK was falling behind other countries in terms of the investment and rollout of advanced mobile networks. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Chancellor, Tempest, Revolut
(Sharecast News) - The Chancellor's first day at work saw staffers deliver a blunt summary of the realities facing her department. The biggest surprise was the rapidly growing £4bn annual bill for housing illegal immigrants. Reeves was also told of the inflation-busting public sector pay recommendations from pay review bodies for multiple key sectors, including teachers and NHS staff. The briefings left her infuriated at how the Tories had been playing with the theme of tax cuts despite the presence of a "gaping black hole" in the public finances, a senior government source said. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Stellantis, John Lewis, FRC
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves is expected to reveal a £20bn hole in government spending for essential public services on Monday, paving the way for potential tax rises in the autumn budget. Labour sources said the blame lay with the Tory government, describing it as a "shocking inheritance" and accusing the former chancellor of "presiding over a black hole and still campaigning for tax cuts". - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, mortgage costs, UK car production
(Sharecast News) - Thames Water has breached its licence to supply water to nearly 16 million people after some of its debt was downgraded to junk status. The regulator Ofwat could now fine Thames, the country's largest water monopoly, up to 10% of its annual turnover, equating to hundreds of millions of pounds. However, since the company is already teetering close to temporary renationalisation, Ofwat is likely to hold off on any immediate large fines. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Reckitt, Tesla, Virgin Atlantic...
(Sharecast News) - Reckitt is under pressure from top shareholders to revisit a sale of its nutrition business, following litigation and a series of other setbacks at the division that have sent the company's share price to decade lows. The FTSE 100 consumer giant acquired the Mead Johnson infant formula business in 2017 for $17bn - its largest-ever acquisition - and it has been plagued by mishaps ever since. Meanwhile, the wider group, which makes Lysol detergent and Durex condoms, has underwhelmed investors as it struggles to build back sales volumes following a period of high inflation and suppressed consumer demand. - Financial Times
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Kamala Harris, Crowdstrike, Vivendi...
(Sharecast News) - Kamala Harris has secured enough delegates from her party to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, as she pledged to offer Americans a "brighter future" compared to the "chaos, fear and hate" proposed by Donald Trump. The US vice-president was speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday, the first full day since President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid and endorsed her for the Democratic presidential nomination, shaking up the 2024 race for the White House. - Financial Times
Monday newspaper round-up: Biden, gambling levy, UK economy...
(Sharecast News) - Kamala Harris, the vice-president, has emerged as the frontrunner to replace President Biden as the Democratic nominee for the election against Donald Trump in November. Biden, 81, announced yesterday afternoon that he would drop out of the race. In the hours that followed, Harris, 59, was endorsed by leading Democrats, prospective rivals and the chairs of all 50 state parties. - The Times
Sunday newspaper round-up: Rentokil, Ukraine, Crowdstrike
(Sharecast News) - BT's former chief executive officer, Philip Jansen, is plotting to takeover Rentokil Initial with the help of private equity. As part of the acquisition, Jansen would take over as executive chairman. In particular, the corporate dealmaker and his financial supporters would focus on making Rentokil's 2022 purchase of US peer Terminix work. In a second phase, the company would move on to acquiring other US companies in the same sector. - Sunday Times
Thursday newspaper round-up: Aslef, unemployment, Microsoft
(Sharecast News) - The co-founders of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firm have announced their support for Donald Trump's bid for re-election, and plan to make substantial donations to back him further. Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, the heads of Andreessen Horowitz, commonly known as A16Z, revealed their plans in a sprawling 90-minute podcast, in which they argued that the future of "American innovation" required a Trump victory. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Harland & Wolff, Octopus Energy, Microsoft
(Sharecast News) - Local councils will have to adopt mandatory housing targets within months under planning reforms to be unveiled on Wednesday as part of Keir Starmer's first king's speech, which the prime minister says will be focused on economic growth. Starmer will introduce a package of more than 35 bills on Wednesday, the first Labour prime minister to do so in 15 years, as he looks to put the economy at the centre of his first year in office. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Elon Musk, Julian Dunkerton, SSE/TotalEnergies
(Sharecast News) - Elon Musk has said he plans to give $45m a month to a Super Pac focused on electing Donald Trump, starting in July, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The tech billionaire, who endorsed Trump two days ago, has already donated what was described as "a sizable amount" to the America Pac, though the actual amount of the donation will not be made public in election filings until 15 July, Bloomberg reported. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Lloyds Banking, Sky News, Hotel Chocolat
(Sharecast News) - A solar energy project developer linked to Thames Water is to be liquidated and its staff made redundant as the crisis engulfing the debt-laden water supplier puts strain on its complex corporate structure. Trinzic Operations Ltd, which is ultimately owned by Thames's parent company Kemble Water Holdings, is to be voluntarily shut down, the Guardian can reveal. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Lloyds Banking, Sky News, Hotel Chocolat
(Sharecast News) - A solar energy project developer linked to Thames Water is to be liquidated and its staff made redundant as the crisis engulfing the debt-laden water supplier puts strain on its complex corporate structure. Trinzic Operations Ltd, which is ultimately owned by Thames's parent company Kemble Water Holdings, is to be voluntarily shut down, the Guardian can reveal. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: British economy, Stamp duty, Euro 2024
(Sharecast News) - Football fans have delivered a £3.1bn boost to the British economy over the past four weeks with £405m expected to be spent at pubs and restaurants for Sunday night's final alone. Over 17m Britons are expected to tune in from their local pub, bar or restaurant and splash out a combined £70.5m and another £280.1m at retailers. Tesco, for one, was anticipating sales of more than 1.0m pizzas and 180,000 packs of burgers between Friday and Sunday. - Sunday Telegraph
Sunday share tips: Londonmetric
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped shares of LondonMetric to its readers, highlighting its long record of dividend payouts, focus on the fast-growing bits of the economy and "rude" financial health.
Friday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Rosebank, Carpetright
(Sharecast News) - Labour will miss its target of delivering 1.5m new homes this parliament without an emergency cash injection into the affordable housing sector, providers have warned. Housing associations and councils have written to deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, saying her promise to deliver "the biggest boost to affordable housing in a generation" will be impossible unless there are urgent interventions to fix the financial pressures providers face. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Elon Musk, The Body Shop, Telegraph
(Sharecast News) - Popular trader recommendation websites must vet the firms they advertise and tackle fake reviews under new rules designed to protect households from cowboy builders and tradespeople. Nationally, unscrupulous traders cost homeowners about £1.4bn a year, according to trading standards authorities, a problem that is escalating as demand for home improvements, loft conversions and extensions increases. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Four day working week, Post Office, Linklaters
(Sharecast News) - Campaigners for a four-day working week are preparing a new pilot project on flexible working in the hope that the Labour government will be more receptive to changes in how people work. The pilot project has opened to companies to sign up for a November start, with findings to be presented to the government in the summer of 2025. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Meta, EDF, Tesla
(Sharecast News) - Meta has claimed news is not the antidote to misinformation and disinformation spreading on Facebook and Instagram, as the company continues to push back against being forced to pay media companies for news in Australia. Meta announced in March it would not enter into new agreements with media companies to pay for news following the end of contracts signed in 2021 under the Morrison government's news media bargaining code. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Boeing, Tata Steel, Fortress Capital
(Sharecast News) - Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two deadly crashes of 737 Max jetliners, after the government determined the company violated an agreement that had protected it from prosecution for more than three years, the US the government said in court filing late on Sunday. Federal prosecutors gave Boeing the choice this week of entering a guilty plea and paying a fine as part of its sentence, or facing a trial on the felony criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the US. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Starmer, Burberry, Tesla
(Sharecast News) - Keir Starmer opted to recall senior ministers from the New Labour government to join his team. The experienced hands being installed as non-political ministers include Douglas Alexander, as trade minister, or Jacqui Smith as education minister. Starmer's approach was reminiscent of Gordon Brown's attempt to build a "government of all the talents". - Guardian
Sunday share tips: UK shares, Kitwave
(Sharecast News) - Investment specialists are positive on the outlook for shares in the UK in the wake of Labour's victory, the Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column said.
Friday newspaper round-up: Co-op ad, British Gas, Tata Steel
(Sharecast News) - Publicans have called on the Co-op to pull a "disgraceful" TV advert that urges the supermarket's customers to watch the Euro 2024 football tournament at home rather than going to the pub. The Co-op Food ad says it is hard to see the TV screen in the pub and suggests customers instead "stay in" and take advantage of a beer and pizza deal the supermarket is promoting. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Amazon, UK stocks
(Sharecast News) - The former chair of the Post Office has expressed "sincere regret" for the state-owned body's failings in the Horizon IT scandal and said it was a mistake not to show a key report on the problem to its board. Tim Parker, who was chair of the Post Office between 2015 and 2022, told a judge-led public inquiry that he felt "deep sympathy" for the Post Office operatives affected by what MPs have described as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in UK history. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Private rents, M&S, Hipgnosis
(Sharecast News) - Average private rents in Great Britain have climbed to record highs, prompting a call for the next government to prioritise measures to help create an extra 120,000 rental properties. Data shows that the typical advertised rent outside London reached a record £1,316 a calendar month in May, the property website Rightmove said. The figure for London was £2,652 a month - almost three times the £894 asked for in north-east England. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Inflation, Thames Water, Randox
(Sharecast News) - Britain's next government is poised to benefit from easing pressure on household finances after a slowdown in inflation in stores and a fall in fuel prices, but costs remain "too expensive" for many families. Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show that annual UK shop price inflation cooled last month to 0.2%, down from 0.6% in May - the slowest pace since October 2021 - as retailers cut the prices of many of their key products, including butter and coffee. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Investment bankers, energy price cap, Raspberry Pi
(Sharecast News) - London's investment bankers are expected to rake in bigger bonuses this financial year, as the City begins to recover from a two-year slump in deals caused by surging interest rates. Demand for investment banking services - such as facilitating mergers and acquisitions, advising companies and governments on fundraising, and underwriting new stock and bonds - was hit by a sharp increase in borrowing rates after the pandemic, as central banks acted to tame runaway inflation. Jobs and pay were cut as investment banks sought to reduce costs. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Eco Animal Health, Intertek
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped shares of Eco Animal Health to its readers, touting the company's animal drug pipeline.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Britvic, Prices of UK homes, BT Group
(Sharecast News) - Aviva, one of the ten largest shareholders in Britvic, thinks that Carlsberg needs to raise its takeover offer. During the preceding week, Britvic had let it be known that it had already rebuffed two acquisition offers from the Danish brewer, the highest of which had been for £3.1bn. In particular, Aviva said that Carlsberg was not taking sufficiently into account how Britvic's finances were expected to improve over the next few years. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Port Talbot, Elon Musk, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - Tata Steel has told workers it could to cease operations at its steel plant in Port Talbot months earlier than planned because of a strike. The company had been planning to shut down one of the blast furnaces by the end of June and the second one by September. But workers at the south Wales site have been told that Tata plans to cease operations at both furnaces no later than 7 July because of the strike by members of Unite, which starts the following day. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Betting advertising, Ferrari, Mike Ashley
(Sharecast News) - The UK's current trade deal with the EU is not working and the country must stop "walking on eggshells" around the issue of building closer ties with its biggest trading partner, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is expected to say. At the annual BCC global conference in London on Thursday, Shevaun Haviland will say that the UK must forge closer ties with the EU and the next government should focus on improving trading relations to grow the economy. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Aston Martin, Stellantis UK
(Sharecast News) - The UK needs a system for recording misuse and malfunctions in artificial intelligence or ministers risk being unaware of alarming incidents involving the technology, according to a report. The next government should create a system for logging incidents involving AI in public services and should consider building a central hub for collating AI-related episodes across the UK, said the Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR), a thinktank. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Energy suppliers, Boeing, Thames Water
(Sharecast News) - EDF, Utilita and British Gas have been named as the worst energy suppliers for customer service, as research shows industry standards have slipped sharply. Citizens Advice said customer service ratings across the industry were among the lowest ever between January and March and average ratings had fallen by 10.5% compared with the same period in 2021. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: John Lewis, heat pumps, THG
(Sharecast News) - The outgoing chair of John Lewis has insisted that the retail group is "back on track" and "more fit for the future" with an improving financial position enabling it to spend money refurbishing Waitrose supermarkets and opening convenience stores. Sharon White, who will retire as chair of the John Lewis Partnership in September, said the upmarket Waitrose brand was "underrepresented in convenience" as it sought new avenues of growth. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Revolut, Brexit, Chinese subsidies
(Sharecast News) - Revolut is aiming for a £32bn at an upcoming share sale. If it succeeds the fintech start-up's valuation would surpass that of NatWest. According to the Financial Times, the firm is looking to sell approximately £395m in order to finance its expansion. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Sunday share tips: Tesco
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column told readers who'd invested in Tesco to "hold tight", pointing to the company's economies scale and all the benefits those generated for shareholders.
Friday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, council tax, GSK
(Sharecast News) - The owner of Royal Mail is facing a near £900m class action claim over accusations it abused its "dominant position" in the market for sending out bulk mail, including bank statements and weekly magazines. International Distribution Services (IDS) has been served with an £878m action by a newly formed company that said it represents an estimated 290,000 customers who claim they were overcharged as a result of Royal Mail's behaviour. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Amazon, Chinese carmakers, Asos
(Sharecast News) - Labour's plans for ending Britain's long-term economic stagnation have been backed by a group of leading economists, including three Nobel prize winners and a former Bank of England deputy governor. In a boost to the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the 16 UK and internationally based economists said change was "desperately needed" after the policy mistakes and failures of the past 14 years since the Conservatives took power. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Unsecured household debts, Space Forge, Nvidia
(Sharecast News) - UK households are expected to rack up extra unsecured debts of more than £1,600 this year, including on loans and credit cards, as the cost of living crisis continues to bite, according to a TUC analysis. The TUC said its analysis showed that unsecured household debt - including loans and credit cards but excluding mortgages and, for this exercise, student loans - was on course to increase by 9.4%, or £1,660, in real terms on average per household this year. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Investment in the UK, London productivity, EPC
(Sharecast News) - Investment in the UK has trailed other G7 countries including the US and Germany since the mid-1990s, according to a report that urges Labour and the Conservatives to reverse planned cuts to investment or risk long-term damage to economic growth. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank found the UK was bottom of the G7 league for investment in 24 out of the last 30 years, using figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Manufacturers, landlords, Blackstone
(Sharecast News) - The UK's tax authority has not fined a single "enabler" of offshore tax evasion or noncompliance in five years, despite landmark powers to impose huge fines. Tory ministers claimed new laws introduced in 2017 allowed HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to pursue accountants, lawyers and bankers who facilitate offshore tax evasion would "create a level playing field", with potential fines of several millions of pounds. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Hargreaves Lansdown, Crest Nicholson, Michael Kors
(Sharecast News) - Hargreaves Lansdown's three private equity suitors have until Wednesday to either table a formal bid for the investment platform or walk away. A £4.7bn offer presented in April was rejected. In particular, the bidders have been attracted by the firm's ability to deposit client cash at the Bank of England for a rate of 5.25%, whilst paying just 3% on a cash Isa of up to £10,000. That netted its £269m last year at no risk. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Sunday share tips: Oxford Instruments
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column labelled shares of Oxford Instruments a "long-term buy".
Friday newspaper round-up: Insecure work, Stellantis, Nationwide
(Sharecast News) - The UK has seen an "explosion" in insecure, low-paid work in the past 14 years, according to a new report. The TUC said its study had found that the number of people in insecure work had reached a record high of 4.1 million. The analysis of official statistics shows the number of people in "precarious" employment - such as zero-hours contracts, low-paid self-employment and casual or seasonal work - increased by nearly 1 million between 2011 and 2023. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Revolut, BT Group, housing market
(Sharecast News) - Pensioners and people on disability benefits are the winners from radical changes to the welfare system made by the Tories over the last decade, while working-age families are losing out by thousands of pounds every year, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation. The Conservatives' 14-year overhaul of social security has shifted spending away from children and housing to supporting elderly people, and broken the link between entitlement and need for some of the poorest households in the country, the report says. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Entain, Invesco, Deltic Energy
(Sharecast News) - The owner of South West Water has warned that global heating will increase the risk of outbreaks of the parasite that caused diarrhoea and vomiting in south Devon. Pennon Group said that "gradual and significant increasing average and high temperatures" could pose "risks to water quality and water treatment" - including the cryptosporidium parasite - in its annual report, published this week. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Asda, Apple, Elon Musk
(Sharecast News) - One in three Asda staff have been attacked at work, according to research that included reports of workers being stabbed, punched and threatened with syringes. The poll of almost 1,000 members of GMB, one of the UK's biggest unions, returned stories of delivery drivers being chased by people in cars, while store workers had food thrown at them. More than half (58%) of respondents said they had suffered injury or illness on the job. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Macron, THG, LSE Group
(Sharecast News) - France's president, Emmanuel Macron, has been accused of gambling with French democracy after announcing that he will dissolve parliament and call snap legislative elections in the wake of his allies' crushing defeat to Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) in Sunday's European parliament elections. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Tax increases, Ashtead, Stamp duty
(Sharecast News) - Tax increases worth £800 per year for the average household are on the way regardless of who comes out on top in the next general election, the Resolution Foundation says. Measures that have already been announced thus far will raise the tax haul by roughly £23bn by 2028-29. That is because freezing extant tax rates drives higher revenue for the Treasury. None of the two main parties has pledged to do away with a six-year freeze on income tax and national insurance thresholds or the coming spring's reversal of temporary reductions in business rates, fuel duty, stamp duty or land tax. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Adriatic Metals, Pets at Home
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column called attention to silver producer Adriatic Metals, arguing that its shares may "prove rewarding for the adventurous punter".
Friday newspaper round-up: Boohoo, Post Office, Mike Lynch
(Sharecast News) - A group of investors in Boohoo are seeking more than £100m in compensation from the online fashion specialist after reports in 2020 alleging its suppliers in Leicester were mistreating workers caused its share price to plummet. Shares in Boohoo dived more than 40% over several days, wiping more than £1.5bn off its valuation, after a 2020 Sunday Times report of labour rights violations at the group's suppliers' factories in Leicester suggested some workers were paid as little as £3.50 an hour, well below the legal minimum wage. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Nvidia, Rishi Sunak, M&S
(Sharecast News) - Shares of Nvidia rallied to record highs on Wednesday, with the artificial-intelligence chipmaker's stock market valuation hitting the $3tn mark and overtaking Apple to become the world's second most valuable company. The chipmaker's stock was up 5.16% at $1,224.40, giving Nvidia a market value of $3.01tn at market close. Apple's market capitalization was at $3.00tn at market close as its stock climbed 0.78%. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Airbus, Tesco, Royal Mail, Mike Lynch
(Sharecast News) - Britain's next government will need to fill a shortfall of up to £33bn in the public finances unless it is prepared to push through a fresh round of severe austerity measures, a thinktank has warned. The Resolution Foundation said the debate between Labour and the Conservatives over the funding of specific pledges was "detached from reality", with election promises based on cuts that would be hard to deliver. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Consumer spending, Nick Train, Sam Altman
(Sharecast News) - Consumer spending growth is at its weakest in more than three years as higher council tax bills and the rising cost of broadband and mobile phones eat into household budgets, a report has said. The monthly snapshot of credit and debit card activity from Barclays found an improvement in consumer confidence as a result of falling inflation was not leading to a pickup in spending. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: HSBC, Shein, Nvidia
(Sharecast News) - Union leaders are preparing to ramp up industrial action at two south Wales steelworks, in a further escalation of a row over almost 3,000 job losses that threatens to become a big general election issue. Unite said such moves at the Port Talbot and Llanwern works are planned after the sites' Indian owner, Tata Steel, threatened to cut redundancy pay as a response to members voting for an overtime ban. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Copper, Boeing, OPEC+
(Sharecast News) - Analysts believe that copper prices might fall sharply if the US central bank starts lowering interest rates. According to analysts at Liberum that is because once prices are brought under control and the Fed starts cutting rates the metal will lose its attractiveness as an inflation hedge. An increasing number of analysts also believe that an increased need for copper on account of the green revolution has already been priced in. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Sunday share tips: Raspberry Pi, Sanderson Design Group
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column touted shares of Raspberry Pi ahead of its upcoming flotation.
Friday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, fossil fuels, Anglo American
(Sharecast News) - The union that represents workers at Royal Mail has called for a new business model for the company that would see workers given a stake in the company and pay tied to growing services and meeting certain social benefits. Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), said that the potential takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský should provide a moment to overhaul how the company is structured, which could mirror that of US-style public benefit corporations. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Sony Music, Royal Mail, house prices
(Sharecast News) - A leading City lobby group is calling on the next government to bring in scams legislation that forces big tech and social media companies to cough up to £40m a year to reimburse customers and fight fraud on their platforms. The demand came in a 'financial services manifesto' released by UK Finance, which represents banks, payments companies and other financial firms. UK Finance and its 300 membershave long complained about having to shoulder the costs of fraud against their customers, despite a surge in the number of scammers targeting consumers through platforms such as Facebook and Google. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Ryan Salame, Ocado, Shell
(Sharecast News) - The next government should force all tradespeople who install home heat pumps, solar panels and insulation to sign up to a mandatory accreditation scheme to counter mistrust in the industry, a leading consumer group is demanding. A report from Which? found that households face "significant anxiety" in choosing tradespeople to fit low-carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps, and insulation after "press stories about poor work and rogue traders". - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Ofwat, Facebook, Deutsche Bank
(Sharecast News) - Ofwat is poised to refuse most water companies' requests to ratchet up consumer bills, with some getting as little as half of what they have asked for, the Guardian has learned. The decision from the water watchdog for England and Wales, Ofwat, has been formally delayed until 11 July because of the general election. Its verdict, known as a draft determination, comes amid a growing crisis in the water sector. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Natwest, Shein, Nationwide
(Sharecast News) - NatWest may not be selling shares to the public any time soon following the prime minister's decision to call an election on 4 July. The Treasury has said that an offer will not occur during the election period and Labour has not confirmed whether it would revive plans for the sale should it win. The sale had been expected to take place in June. - The Sunday Times
Sunday share tips: Moneysupermarket, Impax
(Sharecast News) - Lucy Tobin at the Sunday Times tipped shares of Moneysupermarket, arguing that the energy sector would recover at some point.
Friday newspaper round-up: Energy price cap, Mike Lynch, News Corp
(Sharecast News) - The energy price cap in Great Britain will fall to the equivalent of £1,568,a year this summer after a drop in wholesale gas prices. Set by the energy regulator, Ofgem, the cap reflects the average annual dual-fuel bill for 29m households and takes effect from July until the end of September. The cap, which is set quarterly, will fall £122 in July from its current level of £1,690, easing the pressure on household finances. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Mike Lynch, smart meters, Very Group
(Sharecast News) - San Francisco federal courthouse on Thursday as a key witness in his own criminal fraud trial, which began in March. US authorities have charged the former software tycoon with 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy relating to his company's acquisition deal with Hewlett-Packard in 2011. If convicted, Lynch faces up to 25 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Anglesey power station, electric cars, Eurostar passengers
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have earmarked north Wales as the site of a large-scale nuclear power plant, which is part of plans to resuscitate Britain's nuclear power ambitions. Wylfa on Anglesey (Ynys Môn) has been named as the preferred site for the UK's third major nuclear power plant in a generation, coming after EDF's Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, which is under construction in Somerset, and its Sizewell C nuclear project planned for Suffolk. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: New homes, AI, Mike Ashley
(Sharecast News) - A Labour government would aim to announce the sites for a series of new towns within a year of taking office, with the promise that homes would be built in them by the end of a first term, Angela Rayner is to say in a speech. Giving more detail to a plan first outlined in Keir Starmer's party conference speech in October, Rayner will tell a housing conference that Labour will strongly support private developers who create high-quality and affordable housing. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Border checks, house prices, apprenticeships
(Sharecast News) - Post-Brexit border checks will cost UK businesses £470m a year, the government's public spending watchdog has said. Plans to bring in border checks on goods coming from the EU faced "significant issues" including critical shortages of inspectors before their introduction last month, the National Audit Office said in a report. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Bank branches, mortgages, Northern Rock
(Sharecast News) - The number of UK bank branches that have shut their doors for good over the last nine years will pass 6,000 on Friday, and by the end of the year the pace of closures may leave 33 parliamentary constituencies - including two in London - without a single branch. The tally is being published by the consumer group Which? as it seeks to make the "avalanche" of closures and the "disastrous" impact they can have on local communities an election battleground. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: JCB, M&S, smart meters
(Sharecast News) - The British digger maker JCB, owned by the billionaire Bamford family, continued to build and supply equipment for the Russian market months after saying it had stopped exports because of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian can reveal. Russian customs records show that JCB, whose owners are major donors to the Conservative party, continued to make new products available for Russian dealers well after 2 March 2022, when the company publicly stated that it had "voluntarily paused exports" to Russia. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit border outages, Boeing, Stellantis
(Sharecast News) - Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK's busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government's IT systems delay imports entering Britain. Businesses have described the government's new border control checks as a "disaster" after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tesco, OpenAI, housebuilding
(Sharecast News) - Tesco is facing criticism from "shocked" charities who say they are struggling to distribute unwanted food to homeless and hungry people after they claim the retailer brought in rules that mean unwanted food can only be collected in the evening. The supermarket group has switched to a new system which asks charities to pick up unwanted food, such as items reaching their best before date, only in the evening when a store is closing rather than the following morning, the charities have claimed. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: BT, ultra-long mortgages, Fever-Tree
(Sharecast News) - BT has said it is increasingly using artificial intelligence to help it detect and neutralise threats from hackers targeting business customers amid repeated attacks on companies. The £10.5bn group is aiming to build up its business protecting customers from online criminals and has patented technology that uses AI to analyse attack data to allow companies to protect their tech infrastructure. British businesses are routinely facing hacking attempts, and some recent high-profile victims have included including the outsourcer Capita, Royal Mail and British Airways. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Tata, Post Office, John Lewis, KPMG
(Sharecast News) - Members of a steelworkers' union have voted to take industrial action in protest at planned job losses at Tata. The company last month rejected a plan by unions to keep open a blast furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks, ending hopes of avoiding as many as 2,800 job losses. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Tax rises, smart meters, Selfridges
(Sharecast News) - The next government will be forced to hit voters with post-election tax rises and delay net zero investment unless it is prepared to rip up Treasury rules for managing the state finances, a leading thinktank has said. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) called for a radical overhaul of the self-imposed constraints imposed on government borrowing and debt as it warned that persistently weak growth and lower inflation would make hitting the rules more difficult. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: E-gates, Mike Ashley, Brexit
(Sharecast News) - More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China. An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK's Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: House prices, employers, Wayve
(Sharecast News) - Universal Music Group could become the latest company to face an embarrassing shareholder revolt this AGM season, after an influential advisory firm urged investors to reject an "excessive" €139m (£119m) payout for its chief executive, Lucian Grainge. Glass Lewis said it had "severe reservations" about supporting the Dutch-American music company's pay decisions, which included a €92m share-based bonus for its British-born CEO that easily made up for a 51% cut in his salary, to €7.5m. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Spectra Systems, Domino's Pizza
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin spied an opportunity in shares of Domino's Pizza.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Darktrace, National Insurance, Royal Mail
(Sharecast News) - An aura of mystery continues to linger over whether the biggest of Darktrace's shareholders are prepared to support Thoma Bravo's £4.2bn takeover. Among those is Mike Lynch, who is currently facing trial in the US over fraud claims linked to executive search software outfit Autonomy. Also unclear is the position of the Darktrace Employee Benefit Trust, which owned just under 8% of the company's shares. The trust is managed by Equiniti, which has nothing to do with the decision. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Paramount Global, Apple, Coutts
(Sharecast News) - Paramount Global's share price soared on Thursday following a report that Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management had made a $26bn offer for the troubled media giant. According to the Wall Street Journal, the offer was made on Wednesday by Sony's chief executive, Tony Vinciquerra, and Aaron Sobel, a partner at Apollo. Paramount's shares rose 12% on the news. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Online gamblers, PwC, London taxi drivers
(Sharecast News) - Online gamblers who lose £500 or more a month are to face extra checks from August, the regulator has confirmed, as part of a large package of measures aimed at protecting the most vulnerable customers. The extra checks come in from 30 August, and the threshold for qualifying will fall to £150 of online betting losses a month from 28 February next year, the Gambling Commission said. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Amazon, dividends, Weardale Lithium
(Sharecast News) - Amazon profits soared once again in the first quarter of 2024, the company announced on Tuesday - the latest in a series of robust earnings reports for the retail giant. The company attributed the boost to artificial intelligence and advertising sales. Amazon reported overall revenue of $143.3bn in the first three months of the year - up 13% from the same period in 2023 and surpassing Wall Street expectations of $142.65bn. The e-commerce giant reported an increase of more than 200% to $15bn, with net income more than tripling to $10.4bn from $3.17bn at the same time in 2023. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Meta, ExxonMobil, Very Group
(Sharecast News) - The Federal Communications Commission on Monday fined the largest US wireless carriers nearly $200m for illegally sharing access to customers' location information. The FCC is finalizing fines first proposed in February 2020, including $80m for T-Mobile; $12m for Sprint, which T-Mobile has since acquired; $57m for AT&T, and nearly $47m for Verizon. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Brexit, Babylon
(Sharecast News) - Senior Whitehall officials fear Thames Water's financial collapse could trigger a rise in government borrowing costs not seen since the chaos of the Liz Truss mini-budget, the Guardian can reveal. Such is their concern about the impact on wider borrowing costs for the UK, even beyond utilities and infrastructure, that they believe Thames should be renationalised before the general election. Officials in the Treasury and the UK's Debt Management Office fear that, unless the UK's biggest water company is renationalised as soon as possible, "prolonged uncertainty" about its fate could "damage confidence in UK plc at a sensitive time", with elections in the UK and the US later this year. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Centrica, Lancashire Holdings
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin told her readers to book their profits in Centrica and 'sell'.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, Shein, Canary Wharf
(Sharecast News) - The heads of the Communication Workers Union have acquiesced to Royal Mail's demand to end six-day-a-week letter deliveries, paving the way for historic cuts to postal services. Royal Mail wants to amend its universal service obligation so that it must only deliver second-class post every other day. Nonetheless, first-class mail would continue to be delivered on Saturday, union sources said. Ofcom has yet to respond to Royal Mail's proposals. - The Sunday Times
Thursday newspaper round-up: Matchesfashion, Burberry, Boeing
(Sharecast News) - The UK competition watchdog has stepped up its scrutiny of big tech involvement in artificial intelligence startups, asking for comment on three deals by Microsoft and Amazon. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it was examining Microsoft's investment in the French firm Mistral and the hiring of the DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman as head of the US company's new AI division. The watchdog is also scrutinising Amazon's $4bn (£3.2bn) investment in the US AI firm Anthropic. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: UK banks, Tesla, KPMG
(Sharecast News) - UK banks are leaving themselves open to "severe, unexpected losses", by failing to properly measure how exposed they are to the $8tn private equity industry, the Bank of England has warned. In a speech on Tuesday, Rebecca Jackson, a senior executive at the central bank, said there was a "creeping sense of complacency" among lenders, who - despite a boom in loans and financing to the sector - had almost no ability to put together data "or even appreciate its crucial importance". - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: P&O Ferries, TikTok, CVC
(Sharecast News) - P&O Ferries seafarers have been told they will benefit from new French legislation that could double their pay, in what appears to be a significant U-turn by the controversial ferry operator. The move comes more than two years after P&O enraged the UK and French governments by sacking 786 workers and then taking advantage of a legal loophole to hire replacements on pay rates of below the minimum wage. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Renewable energy, BlackRock, Frasers Group
(Sharecast News) - A development company that sells off land no longer needed by Thames Water has paid out a £14m dividend despite warnings that it could become engulfed by the water group's financial woes. Accounts filed at Companies House show Kennet Properties paid out a £14.5m dividend in the year to 31 March 2023 despite the difficulties faced by the wider group, which is facing going into administration. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Mitie, Costain
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped shares of Mitie to its readers, highlighting it shift from facilities management to facilities transformation.
Sunday newspaper round-up: IDS, Ocado, Foxtons
(Sharecast News) - Asset manager Redwheel told regulators they should reduce the UK postal service's legal obligations. The move followed a failed buyout attempt by Daniel Kretinsky for International Distributions Services, its parent company. The billionaire investor was said to be evaluating a possible improved bid. The company meanwhile has petitioned Ofcom to let it cut the number of days per week during which it must deliver second-class mail from six to two or three. That would save the company £300m and see it shrink its workforce by 1,000. According to Redwheel, as first reported by the Sunday Times, the enforced costs of its legal obligations left the company "vulnerable to corporate predators". - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Netflix, consumer confidence
(Sharecast News) - "Misleading" and "inconsistent" labels make it hard for shoppers to know where their food comes from, the consumer champion Which? has said, as it found supermarket chains were selling products with "meaningless" statements on their packaging. Retailers must supply the "country of origin" for specific foods including fresh fruit and vegetables, unprocessed meats, fish, wine and olive oil but the rules do not generally apply to processed meat or frozen or processed fruit and vegetables. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: PPHE, Keystone Law
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column labelled shares of PPHE an "attractive long-term buy" citing their valuation.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Middle East, Aston Martin, Defence
(Sharecast News) - Britons must accept that their country was now involved in the Middle East conflict, Tobias Ellwood said. The former defence minister warned that "nobody was in full control" of the growing conflict as more and more countries were sucked in. Ellwood also said that Tehran's strike had taken the conflict into a "new dangerous territory". - Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Everton, AstraZeneca, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - Everton has paid about £30m in interest charges to an opaque lender associated with a tax exile, corporate records suggest. The charges appear to have reached about £438,000 a week, according to the troubled Premier League club's most recent set of accounts, a figure more than three times the reported wages of the Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Border controls, McKinsey, KPMG
(Sharecast News) - New post-Brexit UK border controls coming into force later this month will cost British businesses £2bn and fuel higher inflation, according to a report warning that UK-EU trade will be damaged as a result. With less than a month before the introduction of new checks on animal and plant products from 30 April, the insurer Allianz Trade said the controls agreed under Boris Johnson's Brexit deal could add 10% to import costs over the first year. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Shoplifting, EnQuest, Klarna
(Sharecast News) - The government is investing more than £55m in expanding facial recognition systems - including vans that will scan crowded high streets - as part of a renewed crackdown on shoplifting. The scheme was announced alongside plans for tougher punishments for serial or abusive shoplifters in England and Wales, including being forced to wear a tag to ensure they do not revisit the scene of their crime, under a new standalone criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Pharma companies, Puig, Thames Water
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves has said an incoming Labour government would launch a £5bn crackdown on tax avoiders to close a gap in its spending plans exposed by Jeremy Hunt scrapping the non-dom regime to finance tax cuts. Warning households and businesses that Labour was prepared to adopt tough measures to tackle tax fraud and non-compliance, Reeves said the funding would be used to pay for free school breakfast clubs and additional NHS appointments. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Boeing, rent rises, e-scooters, Santander UK
(Sharecast News) - US airline regulators have launched an investigation after an engine cowling on a Boeing plane fell off during takeoff and struck the wing flap. The Southwest Airlines flight 3695 rose to about 10,300ft (3,140 metres) before returning safely 25 minutes after takeoff to Denver international airport at about 8.15am local time on Sunday. It was towed to the gate after landing. The Boeing aircraft with 135 passengers and six crew members aboard had been headed to Houston. No one was injured. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Investment trusts, LSE Group, Thames Water
(Sharecast News) - Some of London's biggest investment trusts are looking at the possibility of moving to Switzerland in order to dodge rules that make them overstate how much they charge clients. Under leftover EU rules, UK-listed investment trusts disclose charges that are far higher than what investors pay in reality. The news follows enormous drops in value since 2022, when the rules came into effect, according to data from AJ Bell. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Energy bills, working from home, music industry
(Sharecast News) - The number of households seeking help to deal with court action over their unpaid energy bills has doubled in the last year, according to Citizens Advice. The charity said suppliers were increasingly opting to take their customers to court to recover their energy debts, which could ruin household finances for years. It said the use of legal action to pursue unpaid bills appeared to have increased since the industry regulator, Ofgem, introduced strict restrictions on the forced installation of prepayment meters. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Elon Musk, Dr Martens, HSBC
(Sharecast News) - Delivery app riders pedalling through cities and tailbacks at drive-throughs were familiar signs of Britain's hunger for takeaway food at the peak of the Covid pandemic. Now a study suggests it became an enduring habit. After a boom in orders on Deliveroo, Just Eat and other platforms by locked-down consumers, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggests the popularity of takeaways, meal deliveries and food-on-the-go bought from retailer such as sandwiches and crisps has remained above pre-pandemic levels after the removal of Covid restrictions. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Shell, Nationwide
(Sharecast News) - A bond issued by Thames Water's parent company has fallen to record lows as the embattled company scrambles to secure its future, and the government signalled it is "ready to step in if necessary". The £400m bond, issued by the water supplier's parent company, Kemble, has slumped to only 14.4p after shareholders indicated that they were unwilling to inject further funds into the heavily indebted utility company. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Truth Social, Thames Water, Presidio
(Sharecast News) - The value of Donald Trump's stake in Truth Social fell by more than $1bn on Monday after the social media company revealed it lost $58.2m last year and an auditor disclosed "substantial doubt" over its ability to continue operating. Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, dropped 21.5% as investors scrutinized the fundamentals of its business. The former president's vast stake in the firm was worth about $4.88bn on paper after its extraordinary stock market debut last week . After Monday's sell-off, it was valued at about $3.83bn. - The Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Stamp duty, Wind energy, Metro Bank
(Sharecast News) - Investment companies are calling on government to bin the stamp duty on share trading in order to revive the London stock market and the country's economy. The bosses at Abrdn, AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor all told The Mail on Sunday that politicians must pledge to ditch the tax. According to Abrdn's Stephen Bird, the levy was unpatriotic and economically destructive. Removing it might be the single biggest boost to UK share ownership, he said. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Sunday share tips: Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust, SSP
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped shares of Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (SREIT) to its readers, predicting that they were set to rally.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Energy prices, national wage, Thames Water
(Sharecast News) - Millions of households are being urged to submit meter readings to their energy supplier this weekend to ensure they do not overpay when cheaper prices come in on Monday. The consumer champion Martin Lewis is among those urging people to get their phones, pens and notepads out so that they benefit fully from the 12.3% cut to the Ofgem energy price cap, which is altered quarterly. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: AI, CBI, US government debt
(Sharecast News) - Almost 8 million UK jobs could be lost to artificial intelligence in a "jobs apocalypse", according to a report warning that women, younger workers and those on lower wages are at most risk from automation. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that entry level, part-time and administrative jobs were most exposed to being replaced by AI under a "worst-case scenario" for the rollout of new technologies in the next three to five years. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Amanda Staveley, ITV, Bidstack
(Sharecast News) - Are 200,000 jobs really supported by the oil and gas industry in the North Sea? Campaigners and MPs are questioning the longstanding government claim. Ministers have repeatedly used the 200,000 jobs figure as justification for pushing ahead with more fossil fuel developments despite the escalating climate crisis and widespread opposition from scientists and energy experts. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Wind farms, interest rates, FCA
(Sharecast News) - More than 20 leading social scientists have warned the UK's biggest investment companies and pension funds that allowing US-style executive pay packages could "create a significant risk of higher inequality" and "much worse lower levels of happiness, health and wellbeing across society". The academics said they had decided to speak out as an increasing number of British business leaders and the London Stock Exchange have argued for much higher pay awards to improve the UK's competitiveness. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Mike Lynch, Three, Scottish Power
(Sharecast News) - Two major UK high street banks have been accused of continuing to finance fossil fuel expansion in the North Sea despite signing a pledge to align their activities with the net zero climate goal. HSBC and NatWest have provided tens of millions in finance to Ithaca Energy, a British oil and gas company that is playing a key role in plans to exploit the controversial Rosebank oilfield north-west of the Shetland Islands. Another high street bank, Lloyds, also provided finance but has since sold down the debt. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Reddit, Daily Mail, zero hour contracts
(Sharecast News) - The disgraced former owner of Norton Motorcycles should have served jail time for his role in the multi-million-pound pension fraud, the chair of the Pensions Ombudsman service has told a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal. The comments by Anthony Arter will be viewed by victims as a thinly veiled criticism of a prosecution run by the Pensions Regulator against former Norton boss, Stuart Garner, who was convicted of three pensions offences in 2022 but avoided prison because the regulator did not allege dishonesty. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Self-checkout, Indivior, Amanda Staveley
(Sharecast News) - Cross-Channel ferry operators will be required to pay their crew at least £9.95 an hour after France implemented a new minimum wage law aimed at preventing the exploitation of seafarers. The move comes two years after P&O Ferries caused outrage on both sides of the Channel by sacking almost 800 workers and replacing them with low-cost crew. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: P&O Ferries, National Grid, Heathrow, Mike Lynch
(Sharecast News) - P&O Ferries, which controversially sacked about 800 workers in 2022, has paid some crew members less than half the UK minimum wage thanks to an ongoing legal loophole the British government promised to close two years ago. Agency workers at the company, which is owned by the Dubai-based DP World, have in some cases been earning about £4.87 an hour - even lower than the £5.15 an hour the company suggested was its lowest pay rate - an analysis of recent payslips conducted by the Guardian and ITV News suggests. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Mike Lynch, London population, heat pumps
(Sharecast News) - A record 6.7 million people in Britain are in financial difficulty, a campaign group has claimed, as the cost of living crisis pushes more households into debt. A survey for Debt Justice found that 13% of adults had missed three or more credit or bill payments in the last six months, a figure that rose to 29% among 18- to 24-year-olds and a quarter of 25- to 34-year-olds. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Nationwide, Direct Line, Rolls-Royce
(Sharecast News) - Nationwide's bid to create the UK's second-largest savings and loans group by taking over Virgin Money may be derailed if its members get a say on whether the deal goes through or not. It would take just 500 Nationwide members depositing £50 each one to convene a special meeting and ask for a vote on the deal. Furthermore, preparations for a vote would keep Nationwide from meeting the 4 April deadline for making a binding offer under Takeover Panel rules. However, the society says that its existing legal advice is that no vote is required. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Unilever, civil servants, Wegovy
(Sharecast News) - Unilever could face a potential row with shareholders after it emerged that the new boss of the consumer goods company can earn up to €17.4m (£14.9m) this year if he hits maximum targets. Hein Schumacher, who joined the owner of Marmite, Domestos and Dove in June last year, took home €3.9m for his first six months as chief executive. He earned a €1.86m annual bonus on top of his €1.4m in basic pay and benefits, which included €292,492 to help cover his relocation to the UK, according to Unilever's annual report published on Thursday. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Nestle, Halifax, Glencore
(Sharecast News) - Direct trains could next year connect Wrexham to London, with a new service capitalising on the town's Hollywood-meets-football mini-boom. The train manufacturer Alstom is bidding to set up the Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway with a promise of cheaper, more comfortable trains straight to London. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Workplace AI, Barclays
(Sharecast News) - Ministers will publish legislation to quash the convictions of hundreds of post office operators who were prosecuted during the Horizon scandal, marking a significant victory for victims after decades of campaigning. The legislation on Wednesday will automatically overturn convictions of theft, fraud and false accounting that were handed down in connection with Post Office business during that period. It will cover prosecutions brought by the Post Office and the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales between 1996 and 2018. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Telegraph, Xlinks
(Sharecast News) - Thames Water has been accused of "misleading" customers after telling them that just a few pennies in every pound spent on their bills is paid to its lenders. The debt-laded firm is Britain's biggest water company, serving 16 million customers in London and the south-east of England. It has sent a breakdown of its costs in bills to customers, including spending 48p of every pound on infrastructure, 20p on the supply and treatment of water, and 3p to its lenders. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, McLaren, gigafactories
(Sharecast News) - Thames Water has risked a fresh backlash over its commitment to tackling sewage dumping after it declined to commit funds to a £180m industry-wide initiative to fast-track efforts to reduce pollution in England's waterways. The government said on Monday that the sum would be spent by six companies over the next 12 months to prevent more than 8,000 sewage spills, as water companies attempt to address their woeful record on tackling spills. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Big banks, British savers, Bet365
(Sharecast News) - Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves are joined in a "conspiracy of silence" over tens of billions of pounds in tough tax and spending choices, with the next government likely to inherit the toughest outlook for the public finances in 80 years, Britain's leading economics thinktank has warned. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the chancellor's budget on Wednesday had laid the ground for "staggeringly hard choices" due after the general election for whichever party forms the next government. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Green power industry, Boots, M&S
(Sharecast News) - Britain's under-pressure green power industry has received a surprise fillip after a renewables developer pledged to plough £10bn into what would become the largest portfolio of battery storage projects in the country. NatPower, a UK startup that is part of a larger European energy group, is poised to submit planning applications for three "gigaparks", with a further 10 to follow next year. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Fuel duty, Post Office, ECB
(Sharecast News) - Retaining the fuel duty cut in the budget is a regressive policy that benefits the wealthiest in society, who will save £60 a year, while those who earn the least will save just £22, according to analysis. Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce an extension of the 5p cut in fuel duty brought in during 2022, a proposal that has won him plaudits across the rightwing press. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Mortgage reforms, JLR, Crispin Odey
(Sharecast News) - The UK spends less on low-carbon energy policy than any other major European economy, analysis has shown, despite evidence that such spending could lower household bills and increase economic growth more than the tax cuts the government has planned. Spending on low-carbon measures for the three years from April 2020 to the end of April 2023 was about $33.3bn (£26.2bn) in total for the UK, the lowest out of the top five European economies, according to an analysis by Greenpeace of data from the International Energy Agency. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Regional divide, retailers, NatWest, Pfizer
(Sharecast News) - Britain's sharp regional divide is on track to deepen with London's economy pulling further ahead despite the government's levelling up promises, according to a report. Ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's budget on Wednesday, the accountancy firm EY said it was forecasting stronger economic growth in London and the wider south-east of England than for the rest of the country. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Elixirr, Shoe Zone
(Sharecast News) - Management consultants can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk?
Sunday newspaper round-up: EasyJet, Direct Line, Cairo
(Sharecast News) - EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji.Ioannou has called time on his long-running feud with the "scoundrels" running the carrier. Haji-Ioannou has admitted that his war with easyJet boss Johan Lundgren was motivated by his fear that it would not get through Covid-19. His latest remarks come as the company is preparing to re-enter the ranks of the FTSE 100. They also come after attempts by easyJet to fill the gap in the market left by the collapse of Monarch and Thomas Cook, with Lundgren and chairman Stephen Hester having tried to shift focus towards selling holidays instead of just flights. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Boeing, mortgages, ISAs
(Sharecast News) - Boeing said on Thursday it had reached a $51m settlement with the US state department for numerous export violations including Chinese employees in China improperly downloading documents related to US Pentagon programs. The state department said from 2013 through 2017 three Chinese employees at Boeing facilities in China downloaded technical data involving programs including the F-18, F-15 and F-22 fighter jets, the E-3 airborne warning and control system, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the AGM84E cruise missile. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Non-dom rules, Dyson, Skipton
(Sharecast News) - Jeremy Hunt is considering scrapping Britain's non-domiciled tax rules in next week's budget, it has been reported, in a move that would see him poach one of Labour's key fiscal policies. The decision is understood to be on a list of revenue-generating options drawn up for the chancellor and Rishi Sunak after economic estimates left them with less money than expected for tax cuts or spending pledges. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: HMRC, Chinese EVs, Klarna
(Sharecast News) - Customer service levels at HM Revenue and Customs have sunk to an "all-time low", parliament's spending watchdog has said. Users regularly encounter long call-waiting times as the tax department apparently struggles to cope with demand, a report by the cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) has found. As demands on HMRC grow, the authority has not been given the resources needed to staff its phone lines, the report said. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, The Telegraph, Homebase
(Sharecast News) - A top US antitrust watchdog sued to block the country's largest-ever supermarket merger on Monday, alleging the deal would raise prices for millions of shoppers. The Federal Trade Commission argued that Kroger's $24.6bn takeover of rival grocer Albertsons would narrow consumer choice and weaken the quality of products on shelves. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Ryanair, retailers, solar farms
(Sharecast News) - Peak summer air fares in Europe are likely to rise again this year by up to 10%, according to Ryanair, as problems with aircraft at Boeing and Airbus leave customers scrambling for seats. The increase would come on top of the sharp post-pandemic rise in holiday flight prices last year when pent-up demand met limited capacity in European airlines.- Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Rolls-Royce, Royal Mail, Discount grocers
(Sharecast News) - Rolls-Royce boss Tufan Erginbilgic has set his eyes on the market for the engines that power narrow-body jets. Up until now, the engineer had focused on engines for wide-body jets, like those that keep the Airbus 350 or Boeing 777 in the air. But increased fuel efficiency means that the former are now increasing their range, turning them into a major and growing market that Erginbilgic wants a slice of. In remarks to the Sunday Times, he said that he is now on the look out for a partner to develop narrow-body jet engines. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Reddit, water suppliers, Britishvolt
(Sharecast News) - The billionaire businessman Mike Ashley has claimed he was the victim of "abuse" by Morgan Stanley amid a high court dispute over the investment bank's decision to impose a near $1bn (£790m) cash demand. Ashley's Frasers Group is taking legal action against the US investment bank Morgan Stanley and Denmark's Saxo Bank over the May 2021 move linked to bets placed on shares in the German retailer Hugo Boss. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Online slot machines, Vauxhall, Body Shop
(Sharecast News) - The government is set to impose new limits of as little as £2 a spin for online slot machines, the Guardian understands, in a move that could cost casino companies hundreds of millions of pounds. Ministers have been consulting on imposing a maximum stake for the digital casino-style games since publishing a white paper on gambling reform last year. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Fuel prices, electric vehicles, Klarna
(Sharecast News) - Food businesses sending products to the EU have had to fork out an extra £170m in export costs because of Brexit red tape, with the changes described as being "catastrophic" for some exporters. Data shared with the Guardian shows that in the three years since leaving the single market, exporters of foods of animal origin have had to pay the sums to secure sign-offs by vets before they can send their shipments. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Workers' rights, Severn Trent, Superdry
(Sharecast News) - Union leaders have warned business groups against pushing Keir Starmer to water down Labour's plans to introduce sweeping reforms of workers' rights and a ban on zero-hours contracts. As the Labour leader comes under pressure from industry to scale back its shake-up of employment laws, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said the plans were "extremely popular" with voters and good for the economy. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Train-leasing firms, oil companies, EDF
(Sharecast News) - Private firms that lease out trains for Britain's railway have seen their profits treble in a year, with more than £400m paid in dividends, official figures show. The rolling stock companies paid out a total of £409.7m to shareholders and profit margins rose to 41.6% in 2022-23, according to the Office of Rail and Road, as the rest of the railway was told to make swingeing cuts and salaries were frozen. Taxpayer subsidies are still running at twice pre-pandemic levels. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Currys, Barclays, Homebuilders
(Sharecast News) - China's JD.com has been looking at a possible acquisition offer for Currys. Just the day before the electricals retailer had rebuffed an approach by private equity. Exploratory talks between Currys and JD had been held over the preceding weeks. Additional bidders may appear. It was understood that Currys had been contacted by multiple private equity firms on an informal basis over recent months after it was forced to cut its dividend payout. It was but the latest example of a British business being taken out and for some showed that British businesses were being chronically undervalued. - Sunday Telegraph
Sunday share tips: AB Dynamics, Victorian Plumbing
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin tipped shares of Victorian Plumbing to her readers, arguing that major investments should begin to pay off in coming months.
Friday newspaper round-up: Housebuilding, BT, Deutsche Bank
(Sharecast News) - Housebuilding in London is "grinding to a halt", housing associations have warned the government, with the number of affordable homes being built plummeting by three-quarters in the last 12 months. In a letter to the housing secretary, Michael Gove, the G15, which represents the capital's 11 largest housing associations, said his policies did not go far enough to increase supply and called for an injection of billions of pounds into an affordable homes building programme. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Rate cuts, Virgin Money, NatWest, Lyft
(Sharecast News) - The Bank of England governor has doused hopes that better-than-expected inflation news last month will accelerate cuts in interest rates, stressing the need for further evidence of wage moderation before Threadneedle Street moves. Appearing before the House of Lords economics committee on Wednesday, Andrew Bailey said it was "encouraging" that inflation had remained unchanged at 4% in January but the previous month's figure for the cost of living had been higher than predicted. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Lyft, Hinkley, Waitrose, BAT
(Sharecast News) - UK shop workers are facing 1,300 incidents of violence and abuse a day and a battle to control "brazen" acts of shoplifting, as pressure mounts on ministers to intervene to protect retail employees. Retailers saw the number of incidents of racial abuse, sexual harassment, physical assaults and threats with weapons rise 50% last year, while thefts more than doubled to 16.7m incidents, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body which represents most major retailers. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Nuclear reactors, ITV, Metro Bank
(Sharecast News) - MPs have warned that a planned fleet of small nuclear reactors are unlikely to contribute to hitting a key target in decarbonising Britain's electricity generation, as the government opened talks to buy a site in Wales for a new power station. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) said that ministers' approach to developing factory-built nuclear power plants "lacks clarity" and their role in hitting a goal of moving the grid to clean energy by 2035 was unclear. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Fujitsu, Vodafone, Shawbrook
(Sharecast News) - Bosses at Fujitsu have collected about £37m in pay, bonuses and compensation for loss of office since the technology company won the contract to supply the software at the heart of the Post Office Horizon scandal, it has emerged. Accounts going back 25 years reveal the seven-figure sums paid out to executives of the UK division of the Japanese-owned technology company, even as more than 900 people were prosecuted as a result of flaws in the system their company supplied. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Cobham, Recession, Raspberry Pi
(Sharecast News) - Advent International's Shonnel Malani, who has overseen the dismemberment of Cobham since its purchase in 2019 for £4bn, is preparing the sale of the last bits of the company over the next year or two. Any sale would come amid heightened geopolitical tensions, resulting in a premium for defence assets. Malani also told the Mail on Sunday that Advent may soon have more targets in the UK. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Sunday share tips: React, DiscoverIE
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column sounded an upbeat note on shares of React, the cleaning specialist.
Friday newspaper round-up: Jes Staley, offshore wind farm, Mexico
(Sharecast News) - The former chief executive of Barclays Jes Staley allegedly stayed in contact with Jeffrey Epstein long after joining the UK bank, according to legal documents that reportedly contradict claims he cut ties with the convicted child sex offender and disgraced financier in 2015. Documents from a now-settled lawsuit, seen by Bloomberg News, allegedly suggest that the two men used an unnamed third person, who "acted as an intermediary for messages between Staley and Epstein", to stay in contact after Staley took over as chief executive of Barclays in December 2015. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, HS2, Yodel
(Sharecast News) - Thames Water has been ordered to update its service commitment plan by the regulator Ofwat after a minister said the company's performance in regards to sewage dumping and serving customers was "completely unacceptable". Robbie Moore, the floods minister, said Britain's biggest water supplier was "under no illusions over the scale of the challenge" as MPs heard that Thames had allowed waterways to become polluted and homes to be flooded with sewage. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: HS2, CBI, mortgages
(Sharecast News) - The cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 has raised "urgent unanswered questions" and the government does not yet understand how the £67bn high-speed railway will now function, according to a scathing report from parliament's spending watchdog. The remaining London-Birmingham line will be "very poor value for money", the public accounts committee of MPs said, with costs now forecast to significantly outweigh the benefits. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: EVs, Arrival, Lloyds Banking Group
(Sharecast News) - Ministers need to intervene to boost the secondhand electric vehicle market and allay "uncertainty and concerns" over the health of their batteries, a House of Lords committee has said. Peers on the environment and climate change committee urged the government to step up efforts to encourage electric vehicle adoption amid consumer jitters over the cost of vehicles, the longevity of their batteries and the availability of charging points. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Tax-free shopping, Asda, Morrisons
(Sharecast News) - The Treasury's independent forecaster is to review the axeing of tax-free shopping for tourists, raising the possibility that a decision that leisure companies and retailers have blasted for deterring visitors and losing the UK billions in sales could be reversed. With a change of heart likely to be seen as a shot in the arm for struggling businesses, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is to examine the costs and benefits associated with Rishi Sunak's 2020 decision to end the retail scheme when he was chancellor of the exchequer. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Concurrent Technologies, Mpac
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column touted shares of Concurrent Technologies to readers, arguing that the company was in the right spot and at the right time.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Asda, Barclays, McLaren
(Sharecast News) - Zuber Issa, one of the two billionaire brothers at the helm of Asda, has been sounding out potential buyers for his 22.5% stake in the grocer. Instead, Zuber wishes to focus on EG Group, their petrol station empire. Meanwhile, Asda's next phase may include a bid for Boots. According to City sources, it was also possible that Zuber might use the funds raised through a sale to fund the purchase of his brother's stake in EG Group. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Water companies, Ferrari, Superdry
(Sharecast News) - An oil and gas company owned by a major Tory donor, which has been fined for illegal flaring, has been awarded a licence to drill for fossil fuels by the government. This week, the government granted the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea. One of the licences was given to EnQuest Heather, a subsidiary of EnQuest. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: National Lottery, Mike Lynch, Morrisons
(Sharecast News) - The Czech billionaire whose company takes over running the UK national lottery from Thursday is still in business with the Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom, nearly two years after promising regulators he would sever ties with Russia. The Gambling Commission awarded Allwyn the lucrative 10-year licence to run the lottery, estimated to be worth up to £100bn in sales, in March 2022. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Sky, Tesla, Starbucks
(Sharecast News) - Thousands of delicatessens and other specialist food shops have said new border rules that come in from Wednesday are likely to mean reduced choice of products for consumers. The Guild of Fine Food (GFF), which represents 12,000 businesses, has raised fears that European suppliers of specialist foods such as cheeses and meats will stop supplying the UK as a result of the additional red tape for imported goods. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Neuralink, BP, EY, VAT-free shopping
(Sharecast News) - The UK has fallen to its lowest-ever position in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index, which ranks countries by experts' views of possible corruption in public services. The UK fell from 18th (out of 181 countries) in 2022 to 20th in 2023, its lowest position since the research was revamped in 2012. It means that, according to the research, Britain is seen as more corrupt than Uruguay and Hong Kong. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Train strikes, fuel poverty, Evergrande
(Sharecast News) - Train drivers will keep striking to "raise the profile" of their dispute after half a decade without a pay rise, the Aslef union has warned, before another week of rolling strikes across England. Aslef's general secretary, Mick Whelan, has said he believes that the government will make renewed efforts to see train companies use controversial new anti-strike laws, despite the union forcing a climbdown this time round. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Unilever, Tertre Rouge
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin tipped shares of Unilever to her readers, arguing that the shares were cheap.
Sunday newspaper round-up: NatWest, China, Vodafone
(Sharecast News) - The Chancellor is laying the groundwork for the sale of billons of pounds worth of shares in NatWest as soon as June. A contract to a market research company has been awarded to study the public's views, alongside a tender to public relations firms and advertising companies who would work on the marketing campaign. Nevertheless, sources inside the Treasury have played down recent speculation in the City that Jeremy Hunt might announce the decision in his 6 March budget. The sale was expected to be priced at a discount. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Car insurance, Vodafone, The Telegraph
(Sharecast News) - Car owners who pay for their insurance monthly rather than with a one-off lump sum are being charged interest of more than 30%, research has found, in what has been described by campaigners as a "poverty premium". Insurers give customers the choice of paying one annual premium or breaking it up and paying over the course of the year. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Telegraph, AstraZeneca, Boeing
(Sharecast News) - The government has said it intends to launch a second investigation into the Barclay family's complex deal to transfer control of the Telegraph, after its Abu Dhabi-backed consortium partner revealed a last-minute corporate structure change that has raised public interest concerns. The culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, said she was "minded to" issue a new public interest intervention notice (PIIN) to call in the regulators Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to look at RedBird IMI's move to create a new UK holding company to house the Telegraph and its sister magazine, The Spectator, when it takes control of the titles. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Boeing, Hinkley Point C, IDS
(Sharecast News) - Fake reviews and unavoidable hidden online charges - which cost consumers £2.2bn a year - are to be banned under new laws to force businesses to be more clear with shoppers. Under the new rules, which will become law as part of the digital markets, competition and consumers bill currently progressing through parliament, mandatory fees must be included in the headline price or at the start of the shopping process, including booking fees for cinema and train tickets. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Prepayment meters, The Telegraph, Vertical Aerospace
(Sharecast News) - London is capturing an ever-bigger share of the UK's record service sector exports and government action is needed to ensure other big cities keep pace with the capital, a report says. The Resolution Foundation said London accounted for almost half of the UK's service sector exports, with its share of the total rising from 38% to 46% between 2016 and 2021. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Homeowners, UK stock market, Compass
(Sharecast News) - Homeowners in England and Wales who sold their property in 2023 netted an average profit of £102,000 despite house prices falling last year, according to new data. The data, issued by estate agent Hamptons, shows that while 2023 was challenging for the UK property market, years of strong price growth meant those who sold a home last year typically banked a sizeable profit or had a decent sum to put towards their next purchase. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Sainsbury's, British Steel, DeSantis
(Sharecast News) - Sainsbury's chief Simon Roberts gave his support to the Financial Mail on Sunday's campaign for police to crack down on shoplifters as an epidemic of retail crime sweeps across the country. Roberts also said he backed making abuse or violence against retail staff a specific offence. He also noted that the grocer had been the first to offer all of its 150,00 staff body-worn cameras that can aid support teams at its stores. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Tax cuts, Endeavour Mining, Google
(Sharecast News) - Jeremy Hunt has dangled the prospect of big tax cuts in his March budget, in what is seen as one of the last opportunities for the Conservatives to claw back Labour's huge opinion poll lead. In his first public comments on his budget strategy, the chancellor made clear that only unexpected bad news would prevent him from answering the call from Tory MPs for a substantial giveaway before an expected autumn general election. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Housing market, Tata Steel, electric cars
(Sharecast News) - The housing market has had some "respite" in recent weeks as activity picked up amid easing mortgage rates after a challenging 2023, according to surveyors. Inquiries from new buyers are approaching a flatter trend, after falling in recent months, according to the December report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Drax, BT, Royal Mail, Heathrow
(Sharecast News) - Drax has received permission from the government to fit carbon capture technology to its wood-burning power plant, in a project that could cost bill-payers more than £40bn. The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, on Tuesday approved the project to convert two of its biomass units to use the technology. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Shell, fuel retailers, Sizewell C
(Sharecast News) - Shell's board faces a shareholder rebellion as large investors including the UK's biggest pension scheme prepare to back a climate activist resolution. Twenty-seven investors have agreed to back a resolution filed by the Dutch shareholder activists at Follow This that calls for the oil company to align its medium-term emissions reduction targets with the 2015 Paris agreement. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: House prices, gas network, Scottish power
(Sharecast News) - UK house prices are on track to beat forecasts of a decline in 2024, a leading estate agent has said, as a mortgage pricing war and expectations of Bank of England interest rate cuts rekindle the property market. After a year of sustained price falls in 2023, the global property consultancy Knight Frank said it was updating its forecast for UK house prices to rise by 3% in 2024, up from an earlier estimate of a 4% drop. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Boeing, Tesla
(Sharecast News) - The former UK boss of Fujitsu, the technology firm whose flawed IT system is at the heart of the Post Office Horizon scandal, received a £2.6m payoff after standing down from the company in 2019, corporate filings suggest. Fujitsu has come under increasing scrutiny during the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal, which led to thousands of people who owned and ran smaller post offices being falsely accused or convicted of theft or fraud between 1999 and 2015. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Boeing, Darktrace
(Sharecast News) - Pressure is mounting on the government to review more than £2bn in new contracts awarded to Fujitsu since a court ruling in 2019 found its Horizon IT system caused accounting errors that were blamed on more than 900 post office operators who were then wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office. The Japanese company, which continues to hold the prestigious status of being a key "strategic supplier" making more than £100m annually from government work despite the scandal, has won 101 new contracts worth £2.04bn since the landmark legal ruling. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Danone, Ryanair
(Sharecast News) - MPs have called in bosses from Fujitsu to answer questions in parliament about the company's role in the Post Office scandal. The Commons business and trade select committee has asked the company to take part in an evidence session in a week's time after an ITV drama helped put the miscarriage of justice back in the spotlight. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Barclays, income tax revenues
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have drawn up urgent plans to clear the names of hundreds of post office operators who were wrongly convicted of theft and fraud in the Horizon IT scandal as the government scrambled to get on the front foot over the major miscarriage of justice. The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, will hold talks with the senior judiciary to confirm how the convictions can be overturned as soon as possible, so victims can have speedier access to millions of pounds of compensation. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Ashtead and Sigmaroc
(Sharecast News) - Ashtead is a "steady bet", according to The Sunday Times' Lucy Tobin, who recommends investors to buy shares in the UK-listed international equipment rental company.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Amazon, Boeing, McDonald's...
(Sharecast News) - Multifaceted tech giant Amazon is about to unveil a major investment in one of Britain's biggest wind farms. The company is aiming to power its entire UK operation - from sales warehouses to film studios to cloud computing - using renewable energy by next year. The Mail on Sunday understands that Amazon, which employs about 75,000 people in Britain, plans to later this month announce a deal to buy electricity from the Moray West offshore wind farm. - Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Electric vehicles, Telegraph, Endeavour Mining
(Sharecast News) - The number of new cars registered in the UK has jumped by nearly 18% but electric vehicle demand is flatlining, prompting the industry to call for a VAT cut to stimulate sales. Annual figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on Friday show 1.9m new cars were registered last year, well up on the previous year's figure of 1.6m and the highest level since the 2.3m registrations of 2019. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Electric cars, Vodafone/Three, Joules
(Sharecast News) - Several of the world's biggest carmakers lobbied the UK government to try to weaken or delay rules to accelerate electric car sales and cut Britain's carbon emissions. Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Nissan were among the companies to ask for delays in enforcement of the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate that obliges them to sell increasing proportions of electric cars or face heavy fines, according to documents seen by the Guardian. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Top picks to consider for 2024
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday have offered their top investment tips for 2024, which includes stocks from a variety of sectors such cruises and market research to metals and real estate.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Three, Royal Mail, Google...
(Sharecast News) - Telecoms giant Three has paid out a record £2 billion dividend to the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate of billionaire Li Ka-shing, as it cashes in on the sale of mobile phone masts across Europe. Hutchison 3G, which trades as Three and has ten million customers and more than 4,500 employees in the UK, paid out the money months before increasing some of its contract prices by 14 per cent. The British company is owned by 95-year-old Li's CK Hutchison Holdings, which has drawn scrutiny in the past for dividends taken from its other UK assets. The latest payout marks the first time that CK Hutchison has taken a dividend from Three, which it launched in the UK market 20 years ago. - The Sunday Times
Sunday share tips: hVivo and On the Beach
(Sharecast News) - Drug-testing specialist hVivo was one of the top tips for 2023 from The Daily Mail's Midas column, but the paper still reckons there's further to go despite the stock doubling in price over the year.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Israel tanker, John Lewis, OakNorth...
(Sharecast News) - An Israel-affiliated chemical tanker was hit by a drone allegedly launched from Iran in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, the US Department of Defence said. The Liberia-flagged Chem Pluto was struck at around 10am (local time) in the Indian Ocean, nearly 200 nautical miles from India's western coast of Veraval in Gujarat, the Pentagon claimed. It added that the one-way attack drone was launched from Iran. - The Independent
Friday newspaper round-up: Property sales, Royal Mail, Revolut
(Sharecast News) - Property sales and demand across the UK were almost a fifth higher in the final weeks of 2023 than a year earlier as sentiment improved, according to a survey. The property website Zoopla said new sales agreed were 17% higher in December than this time last year, when higher mortgage rates hit market activity. Demand is up 19%, measured by would-be buyers contacting agents to inquire about and arrange viewings for a specific property listed on Zoopla. An increase in the number of homes for sale is increasing choice and supporting sales, it said. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Greensill, BT, Dazn
(Sharecast News) - The Premier League's pledge to scrap betting adverts on football shirts will not protect children from a "bombardment" of gambling advertising, according to a report by MPs that also raises concerns about the pace of reform to the industry. MPs on the select committee for culture, media and sport criticised the government for failing to take a more "precautionary approach" to gambling promotion, setting out their concerns in a 76-page report published on Thursday. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Avanti West Coast, British exporters, SoftBank
(Sharecast News) - Northern political and transport leaders have called on the UK government to urgently review Avanti West Coast's operations amid a renewed surge in intercity rail cancellations and delays. The intervention came as it emerged that morale at the train operating company has plummeted to the point where only 3% of staff say they feel valued, according to an internal Avanti survey seen by the Guardian. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Retailers, John Lewis, Rolls-Royce
(Sharecast News) - Retailers are facing a tough new year as weak consumer demand is expected to combine with a barrage of increased costs, including the higher minimum wage. Shoppers are likely to keep their spending on pause during the first months of 2024, according to forecasts published today by the Retail Think Tank, a group of industry experts who analyse the health of the sector, as mounting mortgage and rental costs weigh on consumer confidence. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Rightmove and Chapel Down
(Sharecast News) - The Times' tipster Lucy Tobin recommends investors take a look at housing marketplace Rightmove, playing down fears of competition after US group CoStar took over rival OnTheMarket.com in October.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Gaza, Ryanair, Pearson...
(Sharecast News) - Lord Cameron has joined forces with his German counterpart to call for a "sustainable ceasefire" in the Middle East and warn that "too many civilians have been killed" in the Hamas-Israel conflict. In a marked change of tone by the government which piles pressure on the Israeli government to end the bloodshed, the foreign secretary has united with Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, to demand "a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a sustainable peace". - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Coal, Walt Disney, auditors
(Sharecast News) - Almost 200 homes in London have been sold for £10m in the past year as the super-rich's pandemic-inspired desire for a place in the country wanes compared to their wish for swish bolt-holes in the capital. A total of 175 homes were sold for £10m-plus in the 12 months to November 2023, the highest number for eight-years, according to research by the estate agent Knight Frank. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Etsy, gas boilers, BP, Axel Springer
(Sharecast News) - Tighter rules are needed to ensure that the imported "used" cooking oil that airlines hope will power cleaner flights is not in fact virgin palm oil, campaigners have warned. About 80% of waste oil is imported to create biofuels that are mostly still used in cars, vans and lorries despite growing demand from aviation. About 60% of those imports come from China. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Sainsbury's, Boots, IDS, Purplebricks
(Sharecast News) - Regulators should take action to curb a sharp rise in the price of infant formula, pregnancy campaigners have said, after a UK survey found more than half of women felt anxious about the cost of feeding their babies, with the number who expressed concerned rising by a quarter in two years. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) found 65% of mothers were worried about the price of feeding their babies, and the same number said it had a negative impact on their family's finances. A third of women felt it was "better" for babies to be fed the more expensive milk, despite there being no nutritional benefits. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Sainsbury's, Boots, IDS, Purplebricks
(Sharecast News) - Regulators should take action to curb a sharp rise in the price of infant formula, pregnancy campaigners have said, after a UK survey found more than half of women felt anxious about the cost of feeding their babies, with the number who expressed concerned rising by a quarter in two years. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) found 65% of mothers were worried about the price of feeding their babies, and the same number said it had a negative impact on their family's finances. A third of women felt it was "better" for babies to be fed the more expensive milk, despite there being no nutritional benefits. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Epic Games, Adobe, BAT
(Sharecast News) - Bank of England concerns over the high level of pay awards are likely to be eased in the coming months as wage settlements fall in response to a tumbling annual inflation rate, a thinktank has said. The Resolution Foundation said recent strong growth in earnings was primarily caused by a sharp increase in the cost of living, with workers trying to prevent their living standards being eroded. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: US multinationals, London listings, interest rates
(Sharecast News) - US multinationals underpaid £5.6bn in tax in the UK last year, HM Revenue & Customs believes, according to a national accountancy firm. The suspected deficit is 14% higher than the figure from the previous year, and would mean US companies now make up nearly half of underpaid tax into British coffers from foreign companies. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Nichols and Gattaca
(Sharecast News) - The Times' Lucy Tobin has said that investors should consider investing in AIM-listed soft drinks group Nichols, on the back of its emerging-markets potential.
Sunday share tips: Nichols and Gattaca
(Sharecast News) - The Times' Lucy Tobin has said that investors should consider investing in AIM-listed soft drinks group Nichols, on the back of its emerging-markets potential.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Indian stocks, Flutter Entertainment, Rishi Sunak
(Sharecast News) - India's stock market is poised to take Hong Kong's spot among the world's largest trading venues, in a rise analysts say attests to investors' optimism about the economic prospects of the world's most populous country. The total market capitalisation of companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India was $3.7tn as of the end of October, according to the World Federation of Exchanges, a trade association of publicly regulated stock markets, compared with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong's $3.9tn. - Financial Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Anti-strike laws, recruiters, crypto kiosks
(Sharecast News) - Rishi Sunak's "spiteful" new anti-strike laws have created a "galvanising moment" for the UK's trade union movement, the TUC general secretary has said. Speaking before a special congress of union leaders on Saturday about how to respond to the Strikes Act, Paul Nowak promised the TUC would throw its weight behind any worker hit by the new law. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Corporate profiteering, Nationwide, THG
(Sharecast News) - Profiteering has played a significant role in boosting inflation during 2022, according to a report that calls for a global corporation tax to curb excess profits. Analysis of the financial accounts of many of the UK's biggest businesses found that profits far outpaced increases in costs, helping to push up inflation last year to levels not seen since the early 1980s. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Local authorities, German car makers, Masdar
(Sharecast News) - FBI agents tasked with investigating sanctions-busting have been dispatched to Cyprus as the global crackdown against Russian oligarchs, and the web of enablers who have helped hide their wealth, intensifies. The 24-strong team was expected to start "assisting Cypriot police" with immediate effect after arriving on the eastern Mediterranean island late Sunday. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Sellafield, CBI, Barclays
(Sharecast News) - Ministers are under pressure to explain the actions of the government and regulators over cybersecurity at Europe's most hazardous nuclear site after a Guardian investigation revealed disturbing vulnerabilities in its networks. The shadow energy secretary, Ed Miliband, called on the government to urgently "provide assurances" about Sellafield, after the Guardian revealed it had been hacked by groups linked to Russia and China. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, British workers, petrol prices
(Sharecast News) - The parent company of Thames Water has been warned by its auditors that it could run out of money by April if shareholders do not inject more cash into the debt-laden firm. In accounts signed off in July and published on the Companies House website last week, PricewaterhouseCoopers said there was "material uncertainty" about whether the main company behind the water supplier can continue as a going concern. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Goodwin and Volex
(Sharecast News) - The Mail on Sunday's Midas column has recommended buying shares of UK-listed industrial firms Goodwin and Volex.
Sunday newspaper round-up: 888 Holdings, Cop28, PwC...
(Sharecast News) - The owner of betting giant William Hill was the target of a £700 million swoop by gambling tech provider Playtech, The Sunday Times can disclose. FTSE 250 company Playtech made a written indicative approach to acquire William Hill owner 888 Holdings at a price of 156p a share in July, only for it to be rejected as undervaluing the company, according to City sources. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Rail disruption, gambling firms, Twitter
(Sharecast News) - Another nine days of disruption for rail passengers has begun as train drivers in the Aslef union start an overtime ban and a series of rolling strikes halting services across Britain, in a long-running dispute over pay. Drivers will be taking industrial action at train operating companies (Tocs) contracted to the Department for Transport, striking for 24 hours at each one on different dates between Saturday 2 December and Friday 8 December. The strikes will stop most or all trains at the affected operators in England and also hit some cross-border services to Scotland and Wales. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: BNPL, Saga, Farfetch
(Sharecast News) - More than a quarter of adults in the UK will use buy now, pay later to help with festive spending, research suggests, with the proportion rising to more than half of parents with young children. The survey for Citizens Advice also found 11% of respondents used such credit schemes to pay for groceries, a proportion that rose to 35% for regular BNPL users. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Telecoms providers, redundancy capital, Telegraph
(Sharecast News) - A Tory MP who accused the gambling regulator of being too "heavy handed" has received more than £8,000 in hospitality and payments from the betting industry this year, including tickets to see Madonna. Craig Whittaker, the MP for Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, criticised the Gambling Commission in an article for the Conservative Home website last week. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Shein, private rents, Volkswagen, Twitter
(Sharecast News) - Fast fashion giant Shein has reportedly lodged confidential paperwork with US securities regulators, informing them of an intention to go public in the US. The listing would likely be the largest initial public offering (IPO) in years. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: BoE, office space, BAE Systems
(Sharecast News) - The Bank of England's reliance on "inadequate" forecasting models and a lack of intellectual diversity within its most senior ranks contributed to inflation sticking at among the highest levels in decades, a Lords report has found. In a report critical of Threadneedle Street, the powerful Lords economic affairs committee said the central bank had made "errors" in its handling of the inflation shock triggered after the Covid pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Wincanton, Tesco
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped shares of supply chain specialist Wincanton to readers judging that the business's prospects were "bright" and the shares "cheap".
Sunday newspaper round-up: Rolls-Royce, Minimum wage, Metro Bank
(Sharecast News) - Rolls-Royce chief Tufan Erginbilgic is expected to push for government backing for the company's small modular reactors. The engineer has already received approximately £200m in government funding and has a lead on its domestic and foreign rivals, but Erginbligic is worried that they might catch up. The government's lukewarm attitude may also make potential foreign buyers hesitate. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: P&O Cruises, John Lewis, Telegraph
(Sharecast News) - P&O Cruises and fellow cruise firm Cunard have made provision to fire and rehire more than 900 UK-based crew unless they accept salary cuts and more flexible working arrangements. The affected crew include officers on the British flagship, the luxury ocean liner Queen Mary 2, and nine other ships operated under Carnival UK, which is part of the $18bn-listed Carnival group. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Energy bills, electric cars, oil prices
(Sharecast News) - Households will begin the new year with a 5% increase in energy bills after the regulator raised the price cap to an average of £1,928 a year for the typical gas and electricity bill. Ofgem raised the maximum price that energy suppliers can charge their customers from £1,834 a year for the typical household between October to December, after a rise in global gas market prices after the start of the Israel-Hamas war last month. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Wimbledon, Binance, Nvidia
(Sharecast News) - Tax officials are understood to be examining whether David Cameron failed to fully disclose taxable perks such as flights on private planes when he worked for the collapsed lender Greensill Capital, the Guardian can reveal. In particular, officials are said to be looking at a number of flights that took off or landed near his house in Oxfordshire and also in Cornwall, where the foreign secretary has a holiday home. They are also examining an offshore trust that it is understood was created by Greensill to pay him extra benefits. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Income tax, Cazoo, CBI
(Sharecast News) - Pressure is mounting on Jeremy Hunt to cut taxes in Wednesday's autumn statement due to evidence that almost 4 million UK workers are to be dragged into paying income tax for the first time. In a crunch week for the government, Rishi Sunak fuelled expectations on Monday that his chancellor could use his speech to the Commons to launch personal tax cuts, saying the government could now "look forward" to the future after making progress on the economy. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Tax cuts, Heathrow, The Telegraph
(Sharecast News) - Jeremy Hunt has played down the prospect of immediate income tax cuts, pledging not to do anything in this week's autumn statement that will fuel inflation. Although some Conservative backbenchers are eager for measures that would be quickly felt by households, the chancellor on Sunday sought to emphasise the need to promote growth and indicated that tax cuts were "not going to happen overnight". - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust, Bioventix
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped the Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust to readers, pointing out its 7% dividend yield and the current valuation of its shares.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Tax cuts, The Telegraph, Tata Steel
(Sharecast News) - The Prime Minister and his Chancellor are mulling last minute reductions to income taxes or the inheritance tax in a bid to boost economic output, as well as their party's odds at the next elections. The tax cuts would be aimed at low and middle income earners with the impact on inflation to be offset by a decrease on welfare payments or other cuts. Postponing a widely anticipated cut to the inheritance tax is also being looked into, as halving the 40% rate has seen accusations of a hand out to the rich in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis being levied against them. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Apple, Amazon, energy bills
(Sharecast News) - People from working-class backgrounds employed in professional careers earn £6,000 less compared to those from other backgrounds in the same jobs, findings from the Social Mobility Foundation show, underscoring the UK's "shameful" class pay gap. Professionals from poorer upbringings face an average salary of £45,437 - 12% lower than the £51,728 for people from more affluent origins - in research based on quarterly Labour Force Surveys from 2014 to 2022. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Offshore windfarms, hydrogen heating trial, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - The Cyprus police force is investigating how an oligarch attempted to transfer a £1bn stake in a public company on the day he was placed under EU sanctions, government insiders have told the Guardian. News of the involvement of the financial crime squad came as the Cypriot government and the European Union responded to revelations that local service providers appear to have played a key role in enabling Russian oligarchs to shield assets from EU sanctions within days of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Manchester City, Selfridges, 'British Isa'
(Sharecast News) - Manchester City have announced record-breaking revenue for the 2022-23 financial year. The club confirmed income of £712.8m, outstripping the Premier League record £648.4m reported by Manchester United last month. City's figure is up from £613m and the club almost doubled its profit to £80.4m, from £41.7m, despite a large increase in wages. The 2022-23 season was highly successful for City, who won a Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup treble, boosting finances through commercial and broadcast revenue. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Avon, Google, OBR
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have come under further pressure to expand the financial support for Britons struggling with the cost of living crisis, after a committee of MPs found some had "slipped through the safety net". The cross-party work and pensions committee said that support payments designed to help people cope with soaring household bills had proved insufficient to meet the scale of the problem and offered only a "short-term reprieve" for many. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: PPHE Hotel Group, Target Healthcare
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin recommended investors buy shares of hotel operator PPHE Hotel Group, highlighting its strong brands, strategic partnership with hotel giant Radisson and rising revenues per available room.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Tax fraud scandal, Royal Mail, Metro Bank
(Sharecast News) - More claims against banks and individuals operating in the City linked to the so-called Cum-Ex case are likely. The tax fraud scandal - Europe's largest ever - is estimated to have cost German taxpayers alone almost £10bn. Among the lenders being investigated are Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, BNP and Nomura, together with law firms and auditors. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that Danish authorities could pursue an alleged £1.4bn Cum-Ex fraud in London. The decision may open the floodgates to to claims from regulators in other European countries. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, NatWest, Metro Bank
(Sharecast News) - Thames Water has pumped at least 72bn litres of sewage into the River Thames since 2020 - roughly equal to 29,000 Olympic swimming pools - new figures reveal. Water firms have no legal obligation to report the amount of sewage discharged, only the number of hours that it was released. But campaigners argue this data is insufficient as this does not properly quantify how much sewage is in England's rivers. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Lloyd's of London insurers, rail strikes, Anglo American
(Sharecast News) - Insurers operating in the Lloyd's of London market are the world's biggest underwriters of fossil fuel projects, research has found. Fifty years after the insurance industry first warned about the impact of the climate crisis, it is continuing to contribute to the climate emergency, the Insure Our Future campaign, a global group of 24 NGOs, said in its annual "scorecard" on 30 major insurers and their involvement in fossil fuels. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, energy security, Shein-Topshop
(Sharecast News) - Royal Mail is to lose its 360-year-old monopoly on delivering parcels from Post Office branches, after concerns about poor quality of service persuaded the postal service to sign deals with rivals Evri and DPD in the run-up to Christmas. The two couriers would be added to the options available at the counter from later this month, the Post Office said, with customers given a choice for the first time. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Aviva, NatWest, CAB Payments
(Sharecast News) - A fashion industry push to reduce the environmental impact of the clothing it sells is being undermined by an ongoing addiction to buying new clothes, with the average Briton buying 28 items every year. Asos and Primark are among the big names signed up to Wrap's voluntary environmental pact, Textiles 2030. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Belvoir Group, YouGov
(Sharecast News) - Midas told readers on Sunday to hold onto their shares of property rental outfit Belvoir Group.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Middle East, Heathrow, Aviva
(Sharecast News) - The conflict in the Middle East and the resulting humanitarian crisis could trigger a global recession by compounding the challenges that are already facing the precarious world economy. That is the diagnosis of two of the biggest names on Wall Street. Larry Fink, who heads asset manager BlackRock, believes the 7 October Hamas atrocities, the attack on Gaza and the Ukraine invasion mean the world has been pushed to "almost a whole new future". For his part, J.P.Morgan head Jamie Dimon said that: " [...] these geopolitical matters are very serious - arguably the most serious since 1938." - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Food retailers, Apple, Microsoft chief
(Sharecast News) - The ride-share companies Uber and Lyft have agreed to a historic settlement totaling $328m after being accused of withholding wages and benefits, such as mandatory paid sick leave, from drivers. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Borrowing costs, earnings, Walt Disney
(Sharecast News) - Labour has warned that more than half a million homeowners face a surge in mortgage costs before the local elections in England in May, as ministers battle to contain the damage from what is expected to be a long period of high interest rates. With the Bank of England widely expected to hold its key base rate at 5.25% on Thursday, the party released analysis that showed 630,000 more homeowners would be hit by higher borrowing costs before local elections next year. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: WeWork, energy bill payers, The Telegraph
(Sharecast News) - WeWork plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as the SoftBank Group-backed company struggles with a massive debt pile and hefty losses. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: BNPL, Unilever, oil prices
(Sharecast News) - The Trades Union Congress has accused the Tory government of promoting a "greed is good" culture among bankers, who it said would be able to "cash in on unlimited bonuses" after a cap on payouts was lifted on Tuesday. The TUC said that while ministers had repeatedly called for pay restraint for most workers, they had been "silent over excess in the City". - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Interest rates, house prices, Hargreaves Lansdown
(Sharecast News) - The recent rise in interest rates has been blamed for ending Britain's wealth boom and causing total household wealth to plunge by a quarter since the Covid-19 pandemic. A report by the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank, and Abrdn, the asset manager, said the fall was due to a drop in house prices and pension pots, which account for about £4 out of every £5 of total wealth, and played a leading role in rising wealth across the country over the 40 years leading up to the pandemic. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Global reckoning, Pensions, Pubs
(Sharecast News) - HSBC boss Noel Quinn has warned that a "global reckoning" may be approaching after debt ballooned in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and during the Covid pandemic. That is because the world economy's rate of growth is too slow to handle the pace at which government debt is rising. Inflation and the interest rate increases that go with it are hampering the bounce-back following the pandemic. Those higher rates also mean that government's borrowing costs are going up. That is especially true in European countries such as Italy, but also for the UK. - The Sunday Telegraph
Sunday share tips: Destiny Pharma, Invinity Energy Systems
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column spied long-term potential in Destiny Pharma's shares.
Friday newspaper round-up: Amazon, Wimbledon, EY
(Sharecast News) - Profits almost tripled at Amazon in the latest quarter as consumers continued to spend heavily despite the sharp rise in interest rates. The world's largest retailer forecast that sales would continue to rise at a robust pace for the rest of the year. Growth had been knocked by surging prices and customers returning to bricks-and-mortar stores. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Shell, Boohoo, Sam Bankman-Fried
(Sharecast News) - The former NatWest chief executive breached data protection laws when she spoke to a BBC journalist about the planned closure of Nigel Farage's bank accounts, the UK's information watchdog has ruled. An Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) report seen by the Guardian said that Alison Rose broke rules on two counts: first by revealing that Farage had a banking relationship with its private bank, Coutts; and secondly by providing "misleading information" that led the BBC to believe the bank was closing his accounts for purely commercial reasons, linked to his wealth. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: AI laws, Microsoft, AstraZeneca
(Sharecast News) - Scammers were responsible for nearly 1.4m cases of fraud in the UK during the first half of 2023 - the equivalent of one every 12 seconds - with romance scams and ID theft among the fastest growing categories. Overall, criminals stole £580m in the first six months of the year, according to the banking trade association UK Finance, suggesting households are set to lose more than £1bn to fraudsters during 2023. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: EV charging network, net zero targets, St James's Place
(Sharecast News) - Almost £1bn meant to help build Britain's electric vehicle charging network remains unallocated more than three years after it was first announced by Rishi Sunak. Promised in March 2020 before the first Covid lockdown in Sunak's early weeks as Boris Johnson's chancellor, the "rapid charging fund" was meant to support electrical capacity at motorway service stations. It was intended to help fund upgrades to the grid so that more electric cars can be rapidly charged at the same time. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: JCB, ULEZ, mobile 'not spots'
(Sharecast News) - The influential Tory donors behind the JCB digger empire could be hit with a bill for more than £500m to settle a longrunning investigation by HM Revenue and Customs, the Guardian can reveal. The investigation into Anthony Bamford, a Tory peer, and his brother Mark, the director of a subsidiary of the Conservative party, is understood to span a complex network of offshore tax havens and companies. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Empiric Student Property, Frasers Group
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column recommended investors hold onto their shares in Empiric Student Property.
Sunday newspaper round-up: British Steel, Moody's, Christmas
(Sharecast News) - British Steel is planning to let go 2,000 employees amid a push by its Chinese owners to radically overhaul its operations and cut pollution. As many as 2,000 people could be let go as part of the turnaround plans, two people familiar with the company's thinking said, although no final decisions had yet been taken. The cost reductions are understood to be a critical part of plans to convert from blast furnaces to electric ark furnaces, which could unlock over £1bn in fresh funding from its owner, Jingye Group. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: English councils, OBR, M&G
(Sharecast News) - Many more councils in England are at risk of bankruptcy, town hall leaders have warned, as unprecedented financial pressures force local authorities to prepare drastic cuts to services to cope with a collective £4bn deficit. The bleak message, set out in a letter to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said council budgets were "under pressure like never before" because of the rapid deterioration in their finances caused by inflation and soaring demand for social care. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Inflation target, Amazon, Abcam
(Sharecast News) - The Bank of England should be set a 3% inflation target and given powers to crash borrowing costs below zero in response to future economic shocks, a leading thinktank has said. The Resolution Foundation said Britain required a big overhaul of its economic toolkit to avoid decades of rising debt or austerity, and called for reforms at the Bank and the Treasury to get a "bigger bang for each buck". - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Miller & Carter, UK car industry, Tesla
(Sharecast News) - Miller & Carter, the steakhouse chain owned by the nationwide pub group Mitchells & Butlers, has been criticised for taking payments from waiting staff worth up to 2% of the sales they serve up, cutting their income during the cost of living crisis. The payments are intended as a way for waiting staff to share tips with chefs and other back of house workers. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tax cuts, Linkedin, Carillion
(Sharecast News) - The government has no room for unfunded pre-election tax cuts despite having pushed through a "colossal" £52bn a year stealth raid on household incomes on Rishi Sunak's watch, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. Britain's foremost economics thinktank said the dire state of the public finances meant that attention-grabbing tax cuts risked stoking inflation, leading to higher Bank of England interest rates and a lengthy recession. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Inflation, energy help, landlords, Hipgnosis
(Sharecast News) - Headline inflation eased again in September, official figures are expected to show this week, while pay growth is slowing. Economists polled by Refinitiv expect the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to say annual inflation fell slightly to 6.5% in September from 6.7% in August. However, that is still well above the Bank of England's 2% target. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Microsoft-Activision, KPMG, default rates
(Sharecast News) - The UK's competition watchdog has cleared Microsoft's $69bn (£54bn) deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the maker of games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, in a move that paves the way for both companies to complete the transaction. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) moved to block the megadeal in April, citing concerns that Microsoft - maker of the Xbox gaming console - would dominate the nascent cloud gaming market. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Wealth taxes, electrical items, Birkenstock
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves is under pressure to drop Labour's blanket opposition to higher taxes on wealth, amid growing alarm within the party over extreme levels of inequality and the battered state of Britain's public finances. After a conference in Liverpool designed to showcase party unity and economic credibility, trade union leaders and senior figures on the shadow chancellor's left said they would keep "banging the drum" for a Labour government to raise billions of pounds more in tax from the very richest. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Wealth taxes, electrical items, Birkenstock
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves is under pressure to drop Labour's blanket opposition to higher taxes on wealth, amid growing alarm within the party over extreme levels of inequality and the battered state of Britain's public finances. After a conference in Liverpool designed to showcase party unity and economic credibility, trade union leaders and senior figures on the shadow chancellor's left said they would keep "banging the drum" for a Labour government to raise billions of pounds more in tax from the very richest. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Dogger Bank, Metro Bank, Figma
(Sharecast News) - The first turbine to be completed in a project to build the world's largest offshore windfarm, in the North Sea, has begun powering British homes and businesses. Developers confirmed on Monday that Dogger Bank, which sits 70 nautical miles off the coast of Yorkshire, started producing power over the weekend as the first of 277 turbines was connected to the electricity grid. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Manufacturers, EY, Waitrose
(Sharecast News) - Britain's manufacturers are urging the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to announce a "major MOT" of the UK's "uncompetitive" business tax and regulatory system in his autumn statement next month. Many aspects of the system are "not fit for purpose", the business group Make UK said in a report published in the middle of the political party conference season, and called for major reform as part of an industrial strategy. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Smiths Group, Tesco
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin tipped shares of Smiths Group, pointing to the enginering outfit's business outlook, solid management and valuation to back up her case.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Renewi, Metro Bank, New homes
(Sharecast News) - Some of Renewi's major shareholders are divided as to whether the recycling company should engage with Australian suitor Macquarie. One major shareholder has told Renewi's board that it should not until Macquarie raised its £636m bid, but another top ten shareholder told The Sunday Times that it should talk to the Australian outfit anyways. Macquarie has until 26 October to make a firm offer. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Elon Musk, Metro Bank, Mike Lynch
(Sharecast News) - Elon Musk is under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over his $44bn takeover of social media giant Twitter, it was revealed on Thursday. The investigation concerns whether Musk broke federal securities laws in 2022 when he bought stock in Twitter, which he later renamed X, as well as statements and SEC filings he made about the deal. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: UK rents, Metro Bank, Mike Lynch
(Sharecast News) - Private home rents in Great Britain have increased to their highest point on record after shortages in supply and mortgage rate rises combined to push the cost up by 10% over the past 12 months. The average rent for new properties being put on the market now stands at a record £1,278 per calendar month outside London in the July to September period, according to Rightmove. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, HS2, Apple
(Sharecast News) - Rail passengers in England face another day without trains on Wednesday as a strike by train drivers halts most services. Members of the Aslef union are on strike for the second time in four days, in a 24-hour walkout timed to coincide with the final day of the Conservative party conference in Manchester. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Food prices, AI, Home Reit
(Sharecast News) - Food prices dropped in the UK in September for the first month in almost two years, according to retail industry figures, offering consumers some respite amid the cost of living crisis. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said price reductions for dairy, margarine, fish and vegetables and fierce supermarket competition helped to bring down the cost of an average food basket by 0.1% compared with the previous month. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: BP, BAE Systems, business rates
(Sharecast News) - They are the things you didn't know you needed but now can't live without: a fitness tracker, wireless headphones, a fancy "bean-to-cup" coffee maker and, more recently, an air fryer. For women add a flattering jumpsuit and white trainers (but forget the floral midi). So says John Lewis in its latest retail report. The annual exercise usually shines a light on the current year's key products and trends but what's different this time is, after scrutinising buying habits for 10 years, it also identifies "products of the decade". - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Deloitte, Apple, BNP Paribas
(Sharecast News) - UK households are facing an average tax rise of £3,500 a year by the next election, the country's leading economics thinktank has said - the biggest increase over a parliament on records dating back more than 70 years. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that on current forecasts the Conservatives were on track to raise £100bn more annually by 2024 than if taxes as a share of national income had stayed the same as in 2019. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Evergrande, blackouts, Ryanair
(Sharecast News) - Embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande has suspended share trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange only a month after it resumed trading after a 17-month suspension. Trading in its two other units - the property services and electric vehicle groups - also stopped at 9am on Thursday, according to notices posted by the stock exchange. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Inheritance tax, FT, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - The number of first-time buyers in the UK has fallen by more than a fifth, while homes in need of renovation are most in demand as buyers look for cheaper properties, in the latest evidence that people are struggling with higher mortgage costs. There were 22% fewer first-time buyers between January and August compared with the same period last year, according to the mortgage lender Halifax. They still accounted for more than half (53%) of all home loans agreed in the first eight months of this year, similar to a year earlier (52%). - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Workplace absences, Nissan, London offices
(Sharecast News) - Stress was one of the biggest contributors to a rise in workplace absences over the past year, according to research that found the number of workers taking sick leave has hit a 10-year high The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) analysed sickness absence and employee health among 918 organisations representing 6.5 million employees, with 76% of respondents reporting they had taken time off due to stress in the past year. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: GB Group, Keystone Law
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin recommended shares of fraud prevention software manufacturer GB Group to readers.
Sunday newspaper round-up: HS2, Babcock, Airbus
(Sharecast News) - The Prime Minister is facing enormous push back from senior Tories and captains of industry due to signs that he may walk back on plans for the northern section of the HS2 high speed rail service before the party conference next weekend. Rishi Sunak was expected to meet with the Chancellor on Monday or Tuesday and an announcement was expected to follow by the middle of the week, several sources told the Observer. One source however said that it was not inconceivable that Sunak might yet decide otherwise. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Oil prices, IPO market, Tony Blair
(Sharecast News) - Rishi Sunak is facing a fresh setback to his target of halving inflation as oil prices hit $95 for the first time this year. The price of Brent crude closed in on $96 per barrel on Tuesday, the highest level since November 2022 as Russia and Saudi Arabia conspire to limit production and push up global costs. Inflation figures published on Wednesday [today] are expected to show the first acceleration in consumer prices since February. Analysts have forecast a 7.1pc rise for August on the year, up from July when consumer price inflation came in at 6.8pc. - Daily Telegraph
Monday newspaper round-up: Rents,.Manufacturers, BAE Systems
(Sharecast News) - Residential rents across Britain are rising at their fastest on record as high interest rates shut would-be buyers out of the property market. Monthly rental costs are on average 12 per cent higher than they were this time last year, up £140 to breach £1,300 for the first time, according to the estate agent Hamptons. Separate research from the property website Rightmove suggests that more than a third of homes for sale have had their asking prices reduced as vendors try to drum up demand. - The Times
Sunday newspaper round-up: Labour, British Land, Rolls-Royce
(Sharecast News) - Investors are now backing Labour, dealing a blow to the Prime Minister's efforts to rebuild the Tories reputation for sound money. Two thirds of money managers and traders canvassed by Bloomberg said that the best outcome for markets from the next election would be either a Labour government or a coalition led by Labour.Four fifths of those polled said that confidence in British assets had yet to recover from the mini-Budget crisis under Liz Truss. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: HS2, BP, flotations
(Sharecast News) - The HS2 high-speed rail line is at risk of further cuts to its route north of Birmingham as the government considers whether it can afford high-cost projects in advance of the autumn budget. The project has been mired in fresh uncertainty after the prime minister's spokesperson refused to guarantee on Thursday it would run to Manchester, after publication of a photographed document suggesting further cuts were under discussion. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Cash, ARM, EY
(Sharecast News) - Households could save up to £400 a year on energy bills under a new means-tested scheme to insulate more than 300,000 of Great Britain's draughtiest homes. The government is spending £1bn on grants for homes that have low energy efficiency ratings and are in lower council tax bands. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Pensions, Apple, interest rates
(Sharecast News) - Treasury officials are discussing a one-off break from the pensions triple lock that could save £1bn by preventing a bumper 8.5% increase in the state pension next year. The government is considering stripping out public sector bonuses that were awarded to workers to prevent strikes over the summer from the calculation that determines the annual rise in pensions. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tax cuts, CBI, iPhones
(Sharecast News) - Jeremy Hunt has warned that the high pace of inflation in Britain will prevent pre-election tax cuts this autumn amid signals from the Bank of England that another rate rise to ease cost of living pressures is coming next week. Speaking in India, the chancellor said he would be wary of putting money into the pockets of consumers in his November package because of the danger that it would overstimulate the economy and make it more difficult for Threadneedle Street to bring inflation down. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: BMW, shop prices, Waitrose, Bernanke
(Sharecast News) - BMW will unveil a significant investment in its electric Mini plant in Oxford on Monday, a move that will secure 4,000 jobs and strengthen the UK's electric vehicle supply chain. The investment by the German carmaker is the result of "extensive" engagement with the UK government, according to the business and trade department, and marks a reversal of plans to move electric Mini production abroad to China. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Pensions, vapes, hiring, Deloitte
(Sharecast News) - Maintaining the triple lock on state pensions could add as much as £45bn to the welfare bill by 2050, putting "insurmountable pressure" on the government to increase the minimum retirement age, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In a report published ahead of the release next week of official data for earnings growth, which will be used to set the annual increase in pensions, the IFS estimates spending on retirees could rise by a further £2bn from April 2024. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Google, IAG, Waitrose, Goldman Sachs
(Sharecast News) - Google faces a new multibillion-pound lawsuit from UK consumers accusing the company of contributing to cost-of-living price rises. The lawsuit, on behalf of every consumer in the UK, says that Google has stifled competition in the search engine market, which caused prices to rise across the UK economy. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Living standards, North Sea oil production, property funds
(Sharecast News) - The UK air traffic system failure that resulted in more than 2,000 flights being cancelled has been blamed on "an extremely rare set of circumstances", as the aviation regulator opened an inquiry into the meltdown that caused chaos for passengers. The Civil Aviation Authority announced its own independent review as it submitted an initial report from Nats, the air traffic control services provider, into the incident to the transport secretary, Mark Harper. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Wilko, energy prices, pension contributions
(Sharecast News) - A rescue deal to save the majority of Wilko's stores has been put at risk as some key suppliers want outstanding debts repaid upfront to guarantee continuing to provide products to the chain. Doug Putman, who engineered a turnaround of HMV in the UK and owns Toys R Us in Canada, has been negotiating a deal to save as many as 300 of Wilko's 400 stores, throwing a lifeline to its more than 12,000 staff. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: AI lab, fuel prices, pension contributions
(Sharecast News) - About 7,000 businesses are likely to fail every quarter in 2024 as high interest rates cause financial strain and the UK economy enters recession, according to a thinktank. The Centre for Economics and Business Research said debt taken on during the pandemic, higher borrowing costs and the cost of living crisis would drive an increasing number of businesses under, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Buying opportunities at Keller and Seeing Machines
(Sharecast News) - This year's share-price weakness of engineering group Keller represents a good buying opportunity, according to The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Wilko, John Lewis, ARM...
(Sharecast News) - Administrators to discount chain Wilko have won the backing of creditors for a rescue deal led by HMV tycoon Doug Putman that could save about 8,000 jobs. PwC is understood to have secured support from the Pension Protection Fund, an industry-backed lifeboat, as well as other creditors, including major landlords and suppliers, for the deal. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: BAE Systems, National Grid, Wilko
(Sharecast News) - The British defence company BAE Systems is setting up a local entity in Ukraine and has signed deals with its government to help ramp up its supply of weapons and equipment. BAE said it would work directly with Kyiv to explore potential partners for a plan to ultimately produce 105mm light artillery guns in Ukraine and to better understand Ukraine's requirements. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Airlines, Country Garden, car production
(Sharecast News) - Airlines have urged reform of compensation rules after the "staggering" revelation that a single wrongly input flight plan to UK air traffic control disrupted hundreds of thousands of passengers' flights. Nats, which controls UK airspace, said "an unusual piece of data" had caused the unprecedented system failure on Monday, which led to more than 1,600 flights being axed and many more delayed. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: House sales, dividend income, Body Shop
(Sharecast News) - The number of UK homes sold this year is expected to fall to the lowest level in more than a decade, as the soaring cost of mortgages puts off homebuyers. House sales reaching completion are expected to fall 21% year-on-year to about 1m in 2023, the lowest level since 2012, according to a report from the property website Zoopla. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Wilko, London house prices, supermarkets
(Sharecast News) - A union representing thousands of workers at Wilko is seeking an urgent meeting with the business secretary after being told by potential rescuers of "difficulties" in engaging with the administrators who will decide upon the stricken retail chain's future. On Monday, the GMB national secretary, Andy Prendergast, wrote to Kemi Badenoch asking her to ensure that PricewaterhouseCoopers considered all bids for the budget retailer where 12,500 jobs were hanging in the balance. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Wood Group, Cake Box
(Sharecast News) - The recent failed takeover for Wood Group could present a buying opportunity for investors, suggests the Mail on Sunday's Midas column.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Wilko, Telegraph Media, Pizza Hut...
(Sharecast News) - Wilko's administrators are facing pressure to accept a rescue deal for the ailing budget retailer after a second last-minute white knight bid worth £90m emerged from an Anglo-Canadian private equity firm. [...] Shops are expected to close within weeks, with thousands of job losses unless a buyout can be secured. M2 Capital, a restructuring specialist which owns a string of upmarket hotels around the world under the Como brand and is in the process of buying Michigan-based car parts maker Superior Industries, is understood to have put forward a bid that would keep the entire Wilko chain trading. - The Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Elliott Management, John Lewis, Specsavers
(Sharecast News) - The US hedge fund and notorious activist investor Elliott Management paid its 124 UK staff a combined £160m last year, after a 10% rise in annual profits. The pay pot is higher than the £137m shared by employees the previous year, and comes after its UK operation, Elliott Advisors UK, reported pre-tax profits up by a tenth to £10m. Turnover for the firm, which made headlines after throwing its hat into the ring to buy Manchester United earlier this year, rose 16% to £225m. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Wilko, Virgin Media, Ofgem, John Lewis
(Sharecast News) - The majority of Wilko stores are expected to shut with the loss of thousands of jobs after a white knight failed to step forward to rescue the collapsed retailer. The family-owned household and garden products retailer, which has about 400 stores and employs almost 12,500 people, will leave big gaps on high streets after the failure of talks with interested parties forced it to call in administrators this month. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: PwC, house prices, JLR
(Sharecast News) - More than 1,000 partners at the UK division of the "big four" accounting firm PwC will be paid £906,000 this year, a slight fall on last year's record payout as profits fell despite rising revenues. Unaudited accounts released by the company showed that PwC's UK profit fell from £1.5bn to £1.3bn in 2022, although last year's figure was boosted by a £139m gain from the sale of its global mobility business. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Working tenants, Arm, Home Reit
(Sharecast News) - Millions of Britons did not switch on their heating during cold snaps last winter in an attempt to save on their energy bills as the cost of gas and electricity soared. Almost nine in 10 households tried to cut back on their energy usage last winter, while almost half of all British households, or 13m homes, said they did not turn on their heating when it got cold, according to a survey of 4,000 people by the consumer group Which?. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Airlines, listed companies, asking prices
(Sharecast News) - Airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined, consumer rights groups and online travel agents have said. In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the consumer rights group Which? and leading online travel agents called for the aviation regulator to be given more powers to act amid flight cancellations. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Airlines, listed companies, asking prices
(Sharecast News) - Airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined, consumer rights groups and online travel agents have said. In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the consumer rights group Which? and leading online travel agents called for the aviation regulator to be given more powers to act amid flight cancellations. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Just Group, Warpaint
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped shares of retirement products specialist, Just Group, to readers, pointing to the likelihood of a period of sustained growth in the business and its boss's track record.
Sunday newspaper round-up: UK High Street, WeWork, China
(Sharecast News) - Richard Harpin, the home repairs tycoon, will invest £110m of his personal fortune in medium-sized businesses in a bid to save the UK High Street. Last year, Harpin sold HomeServe, the company that he founded in 1993 to Brookfield for over £4bn, netting him and his wife roughly £500m. Harpin says his main goal is not the return on investment, but rather to help get the country and economy going by helping businesses to scale up. He will also bring to the table his 45 years of experience as an entrepreneur. "If you are running a business, you need to focus on things that matter and will make a difference," he argued. "We need to do much more to save our High Streets." - Mail on Sunday
Sunday newspaper round-up: White Hydrogen, Bank of England, AI
(Sharecast News) - America's Geological survey estimates that if even a small fraction of naturally occurring - and clean or so-called 'white' - hydrogen beneath the earth's surface were recovered, that would last for hundreds of years. Among the backers of the hydrogen industry is Bill Gates, who ploughed $90m into Koloma, a company hunting for natural hydrogen along the US's Midcontinental Rift System. White hydrogen has also been discovered in Europe, in France's Lorraine region. Nonetheless, the true potential of the stuff will hinge on the findings from those early projects, says Philip Ball, research fellow at Keele University. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Equipmake, Hollywood Bowl
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column recommended shares of Equipmake to readers, arguing that the ground-breaking business should go far.
Friday newspaper round-up: China, 'Stealth tax raid', Tapestry
(Sharecast News) - Joe Biden has called China a "ticking time bomb in many cases" because of its economic challenges, saying the country was in trouble because of weak growth. The US president pointed to the country's high unemployment and ageing workforce, saying: "China is in trouble." "They have got some problems. That's not good, because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things," Biden said at a political fundraiser in Utah on Thursday. He said he did not want to hurt China and wanted a rational relationship with the country.- Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: China, Natural gas, Softbank
(Sharecast News) - Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that will narrowly prohibit certain US investments in sensitive technology in China and require government notification of funding in other tech sectors. The long-awaited order authorises the US treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict certain US investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and certain artificial intelligence systems. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Stagflation, Amazon, Scottish jobs
(Sharecast News) - The UK economy is suffering from a 1970s-style "British disease" that means inflation will not fall back to the Bank of England's 2 per cent target until after 2027, a think tank has warned. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the economy had suffered from five years of "lost economic growth", with stubbornly high inflation and semi-permanent government deficits expected in the foreseeable future. Jagjit Chadha, director of the institute, Britain's oldest independent economics think tank, said the country's woes had led to the "re-emergence of the British disease" - a reference to the stagflationary trap of the 1970s, when the term was coined. - The Times
Sunday share tips: Central Asia Metals, Secure Trust Bank
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin believed that readers should 'buy' shares of Central Asia Metals, the copper miner.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Battery Technologies, Rolls Royce, Energy bills
(Sharecast News) - Britain needs to invest in key battery technologies in order to avoid becoming dependent on countries like China in the energy transition, the head of the Faraday Institution said. The country required "sovereign capabilities" and its own supply chains, she said. Her remarks followed Tata's announcement that it would construct a £4bn battery gigafactory in Sommerset after securing £500m of subsidies from the government. - Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Wilko, Bank of England, Oil prices
(Sharecast News) - Budget homeware chain Wilko was yesterday teetering on the brink of collapse, putting around 12,000 jobs at risk. The retailer, which has around 400 stores, said that it was primed to appoint administrators after struggling to find a financial lifeline. In recent years the High Street has been struggling with painful cost increases, while shoppers' budgets have been restricted by historically high inflation levels. - Daily Mail
Thursday newspaper round-up: Drax, French air traffic, Arm
(Sharecast News) - Drax has been accused of costing consumers more than £600 million after choosing not to run a biomass power plant unit that would have supplied electricity at well below market prices during the energy crisis. Instead it burnt biomass in three other units that were able to cash in on high market prices and also profited by selling some biomass pellets to other companies instead of burning them, an investigation by Bloomberg claimed. - The Times
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Bank of England, US credit rating, Shoplifters
(Sharecast News) - The Bank of England should carry out an interest rate rise of a quarter of a percentage point tomorrow to keep control of stubbornly high inflation, The Times shadow monetary policy committee has argued. An overwhelming majority of the shadow MPC voted by 8-1 in favour of a 25-basis-point increase to the base rate this month, a step down from the rise of half a percentage point that the Bank was forced to carry out in June, when wage growth accelerated more than expected. The Bank rate is 5 per cent at present, the highest level since 2007. - Sunday Times
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Food prices, Aston Martin, WANdisco
(Sharecast News) - The UK's biggest retailers have reported the first monthly fall in shop prices for two years, as stores tried to tempt in customers with big discounts during July's unseasonably wet weather. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said its annual shop price inflation rate, compiled with the help of NielsenIQ, had declined to its lowest level of the year, sliding to 7.6% last month from 8.4% in June. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Debanking, mortgage rates, London office space
(Sharecast News) - Banks are closing more than 1,000 accounts every working day, according to new data that has fuelled the growing row over so-called "debanking" and prompted Nigel Farage to call for a royal commission to investigate what he said was a scandal. Hours after the former Ukip leader revealed he was spearheading a website to campaign on behalf of people whose accounts had been shut, data revealed a big jump in the numbers of customers dumped by their bank. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Jet2, WizzAir, Bango
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin's recommendation to readers was to switch out off Wizz Air and into Jet2.
Sunday newspaper round-up: 'Debt timebomb', Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems
(Sharecast News) - Millions of British families are are having to borrow to pay their basic bills and expenses marking a dangerous new phase of the cost of living crisis. And with interest rates set to be hiked again over the coming week, some are warning of a "debt timebomb" among less well off households. Rising rates are in many cases also cutting of access to borrowing. Reports also suggested that struggling single parents were being targeted through social media ads with inappropriate debt repayment schemes. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: UK property, shops, Ford
(Sharecast News) - That buying a property - any property - in the UK is increasingly the preserve of the rich will come as no surprise to low-income households. But official data shows that the middle classes are increasingly squeezed, with only the cheapest 10% of houses now affordable (no more than five times a household's income according to the Office for National Statistics) to middle-income England. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: City AM, motor industry, Freshfields
(Sharecast News) - Lawyers for the British billionaire Joe Lewis have accused prosecutors of making an "egregious" mistake, as the 86-year-old pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. Lewis, who heads the family that owns Tottenham Hotspur FC, was arraigned on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court with 16 counts of securities fraud and three of conspiracy to commit fraud, which prosecutors called a "brazen" insider trading scheme to enrich his friends, lovers and employees, including two private jet pilots. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Tax reliefs, hiring prospects, JPMorgan
(Sharecast News) - Almost £200bn of tax reliefs handed to businesses and individuals each year should come under greater government scrutiny to prevent fraud and abuse, according to an all-party group of MPs. The Treasury committee said in a report published on Wednesday that "a systematic review" into more than 1,000 tax reliefs was needed after MPs found HM Revenue and Customs did not have the resources to monitor how tax breaks and deductions were used. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Heathrow, Virgin Media, Credit Suisse
(Sharecast News) - Big pay increases for highly paid workers in London and the south-east have masked real wage cuts across large swathes of the economy and led to a widening in the UK's geographical earnings gap, a leading thinktank has said. A study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that while workers in some sectors - such as manufacturing, education and hospitality - had fallen in inflation-adjusted terms, there had been significant rises for those employed in the business services sector, the City and IT. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Business energy, Vectura, Rhodes fire, Barbenheimer, interest rates
(Sharecast News) - A coalition representing 1m small businesses is urging the energy regulator to crack down on the rogue energy brokers who rip off firms, charities, care homes and faith groups by piling billions of pounds in hidden commission fees on to bills. The business groups have written to Ofgem demanding it force gas and electricity suppliers to disclose how much they are paying the intermediaries who market deals on their behalf. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Energy ambitions, Royal Mail, Unilever
(Sharecast News) - Sweden's state energy company has abandoned work on a multibillion-pound wind farm off the coast of Norfolk because of soaring costs in a blow to Britain's clean energy ambitions. Vattenfall said it was stopping development of the 1.4 gigawatt Norfolk Boreas wind farm, which could have powered about 1.5 million homes, after supply chain problems and inflation increased its costs by up to 40 per cent. - The Times
Thursday newspaper round-up: Coutts, Netflix, Tesla
(Sharecast News) - The City regulator has said it has contacted the owner of Coutts bank amid a growing row over its decision to close Nigel Farage's accounts, but told MPs that while lenders cannot discriminate against customers, it is ultimately up to firms to decide who to do business with. It came as the prime minister, the home secretary and the City minister waded in to the growing debate over the rights of lenders to shut or refuse accounts based on concerns over customers' political views. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: JLR, Meta, BoE staff
(Sharecast News) - The owner of carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is expected to announce that it will build an electric car battery gigafactory in the UK, backed with £500m in government funding, in what would be a major boost for the British car industry. Indian conglomerate Tata Group, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, has been locked in negotiations for months to secure state aid for the project, which would aim to produce 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries a year, enough to power hundreds of thousands of electric cars. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tesla, Robinhood, finfluencers
(Sharecast News) - Tesla Inc's directors will return $735m to the company to settle claims they grossly overpaid themselves in one of the largest shareholder settlements of its kind, according to a Monday filing in a Delaware court. The settlement resolves a 2020 lawsuit by a retirement fund which holds Tesla stock and challenged stock options that were granted to Tesla directors starting in June 2017. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Betting companies, British Airways, Netflix
(Sharecast News) - Betting company logos appear as often as 3,500 times during the course of a televised football match, the majority on pitchside hoardings, prompting renewed scepticism about top-flight clubs' plan to give up front-of-shirt betting ads only. A study led by psychology experts from four universities measured the volume of gambling adverts during 10 matches that took place last season, featuring every Premier League club. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Futura Medical, Serco
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin told readers that shares of Futura Medical were worth a punt, even if there were no guarantees of a happy ending.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Green Agenda, EasyJet
(Sharecast News) - Tesco is leaning on its suppliers so that they pass on savings from falling costs so that it can reduce prices more quickly than rivals and thus lead on price cuts. Among other factors, on Thursday Tesco pointed to a halviing in wholesale electricity prices, a 22% reduction in PET packaging and an 84% fall in the cost of freight. Suppliers however said that other costs had continued to rise - not least wages. And in response to prodding by MPs, Asda co-owner, Mohsin Issa, has cautioned that fixed-term contracts meants that three to nine more month would be needed before customers benefitted from falling prices. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Deloitte, public finances, Apple sales
(Sharecast News) - Controversial UK government aspirations to replace gas boilers in some homes with a hydrogen-based alternative are likely to be scrapped, Grant Shapps, the energy minister, has indicated. Shapps said he believed hydrogen would form part of Britain's overall energy mix but predicted it was "less likely" that the gas would be routinely piped into people's homes, amid growing concerns about cost, safety and perpetuating a reliance on fossil fuels. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Twitter, Thames Water, savings rates
(Sharecast News) - Billions of pounds of taxpayer cash spent on one-off cost of living support has proved an expensive and ineffective "sticking plaster" that would have been better used to raise the value of benefits, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said. Britain's foremost economics thinktank said the government's cost of living payments scheme, introduced by Rishi Sunak while he was chancellor, had cost the exchequer almost £19bn over two years. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: AI, Tesla, hydrogen, Odey
(Sharecast News) - The head of the UK's financial regulator is to warn that banks, investors and insurers will have to ramp up their spending to combat scammers using artificial intelligence to commit fraud. Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), will say that there are risks of "cyber fraud, cyber-attacks and identity fraud increasing in scale and sophistication and effectiveness" as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more widespread, in a speech in London on Wednesday. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Gambling, DWF, credit card spending
(Sharecast News) - The main lobby group for the UK gambling industry has been accused of making inaccurate statements relating to the regulation of the £10bn-a-year sector the day before its boss appears before a parliamentary committee. Michael Dugher, the chief executive of the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC), is to be question by MPs on the select committee for culture, media and sport on Tuesday as part of a review of government proposals to improve gambling regulation. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: BT, Vodafone, Issa brothers
(Sharecast News) - British businesses are slowing down hiring just as the number of people looking for work rises, according to data that suggested "lingering uncertainty" over the economic outlook. The availability of candidates for new jobs rose in June at the sharpest rate since the height of the UK's coronavirus restrictions in December 2020, according to the latest report on jobs by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Solid State, Cordiant Digital
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column tipped shares of electronics manufacturer Solid State to its readers.
Sunday newspaper round-up: BT Group, Aston Martin, MPs
(Sharecast News) - BT has intensified its preparations to see off a possible takeover bid by its major shareholder Deutsche Telekom. For months now, the telecoms services provider had been working with Robey Warshaw and Goldman Sachs to prepare against such a scenario. Speculation in that regard was reaching a crescendo both in the City and within the sector, due to BT's need to invest £15bn in its new fibre-optic broadband network and multiple potentially destabilising factors. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Twitter, Gatwick, banks
(Sharecast News) - Twitter has threatened to sue Meta over its new Threads app, which Mark Zuckerberg has openly billed as a rival, claiming the company has violated Twitter's "intellectual property rights". In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, first published by the news outlet Semafor, a lawyer for Twitter said the company "has serious concerns that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property". - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Windfall profits, London properties, Asda
(Sharecast News) - The world's 722 biggest companies collectively are making more than $1tn a year (£780bn) in windfall profits on the back of soaring energy prices and rising interest rates, according to research by development charities. The companies made $1.08tn this way in 2021 and $1.09tn last year, according to analysis of Forbes magazine data by the charities Oxfam and ActionAid. The collective profits were 89% higher than the previous four-year average covering 2017-2020. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Morrisons, Thames Water, Matalan
(Sharecast News) - Morrisons is closing a fruit-packing plant in Bradford, putting 450 jobs at risk in the supermarket's home city where it traces its roots back to 1899. The debt-laden supermarket chain, which is battling to save costs after a takeover in October 2021 by the American private equity group Clayton Dubilier & Rice, said it was moving operations from the Cutler Heights area of the West Yorkshire city - its first ever fruit-packing plant - to another plant in Thrapston, Northamptonshire, and a distribution centre in Wakefield in the second part of this year. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Broadband, National Grid, energy companies
(Sharecast News) - More than half of UK broadband customers have experienced problems with their connections, according to a report that says telecoms providers are adding "insult to injury" after forcing inflation-busting price rises on to their customers. Many of the UK's mobile and telecoms companies have been accused of "greedflation" for pushing through mid-contract price increases of up to 17.3%. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, rail passengers, house prices
(Sharecast News) - One of Thames Water's big shareholders has given its backing to the embattled water company, after the surprise departure of its chief executive and crisis talks with the government over its viability. Thames Water, which is buckling under a £14bn debt burden and has embarked on an eight-year turnaround plan, is owned by a series of pension funds and other governments' sovereign wealth funds. The second-biggest shareholder is a UK pension fund for academics, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which holds about 20% and is the first investor to make public its support for the company. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Google, M&S, Tesco
(Sharecast News) - Google's new quantum computer is capable of instantly making calculations that would take current supercomputers 47 years to complete. Such compouters, proponents argue, will be capable of battling climate change and creating breakthrough drugs. Their ability to break encryption systems now utilised on the other hand makes them a threat to national security. - The Sunday Telegraph
Sunday share tips: Sainsbury's, Thor Exploration
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin recommended Sainsbury's to readers in anticipation that the recent warm weather that had boosted fashion retailers' toplines likely also benefitted the grocer.
Friday newspaper round-up: UBS Credit Suisse, Master Lock, Southern Water, NHS, Man City
(Sharecast News) - The Swiss investment bank UBS is reportedly preparing to cut more than half the 45,000 staff it inherited from the takeover of stricken rival Credit Suisse, in a move that is expected to begin as early as next month. Insiders have indicated that between 30,000 and 35,000 staff are likely to leave the combined organisation this year in three rounds of cuts beginning in July, according to Bloomberg News. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Brexit, UK water companies, National Grid
(Sharecast News) - Brexit has not contributed to labour market shortages in the UK, according to Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England governor. Speaking at a panel with other major central bankers, Bailey said the UK's inflationary problem was partly the result of workers choosing to leave the workforce after the pandemic and not returning. He said the bulk of this labour market shrinkage was caused by factors outside the UK's exit from the European Union, which put a stop to the free movement of labour from the 27-country bloc. - The Times
Wednesday newspaper round-up: BT Group, Water bills, CAB Payments
(Sharecast News) - The telecoms regulator has issued a warning to the chief executive of BT over his comments that the group's Openreach network expansion would "end in tears" for rivals and has opened an investigation into its performance. Ofcom said Philip Jansen's comments were of "significant concern" and that it "would be extremely concerned to see similar comments in future and will be keeping this under close review". - The Times
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Mortgage rates, KPMG, tax fines, Ocado
(Sharecast News) - The average price of two- and five-year fixed-rate mortgages in the UK has hit its highest level for seven months, putting further pressure on borrowers who are reaching the end of their deals. Data from the financial information firm Moneyfacts showed the cost of a two-year deal for homeowners rising to 6.23% on Monday, up from 6.19% at the end of last week and its highest since last November. Meanwhile, the average cost of a five-year deal rose to 5.86%, from 5.83% on Friday. - Guardian
JPMorgan downgrades Lloyds to 'underweight'
(Sharecast News) - JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded its stance on Lloyds on Monday as it took a look at UK banks.
Monday newspaper round-up: Car insurance, Vodafone/Three, Braemar
(Sharecast News) - Governments must raise taxes or cut public spending after central banks kept interest rates too low for too long in the face of higher inflation, according to the Bank of International Settlements. Closing the gap between government income and expenditure would "calm inflation", according to the annual report from the Basel-based organisation, which advises 63 central banks covering 95% of global economic output. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Government debt, High-inflation trap, Car insurance
(Sharecast News) - The cost of servicing the government's debt mountain will surpass £500bn over the next five years, due to high inflation and steep interest rates. Interest rate payments on that debt will rise to their highest level as a proportion of economic output since the late 1940s. This year alone, the interest rate bill for an individual household was already £4,000. That has also led to concerns that public spending, including for education and health services, will need to be squeezed in order to balance the books. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Sunday share tips: Ceres Power, Invinity Energy Systems
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin recommended investors buy Ceres Power in anticipation of imminent revenue growth.
Friday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, homeowners, Activision/Microsoft
(Sharecast News) - A fresh round of rail strikes is expected to disrupt national networks during July, after the RMT union announced that 20,000 workers would stage three days of stoppages. The move dashes any hopes of an imminent resolution to a bitter labour dispute that has caused frequent disruption to rail lines across the country throughout 2023. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Milk prices, mortgages, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - The UK's largest dairy cooperative has said there could be further increases in the price of milk and other dairy products if the government does not urgently tackle labour shortages in farming. The lack of workers is fuelling food price inflation, Arla said, warning that without action this could also lead to a crisis in milk production. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Minimum wage, Rolls-Royce, CBI, Debenhams
(Sharecast News) - Some of the UK's best known retailers including WH Smith, Marks & Spencer, Argos and LloydsPharmacy are at the head of a list of more than 200 companies collectively fined £7m for failing to pay the legal minimum wage. The businesses were also forced to pay out £4.9m to about 63,000 workers left out of pocket after violations of the rules were uncovered by inspectors at HMRC, varying from breaches related to asking workers to pay for aspects of their uniform to paying the incorrect apprenticeship rate. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: UK economy, Odey, John Lewis
(Sharecast News) - More than half a trillion pounds' worth of underinvestment by government and business over recent decades has left Britain's economy trapped in a growth "doom loop", according to a thinktank. Sounding the alarm as the economy struggles to gain momentum, the Institute for Public Policy Research said the UK risked falling further behind comparable wealthy nations without a sharp turnaround in approach. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: B&Q, Airbus, Intel
(Sharecast News) - EU exports of electric cars to the UK worth €30bn a year will be put at risk unless the Brexit trade deal is tweaked, representatives of the sector in Brussels have said. Three of the world's biggest car manufacturers have already called on the British government to open talks over new rules that will see 10% tariffs put on exports to the EU, if 45% of an electric vehicle by value does not originate in the EU or the UK. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Drinkflation, Bank of England, BT Group
(Sharecast News) - Brewers have cut the levels of alcohol in many beers and lagers, saving millions of pounds in tax in the process. But they haven't cut prices for consumers. Food giants and grocers have done the same through stealthy reductions in package sizes and portions. Critics however hold that so-called drinkflation is the more insidious of the two, as bottle and cans stay the same size and hold the same amount of liquid. In the case of Foster's, which is sold by Heineken in the UK, alcohol by volume has been reduced from 4.0% earlier in 2023 to only 3.7%. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Sunday share tips: Inspiration Healthcare, BP Marsh
(Sharecast News) - Neonatal medical machine manufacturer Inspiration Healthcare shares had been on the slide since late 2021 amid distribution issues in China.
Friday newspaper round-up: Energy bills, mortgage costs, WE Soda
(Sharecast News) - MPs have urged the government to set out its plans to protect households from high energy bills this winter as they said about 1.7 million people, including some of the most vulnerable groups, had been left waiting too long to receive previous support. The public accounts committee (PAC) said that although schemes were introduced quickly, the government "did not have the bandwidth" to make sure help reached all groups in a timely fashion. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Women bosses, Swedish inflation, Odey
(Sharecast News) - UK businesses have improved female representation on their boards, research shows, but two-fifths of FTSE 100 firms still do not have a woman in one of their top four executive roles. The proportion of women on the boards of the 585 FTSE all-share listed companies has risen over the past year from 36% to 40%, according to the analysis of Companies House data. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Amazon, EY, Entain, smart meters
(Sharecast News) - Amazon has been accused of being "no friend of the small business" after a report discovered evidence that the online marketplace has ramped up fees and advertising costs for sellers. It found that between 2017 and 2022 Amazon had tripled the amount it earned from fees for independent sellers in Europe, including for listings, deliveries and digital support. That growth far outstripped the rise in sales, which doubled over the same period. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: UK exports, Microsoft/Activision, UBS
(Sharecast News) - Britain has endured the worst exports record of any member of the G7 besides Japan over the last decade, according to a new analysis that will raise pressure on the government to reconsider its post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. As most of the world's other major seven economies have rebounded from the pandemic, export growth has remained sluggish in the UK at a time when businesses trading with the EU faced extra red tape and costs as a result of the country leaving the bloc. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: UK growth, Waitrose, HMRC, Crispin Odey
(Sharecast News) - Britain will be left with deep scars from the pandemic despite narrowly escaping a second recession within three years and growing signs of an economic pick up, according to new forecasts. A new report by the accountancy firm KPMG has found that the economy has enjoyed a better start to the year than it had thought, and is now expected to grow by 0.3% this year, compared with its previous prediction of an uplift of just 0.1%. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: UK growth, Waitrose, HMRC, Crispin Odey
(Sharecast News) - Britain will be left with deep scars from the pandemic despite narrowly escaping a second recession within three years and growing signs of an economic pick up, according to new forecasts. A new report by the accountancy firm KPMG has found that the economy has enjoyed a better start to the year than it had thought, and is now expected to grow by 0.3% this year, compared with its previous prediction of an uplift of just 0.1%. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Greencore, Round Hill
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin tipped shares of Greencore to readers.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Bank of England, Sturgeon, Melrose
(Sharecast News) - Experts believe that the Bank of England will have to jack up its base rate from 4.5% at present to 5.5% by the end of 2023 in order to tame stubbornly high inflation. It was that prospect that had already resulted in lenders and building societies to raise the cost of fixed-rate mortgages or to pull deals altogether, as HSBC did during the preceding week. Higher rates also have implications for the cost of servicing the country's debts, in turn eliminating the Chancellor's already limited headroom to push through tax cuts before the elections. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: HSBC, Tesco, windfall tax
(Sharecast News) - HSBC has temporarily withdrawn mortgage deals for new borrowers due to a surge in demand ahead of expected rate rises. The bank said on Thursday it would remove all its "new business" residential and buy-to-let products, with deals becoming available again on Monday. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Crypto firms, jobs market, John Lewis
(Sharecast News) - Crypto firms must warn customers they should not expect protection if their investment goes wrong and introduce a "cooling off" period for first-time investors, under new rules imposed by the UK financial watchdog. The Financial Conduct Authority said that from 8 October firms promoting crypto products or services would need to carry a clear risk warning in their adverts. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: International air fares, executive pay, Asos
(Sharecast News) - International air fares are likely to keep climbing from their current highs over the next 10-15 years, with the cost of sustainable fuels expected to drive up ticket prices, according to the global airlines body Iata. Extraordinary demand for travel since the Covid pandemic has led to steep fare rises on many routes, and Iata said consumers could expect to pay more as airlines increase the usage of scarce "greener" jet fuels in response to government mandates to cut aviation's carbon emissions. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Apple, CBI, PwC
(Sharecast News) - Apple has lifted the lid on the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley and revealed the Vision Pro, a $3,499 VR headset. "With Vision Pro, you're no longer limited by a display. Your surroundings become an infinite canvas," the Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, said. "Vision Pro blends digital content into the space around us. It will introduce us to Spatial Computing." - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: UK breweries, German car makers, HSBC
(Sharecast News) - Leicester's garment makers have said they are in crisis as a growing number of fast-fashion brands are forcing through discounts, making last-minute cancellations and imposing financial penalties for what suppliers claim are tiny errors. In the east Midlands city - where manufacturers make clothes for a range of brands including Boohoo, Misguided and Frasers Group, the owner of Sports Direct and the online specialist Missguided - hundreds of garment businesses have shut in recent years, local organisations say, and suppliers warn that more are likely to follow. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Saudi oil output, Asos, 35-year mortgages
(Sharecast News) - Saudi unveiled plans at the weekend to reduce its oil output by 1m barrels per day in a surprise unilateral decision. The move was to take effect from July. The decision came as Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, was due to travel to Saudi Arabia over the following week. It also followed a meeting between members marred by disagreements, although the Russian and UAE energy ministers denied talk of any split with Saudi. OPEC+ meanwhile did agree to prolong the voluntary cuts announced in April until the end of 2024. The cartel and its allies were to meet again in November and plans might change. - The Sunday Telegraph
Sunday share tips: Eden Research, Lok'nStore
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column told readers that shares of Eden Research should more than quintuple in price as it reaps the fruits of its "huge" progress in recent times.
Friday newspaper round-up: RMT strike, Elon Musk, Apple, Boeing
(Sharecast News) - More than 20,000 rail workers in England have begun a 24-hour strike that will cancel half of services on affected lines as part of a long-running dispute with train operators over jobs, pay and conditions. The stoppage by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) - the second of three by rail unions to hit the network this week - will affect most operators in England and some cross-border services into Scotland and Wales. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Diesel prices, Amazon, Whitbread
(Sharecast News) - Supermarkets have cut more than 7p a litre from the price of diesel since the UK's competition watchdog warned it would question retail bosses about unnecessarily high forecourt prices, according to the RAC. The motoring group found that the average price of diesel fell by 7.44p a litre, from 151.02p two weeks ago to 143.58p this week, after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised concerns that retailers were making "sustained higher margins" from sales of diesel. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Prepayment meters, rail services, BAE Systems
(Sharecast News) - British households on prepayment meters face missing out on up to £130m of support for their energy bills if they fail to redeem government vouchers before they expire in a month's time. Under the energy bills support scheme, which runs until 30 June, all households are entitled to discounts of up to £400 on their bills. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: House sales, Amazon, energy suppliers
(Sharecast News) - More prospective house sellers are returning to the UK's property market, pushing agreed home sales to their highest point of the year in May, according to Zoopla, although it warned that the rebound in activity could be knocked by rising mortgage rates. House prices have fallen by 1.3% nationally over the past six months, the property website found, but the speed of price falls has been decreasing as buyer confidence slowly improves. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Bango, Harworth
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin recommended shares of Bango to readers, telling them that the price had further to run even after their year-to-date surge.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Debt deal, Rolls-Royce, supermarkets
(Sharecast News) - The legislation needed to implement the debt deal agreed between president Joe Biden and House speaker Kevin McCarthy is being urgently worked on so that it can be put to a vote in Congress. Lawmakers were expected to be given the details of the agreement on Sunday with McCarthy aiming for it to be brought to the floor of the House on Wednesday. Biden was nevertheless confident that the deal would pass in Congress. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Boohoo, Asda, Eli Lilly
(Sharecast News) - The founders of fast fashion retailer Boohoo.com doubled their pay to about £1m each last year as they were handed hefty bonuses despite missing financial targets. Directors decided that both Carol Kane and Mahmud Kamani deserved bonuses equivalent to their annual basic salary - instead of the 30% they had been due to receive after missing sales and underlying profit targets. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Microsoft, energy price cap, benefits
(Sharecast News) - Microsoft has filed an appeal against the UK competition watchdog's decision to block its $69bn (£56bn) acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard. The US tech company confirmed that it had formally lodged an appeal against the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) verdict against the deal last month. Its case will be argued before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Virgin Orbit, Tesla, Cazoo
(Sharecast News) - Virgin Orbit, the satellite launch company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, will permanently cease operations, just months after a major mission failure. The California-based firm, which had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in early April, has auctioned off its main assets, recovering just over $36m. That figure is barely 1% of the value the company reached in late 2021 on Wall Street, when it was valued at $3.5 billion. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Private renters, TikTok, Mulberry
(Sharecast News) - Private renters are almost twice as likely to be struggling with problem levels of debt than the general population, with a sharp rise in the numbers in serious financial difficulty since January, research shows. The figures come against a backdrop of private rents in the UK hitting record highs, and days after the government announced a shake-up of the sector to tackle the "injustices" that many tenants are facing. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Entain, rail tickets, Rolls-Royce
(Sharecast News) - The owner of Ladbrokes, Entain, has been accused of "dishonest" lobbying after it funded an operation mobilising people to complain to their MP about proposals to change gambling laws. The government last month unveiled plans for tighter regulation, including measures it said would make gambling safer but would also reduce revenue for brands such as Coral and PartyCasino, owned by Entain. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: British Land, Land Securities
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column judged shares of British Land and Land Securities were worth holding onto.
Sunday newspaper round-up: The Restaurant Group, Severn Trent, Facebook
(Sharecast News) - The Restaurant Group, owner of the Wagamama chain, is under increasing pressure to break up after TMR Capital proposed last week to management that it sell all its brands save that one. TMR was the fourth activist shareholder to make the case for change. Under the plans presented by TMR, Restaurant group should then focus on expanding the chain before going private via a sale. The clash on strategy comes amid a surge in the cost of ingredients, energy and salaries. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Asda, Revolut, Restaurant Group
(Sharecast News) - The organic vegetable box company Riverford is to become 100% owned by its staff after its founder, Guy Singh-Watson, agreed to sell his remaining 23% stake for almost £10m. Singh-Watson, who sold nearly three-quarters of the company to employees in 2018, will take a £9.8m payment over five years and immediately hand full control to a trust on behalf of its 900 staff who each receive an annual profit share and participate in the running of the business. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Water companies, Walgreens, Deutsche Bank
(Sharecast News) - Water companies have apologised for repeated sewage spills and pledged to invest £10bn this decade in an attempt to quell public anger over pollution in seas and rivers. The companies will triple their existing investment plans to plough funds into the biggest modernisation of sewers "since the Victorian era" to reduce spills of overflowing sewage into England's waterways. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Crypto trading, Capita, executive pay
(Sharecast News) - Britons have packed away enough possessions to fill Buckingham Palace more than 60 times over as the housing crisis, enduring consumerism and a sentimental reluctance to let go of inanimate objects means self-storage is now on the brink of becoming a £1bn-a-year business. Self-storage units are proving cheaper than renting or buying a bigger home and are springing up alongside new housing developments across the UK, with at least 280 more stores planned between now and 2026 - a more than 10% increase. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Higher-rate taxpayers, low-carbon projects, John Lewis
(Sharecast News) - One in four teachers and one in eight nurses will be higher-rate taxpayers by 2027 as a result of the government's record freeze on income tax allowances and thresholds, according to a leading thinktank. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said better-paid public sector workers will be among the almost 8 million people - one in five of all taxpayers - who will pay income tax at 40% or above as result of the Treasury's attempt to reduce the UK's budget deficit. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Turkey election, inflation, cannabis, Isle of Man, licence fee
(Sharecast News) - Record high turnout in a tightly fought election has presented the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with the greatest challenge to his leadership in two decades, with signs that the vote was heading for a runoff even as Erdoğan attempted to claim victory before an official vote count had ended. Speaking to a jubilant crowd of supporters, an energised and delighted Erdoğan declared: "The fact that the election results have not yet been finalised does not diminish the fact that our nation's choice is clearly in favour of us." - Guardian
Sunday share tips: IG Group, Likewise
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin recommended shares of IG Group to readers, pointing out that the valuation was near historical lows.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Tesco, National Grid, Morrisons
(Sharecast News) - Tesco's pension fund lost £9bn in value and fell into a deficit after multiple safe investments went sour. In particular, the fund is heavily exposed to so-called Liability Driven Investments. Those LDIs came unstuck in 2022 following a sharp rise in interest rates that left pension funds nursing heavy losses. Yet the grocer had no plans to pay more into the pension plan with a spokesman saying that the scheme was "in a strong position", "well-funded" and employing a different measure for estimating contributions then it was in fact "in surplus". - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Grocery inflation, income tax, rail strikes, landlord rules
(Sharecast News) - Supermarkets have told ministers that food prices have peaked and will start falling significantly in the coming months. The Treasury held a call with leading supermarkets after Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, blamed the "very big underlying shock" for stubbornly high inflation. - The Times
Thursday newspaper round-up: Inflation, Post Office, public sector
(Sharecast News) - Rishi Sunak is at risk of missing his flagship target to halve inflation this year, one of Britain's leading economic forecasters has warned, as households are left thousands of pounds worse off amid the cost of living crisis. Sounding the alarm over the hit to living standards, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the soaring price of food and other basic essentials meant inflation was on track to remain persistently high for the rest of this year. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: John Lewis, Vodafone, Asos
(Sharecast News) - The boss of John Lewis will face a confidence vote by staff members on Wednesday as the business considers the option of bringing in outside investment in a change that could threaten the decades-old employee-owned model. Chairman Sharon White is considering radical ways to bring in up to £2bn to help secure the future of the John Lewis Partnership, including diversifying into building flats for rent above shops, after reporting hefty losses from its chain of department stores and Waitrose supermarkets. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Retail sales, Royal Mail, energy suppliers, Mango
(Sharecast News) - Consumers are cutting back on purchases amid growing pressure on the Bank of England to tame inflation. Retail sales increased 5.2% on a like-for-like basis in April compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from the British Retail Consortium and the consultancy KPMG. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Train strikes, Apple, Boohoo
(Sharecast News) - The UK and US have intervened in the race to develop ever more powerful artificial intelligence technology, as the British competition watchdog launched a review of the sector and the White House advised tech firms of their fundamental responsibility to develop safe products. Regulators are under mounting pressure to intervene, as the emergence of AI-powered language generators such as ChatGPT raises concerns about the potential spread of misinformation, a rise in fraud and the impact on the jobs market, with Elon Musk among nearly 30,000 signatories to a letter published last month urging a pause in significant projects. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Capita, Airbnb, Unilever
(Sharecast News) - The chief executive of the London Stock Exchange has called for the bosses of UK companies to be paid more in order to match their counterparts in the US. Julia Hoggett argued that British companies were finding it difficult to attract and retain executives because they offered smaller pay packages than rivals in the US. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Energy suppliers, Carl Icahn, Dyson
(Sharecast News) - Energy suppliers will be forced to offer vulnerable households dedicated phone lines in a drive by the regulator Ofgem to improve poor treatment of the most disadvantaged customers. The regulator is planning a crackdown on suppliers' conduct after a slump in customer service during the energy crisis with long call waiting times and difficulty contacting companies. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: GSK, Berkeley Homes, Jamie Dimon
(Sharecast News) - The man often touted as the godfather of AI has quit Google, citing concerns over the flood of fake information, videos and photos online and the possibility for AI to upend the job market. Dr Geoffrey Hinton, who with two of his students at the University of Toronto built a neural net in 2012, quit Google this week, the New York Times reported. Hinton, 75, said he quit to speak freely about the dangers of AI, and in part regrets his contribution to the field. He was brought on by Google a decade ago to help develop the company's AI technology. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Jersey Oil&Gas, Currys
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column recommended investors buy shares of Jersey Oil&Gas
Sunday newspaper round-up: HSBC, North Sea, Capita
(Sharecast News) - The heads of HSBC are facing a major public standoff with those of its shareholders who are keen to break up the lender. Those include its largest shareholder, Chinese insurer Ping An, which has been pushing for a spin off of its lucrative Asian business and which has redoubled its efforts in recent weeks. Ping An is expected to vote for two proposals from a group of angry Hong Kong retail investors calling for a regular strategy review and a higher dividend. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: HMV, Man United, business confidence
(Sharecast News) - HMV is to return to its former flagship store on London's Oxford Street after a four-year absence. It is expected to reopen towards the end of this year, in time for Christmas. The store was empty for an extended period after the music and entertainment company vacated the site in 2019, before most recently becoming home to one of the many American candy stores that popped up on Oxford Street during the pandemic. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Online casinos, Meta, PwC, Teck Resources
(Sharecast News) - Britain's poor record on health is costing the economy £43bn a year and cutting the annual incomes of individuals affected by long-term sickness by up to £2,200 a year on average, a report says. With official figures showing more days lost to sickness than at any time since 2004, the Institute for Public Policy Research said improving the country's health was vital both for the economy and to boost the incomes of disadvantaged groups. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Energy suppliers, Google, SVB UK
(Sharecast News) - Energy suppliers are hoarding nearly £7bn of customers' money despite a cost of living crisis that has left some households forced to choose between heating and eating. More than 16m UK households are collectively in credit by £6.7bn to their suppliers, with half of those holding balances of more than £200, research from comparison site Uswitch.com has shown. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: CBI, tech firms, Lidl
(Sharecast News) - The Confederation of British Industry has admitted it failed to "filter out culturally toxic people" from its ranks, leading to "terrible consequences" including allegations of sexual harassment. The CBI president, Brian McBride, said in a letter to its members that the organisation had "made mistakes" and "badly let down" its staff, after a series of revelations in the Guardian about alleged misconduct by employees, including two women who said they were raped. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Credit Suisse, house prices, Revolut
(Sharecast News) - Credit Suisse says 61bn Swiss francs ($68bn/£55bn) left the bank in the first quarter, shedding light on the scale of the bank run that caused the 167-year-old institution to crumble and forced its state-engineered rescue. "These outflows have moderated but have not yet reversed as of April 24 2023," Credit Suisse said on Monday. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Billington Holdings, Henry Boot
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column touted shares of steel group Billington Holdings.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Inflation, Taiwan, National Grid
(Sharecast News) - Former Bank of England chief economist, Andy Haldane, believes that it is "pretty much nailed on" that inflation will halve over the next six months as energy price increases slow down. But in remarks to Sky News, Haldane cautioned that hikes in Bank Rate had yet to impact borrowing costs for many borrowers, especially those on fixed-rate mortgages. "The effects of the tightening so far haven't been fully felt. That would give me cause for pause. I'd think, hang on, the economy is still on unsteady legs right now. Much of the tightening that has already happened hasn't hit people's bank accounts. Perhaps now is the time to press the pause button and see what happens." - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Forecourt owners, fake reviews, BuzzFeed
(Sharecast News) - Forecourt owners in the UK are adding to soaring inflation for consumers by charging many businesses that rely on diesel more than necessary at the pumps, campaigners have claimed. The pump price for diesel is about 10% higher than for petrol, even though the wholesale market price is lower, reigniting concerns that forecourt owners are profiteering at the expense of diesel drivers. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Meta, Heathrow, Murdoch, BP
(Sharecast News) - Meta workers are bracing for thousands of additional layoffs as the embattled social media firm continues to cut costs. A new round of layoffs began on Wednesday, according to a report from CNBC that was confirmed by Meta. The company will cull 4,000 jobs immediately as part of a larger plan to cut 10,000 jobs announced earlier this year, focusing largely on technical roles. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Telecoms, Greggs, Tony Danker
(Sharecast News) - A trio of telecoms firms have been accused of overcharging hundreds of thousands of landline-only customers by almost £200m, according to research. Economists at Fideres argue that almost 600,000 UK landline-only customers have been charged "excessive" prices since 2009. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Prepayment meters, food prices, EY, Glencore
(Sharecast News) - Energy suppliers have agreed to a ban on forcibly installing prepayment meters in the homes of customers over 85 and will make representatives wear body cameras as part of a new code of conduct, the Guardian can reveal. Suppliers have agreed to fresh guidelines for putting in the devices when households have run up energy debt after an outcry over agents using court-approved entry warrants to break in to install them. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Covid fraud, energy bills, National Grid
(Sharecast News) - More than 1m small businesses may be paying energy bills significantly above market rates after becoming trapped in long-term contracts fixed when prices reached a historical peak last year. Trade groups representing businesses from metalworkers to convenience stores have joined forces to warn of a "perilous situation". - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Spectral MD, Young & Co's Brewery
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column recommended that readers stick with their shares in Spectral MD and wait and see if the proposed takeover succeeds.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Glencore, THG, John Wood Group
(Sharecast News) - The board of Teck Resources is piling on the pressure for the mining group to initiate talks with Glencore over its proposed $23bn (£19bn) takeover offer. Meanwhile, advisory group Glass Lewis has joined ISS in pushing for Teck's shareholders to reject a split that will be submitted to a vote on 26 April. According to Glass Lewis, Glencore's offer was sufficiently compelling to justify pausing the separation and engaging in negotiations. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Sainsbury's, Glencore, LSE
(Sharecast News) - The Ministry of Defence has awarded £650m to manufacturers working on its Tempest fighter jet, in the latest sign that the UK is pushing forward with the aim of producing the aircraft by 2035. The companies who will receive the money are led by manufacturer BAE Systems, jet engine maker Rolls-Royce, and the UK arms of Italy's Leonardo and European missile-maker MBDA. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: ULEZ, Arm, British Steel
(Sharecast News) - A legal challenge to the expansion of London's ultra-low emission zone will be heard in the high court later this year, after a judgment permitted councils to proceed. The city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, vowed to press on regardless with plans to extend the Ulez, which he has argued is needed to tackle toxic air that is responsible for thousands of premature deaths a year. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: EY, Tesla, Jes Staley
(Sharecast News) - EY has scrapped plans for a radical breakup of its global operations after internal disputes over the potential structure of the new businesses. The company started laying the groundwork for separating its audit and advisory businesses - under the codename Project Everest - last year, as the big four accounting firms faced mounting criticism about conflicts of interest between the two divisions. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: TV subscriptions, Unilever, NatWest
(Sharecast News) - UK consumers cut back on groceries, clothes shopping and eating out last month but streaming and pay TV subscriptions jumped as cash-conscious viewers switched to nights in. The return of big hit series such as Succession, The Mandalorian and Ted Lasso fuelled a healthy 4.1% increase in spend on digital content and subscriptions in March, the highest year-on-year rise in five months, according to Barclays' regular snapshot of consumer credit and debit card use. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: tinyBuild, Ocean Harvest Technology
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin told readers to buy shares of game developer tinyBuild.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Glencore, Tesco, Vodafone
(Sharecast News) - Glencore is being prodded by an influential investor, Bluebell Capital Partners, not to delay letting go of its environmentally damaging coal mining business. The FTSE 100 listed outfit's plan had been to acquire Teck Resources, merge its coal unit with it and to then spinoff and list the combined company on the New York Stock Exchange. After Teck rebuffed its offer, those plans are at risk, but Bluebell is urging Glencore to let go of that business, saying that the remainder of the company would then fetch a higher valuation. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Thursday newspaper round-up: Net zero, Royal Mail, Home REIT
(Sharecast News) - Business leaders in the north of England have written to the prime minister, chancellor and energy secretary asking for help to reach net zero. Big names including Drax, Siemens, Peel, Manchester airport, the CBI and all 11 local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in the north signed a letter urging the government to prioritise green growth in the north - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Grant Thornton
(Sharecast News) - Revenue officials are not paying enough attention to a new tax on big tech firms' earnings in the UK and are therefore failing to scrutinise potential avoidance, parliament's spending watchdog has warned. While the digital services tax brought in a surprise bumper income in its first year, MPs on the cross-party public accounts committee says this suggests HM Revenue and Customs officials had failed to properly understand its impact. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Energy support, chatbots, Hyve
(Sharecast News) - Some of the UK's least well-off households could be left more than £200 worse-off on their energy bills this year because of reduced government support, the consumer body Which? has warned. Joining calls made by other campaigners, it said the government urgently needed to introduce a "social tariff" for gas and electricity to protect the most financially vulnerable. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Spending, Credit Suisse, Dr Martens, Arriva
(Sharecast News) - More than half of UK consumers have cut back on discretional spending since the start of the year, with nearly two-thirds choosing to reduce the amount they spend on eating out, according to research from KPMG. As households grapple with a swath of bill increases and tax hikes coming into effect from the start of this month, the survey of 3,000 consumers also found that 49% plan to spend less on non-essentials now that energy bill support payments have come to an end, while 30% will use their savings to cope. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Informa, S&U
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin recommended that investors buy shares of Informa.
Sunday newspaper round-up: OPEC, Bank of England, M&S
(Sharecast News) - A group of oil producers led by Saudi Arabia will slash their combined production by 1.0m barrels a day. The move by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was expected to trigger a $10 a barrel jump in oil prices when financial markets reopened on Monday. It was also seen risking a fresh clash with Washington, which had already threatened consequences following previous output reductions in October. Moscow on the other hand was expected to be a beneficiary. Dan Pickering at Pickering Energy said the decision was likely in response worries about demand and the US banking crisis. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Virgin Orbit, Morrisons, LME
(Sharecast News) - Britain has joined the 11-member strong Asia-Pacific trade bloc that includes Japan and Australia after nearly two years of negotiations. The deal, part of a push to agree worldwide trade deals after Brexit, secures access for British exporters to 500 million people in the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: SVB, Royal Mail, listing rules
(Sharecast News) - People in Britain have more confidence in the EU than the UK parliament, reversing a state of affairs that has lasted for more than 30 years, research reveals. Since the UK voted for Brexit, the proportion of people declaring confidence in parliament has slumped by 10 percentage points to 22% while there has been a seven percentage point rise in confidence in the Brussels-based bloc, to 39%. Confidence in the UK government also fell from 2017 to 2021. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Bulb, Twitter, Royal Mail
(Sharecast News) - The bailout of the bust energy supplier Bulb is expected to cost the government billions of pounds less than originally feared because of a sharp fall in wholesale gas prices, according to the National Audit Office. The public spending watchdog said the government may end up spending £246m on saving the supplier, which has 1.5 million customers and was acquired by Octopus Energy late last year. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, private renters, Inmarsat
(Sharecast News) - Long-running talks between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union are on the brink of collapse, with the company's board thought to have threatened to put the loss-making postal service - the regulated UK entity that delivers to every address in the country - into a form of administration if a deal cannot be agreed. A politically explosive move to declare the postal service insolvent is regarded by Royal Mail's board as a last resort but has been raised with the union already. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: HS2, Vanguard, Credit Suisse
(Sharecast News) - The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economy faces risks to its financial stability because of the turbulence in the banking sector.Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the Washington-based lender of last resort, said rising interest rates had put pressure on debts, leading to "stresses" in leading economies, including among lenders. - Guardian
Sunday share tips: Airtel Africa, Kier
(Sharecast News) - The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin told readers that shares of Airtel Africa were a 'buy', pointing to the telecom group's footprint in Africa and fast-growing money transfer unit.
Sunday newspaper round-up: HSBC, Easyjet, Sky
(Sharecast News) - A group of investors in Hong Kong have jostled HSBC into a shareholder vote on its structure and strategy, including a possible spin-off of its Asian unit. The group was led by minority shareholder Ken Lui. Its argument was that the Asian unit was "effectively subsidising" the western business to the detriment of shareholders. It was not clear if Chinese insurer Ping An would back Lui's latest move. For its part, the board told shareholders in a notice sent ahead of its AGM on 5 May that such a spin-off would "significantly dilute" its strategy, result in a material loss of value and lead to lower dividends, The Sunday Times first reported. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Construction firms, Ofgem, Credit Suisse, council tax
(Sharecast News) - Ten construction firms have been fined a combined £60m by the competition regulator for "illegally colluding" to rig bids for lucrative contracts for projects including Bow Street magistrates court and Selfridges department store. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the companies had acted as a cartel over 19 private and public sector contracts that were worth a total of £150m. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: TikTok, Google, NatWest
(Sharecast News) - Britain's biggest banks are under pressure to pass on higher interest rates to savers after figures showing they have made an extra £7bn by refusing to do so, and as they stand to benefit from a tax cut announced by Jeremy Hunt. On the day the Bank of England is expected to announce a further rise in interest rates, the Unite trade union said banks had already made billions of pounds in extra profit from the dramatic rise in borrowing costs. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Pensions, banking reforms, Credit Suisse
(Sharecast News) - The former chief executive of the housebuilder Persimmon who landed one of the biggest bonuses in British corporate history has set up a new venture with his wife. Jeff Fairburn, who was ousted from Persimmon after protests at his bumper £82m bonus in 2018, has set up an investment company with his wife, Jayne, the Guardian can reveal. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Unilever, Scottish Mortgage, Drax
(Sharecast News) - Derby is to be named the new headquarters of Britain's rail network by ministers this week, the Guardian understands. The delayed result of the competition to become the official home of Great British Railways is expected as early as Tuesday, with the Midlands city the frontrunner on a shortlist of six including Birmingham, Crewe, Doncaster, Newcastle and York. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: John Lewis, UK steel industry, Newcleo
(Sharecast News) - Plans by loss-making retailer John Lewis to end more than seven decades as a 100% employee-owned business have drawn criticism from an MP and supporters of its mutual ownership model. Sharon White, who chairs the company behind the eponymous department store chain and Waitrose, believes the business could raise up to £2bn in new investment by diluting its mutual model, according to reports. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Bank of England, Virgin Media O2, THG
(Sharecast News) - Experts at Investec believe that the Bank of England will stand pat on rates when it meets this week due to financial stability concerns triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and bailouts for Credit Suisse and First Republic Bank. "The degree of conviction in this view is necessarily small when inflation is still in double-digits but stability concerns have suddenly surged," they said. Inflation data out on Wednesday on the other hand was expected to decline to just below 10%, posing a dilemma for Bank. Yet senior Treasury officials think the rate of inflation could halve to roughly 5% over the next few months. Similarly, the Office for Budget Responsibility sees inflation tumbling to 2.9% by the end of 2023. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, payments providers, Atom Bank
(Sharecast News) - The chief executive of Royal Mail has been accused of "incompetence or cluelessness" by MPs calling on the regulator Ofcom to investigate whether the company broke legal service requirements. Parliament's cross-party business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee has asked the watchdog to investigate a suspected breach of the universal service obligation (USO), which requires the postal operator to deliver letters nationwide six days a week. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Co-op, TikTok, Credit Suisse
(Sharecast News) - Autonomous delivery robots will hit the streets of Greater Manchester this week as the Co-op partners with the self-driving logistics company Starship Technologies to bring its six-wheeled bots to a seventh British city. Five years after making their first UK delivery in Milton Keynes, Starship has expanded to cover hundreds of thousands of households across the country, offering services in cities including Cambridge, Leeds and Northampton.. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Energy bills support, prepayment meters, financial ombudsman
(Sharecast News) - The Treasury has performed a U-turn on a planned cut to energy support for households after warnings that it would plunge many thousands more families into poverty. In an announcement on the morning of the chancellor Jeremy Hunt's budget speech, the government confirmed that the energy price guarantee would continue at its current rate, which limits a typical annual household bill to £2,500. It is being extended from April, when it was due to expire, for a further three months until the end of June. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: SVB, Country Garden, pensions
(Sharecast News) - SVB Financial Group and two top executives have been sued by shareholders over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, as global stocks continued to suffer on Tuesday despite assurances from US president Joe Biden. The bank's shareholders accuse SVB Financial Group chief executive Greg Becker and chief financial officer Daniel Beck of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its Silicon Valley Bank unit "particularly susceptible" to a bank run. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Barclays, British Land, Saudi Aramco
(Sharecast News) - Barclays could save itself more than £200m a year after deciding to take a break from paying into its staff pension scheme, despite the fund's assets plummeting by £10bn in 12 months. Barclays last month declared profits of £7bn for 2022, but its "contribution holiday" means the cost of the payments it would normally make towards former employee's retirement benefits will now have to be met by the pension scheme - prompting anger among some ex-staff. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: SVB, Melrose, Tesco
(Sharecast News) - Silicon Valley Bank's demise does not pose a systemic risk to the UK's financial services sector, Rishi Sunak said on Sunday, even as he committed himself to finding a way to keep hundreds of UK tech outfits from going bust. The US lender was believed to have "several thousand" business customers in the UK, many of which relied on their deposits at SVB to pay staff and suppliers. Ministers' concern was that many of those businesses might go under lest some sort of bail out could be thrashed out, inflicting serious harm on the country's technology sector. The Prime Minister added that the Treasury was working at pace to find a solution that would provide operational liquidity for people's cash flow needs. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: EY, HS2, Arrival
(Sharecast News) - Deloitte's chief executive has launched a thinly veiled criticism of rival EY after its controversial plans to split the business into two were thrown into turmoil. EY initially announced plans for a radical breakup of its global operations last year, that would separate its audit and advisory businesses. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, air fares, John Lewis
(Sharecast News) - The RMT union has called off a strike at Network Rail next week, fuelling hopes of a significant breakthrough in the long-running dispute. The union said it was suspending the strike planned for Thursday 16 March and all other industrial action, which was to include an overtime ban, after it received a fresh offer from Network Rail. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: EU suppliers, National Grid, discounters
(Sharecast News) - A publicly owned electricity generation firm could save Britons nearly £21bn a year, according to new analysis that bolsters Labour's case to launch a national energy company if the party gains power. Thinktank Common Wealth has calculated that the cost of generating electricity to power homes and businesses could be reduced by £20.8bn or £252 per household a year under state ownership, according to a report seen by the Guardian. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Train fares, Morrisons, Arrival
(Sharecast News) - Campaigners are calling for an end to the "peak fare rip off", where commuters in some parts of the country face far higher mark-ups to travel at busy times. The call came after regulated rail fares in England and Wales jumped by 5.9% on Sunday - the biggest hike in a decade - adding hundreds of pounds to the cost of many annual season tickets despite record levels of poor service. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Train fares, Morrisons, Arrival
(Sharecast News) - Campaigners are calling for an end to the "peak fare rip off", where commuters in some parts of the country face far higher mark-ups to travel at busy times. The call came after regulated rail fares in England and Wales jumped by 5.9% on Sunday - the biggest hike in a decade - adding hundreds of pounds to the cost of many annual season tickets despite record levels of poor service. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Arm, China, M&G
(Sharecast News) - News that Arm has chosen to float on the other side of the Atlantic is stunningly bad news for Britain. The rationale is straightforward, the business can fetch a higher valuation there. So too is the reason for that, even if some might argue otherwise. UK pension funds and insurance companies do not invest in British companies with their holdings currently standing at 1.8% and 2.5%, respectively. In fact, at 56.3%, its foreigners who own the lion's share. Back in 1997, insurance companies owned 23.6% and pension funds probably held a similar proportion back then. And where has the money gone instead, because of regulation and tax changes it had been funneled into gilts and other fixed-interest securities. But according to Credit Suisse, those flows appear set to turn around and head back into equities. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: National Express, Southend airport, pensions
(Sharecast News) - More than 3,000 National Express bus drivers in the West Midlands have voted to strike over pay, starting on 16 March, the same day as the next RMT train strike. The Unite union said members voted 96% in favour of industrial action, on a turnout of 72%. The workers will begin "all-out continuous" strike action on Thursday 16 March, the union said, with industrial action to carry on until the dispute is resolved. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Satellite launches, Arm, LVMH
(Sharecast News) - Britain's failed attempt to send satellites into orbit was a "disaster" and MPs are being urged to redirect funding to hospitals, with the country now seen as "toxic" for future launches. Senior figures at the Welsh company Space Forge, which lost a satellite when Virgin Orbit's Start Me Up mission failed to reach orbit, said a "seismic change" was needed for the UK to be appealing for space missions. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Energy prices, tube workers, Arrival
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have warned energy firms that they must pass on the benefits of lower wholesale prices to consumers, amid concern that bills could rise this spring. In a speech on Wednesday, Grant Shapps will tell energy suppliers that reduced wholesale prices must be seen in consumer prices, "no ifs, buts or maybes". In an apparent sign of government concern about the impact of reduced direct support for domestic energy bills, the energy secretary will spell out his message in a speech at the Chatham House thinktank in London. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Energy prices, tube workers, Arrival
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have warned energy firms that they must pass on the benefits of lower wholesale prices to consumers, amid concern that bills could rise this spring. In a speech on Wednesday, Grant Shapps will tell energy suppliers that reduced wholesale prices must be seen in consumer prices, "no ifs, buts or maybes". In an apparent sign of government concern about the impact of reduced direct support for domestic energy bills, the energy secretary will spell out his message in a speech at the Chatham House thinktank in London. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Elon Musk, John Lewis, Mike Lynch
(Sharecast News) - Jeremy Hunt could offer striking public sector workers a bigger pay rise before his budget next month by cancelling plans for a fuel duty freeze costing £6bn, according to a leading tax and spending watchdog. With waves of fresh strike action planned across the public sector next month, the director of Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Paul Johnson, said the chancellor faced a "straight choice" between subsidising car driving and helping public sector workers cope with the cost of living crisis. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Britishvolt, Octopus, LSE Group
(Sharecast News) - The Australia-based company Recharge Industries will take over collapsed battery maker Britishvolt after finalising a deal with administrators late on Sunday in the UK. The agreement revives hopes for the construction of a £3.8bn (A$6.7bn) "gigafactory" in northern England, the backbone of a plan to modernise the British automotive industry and supply the next generation of UK-built electric vehicles. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Brexit deal, HSBC, Fresh fruit
(Sharecast News) - Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has refused to say whether Parliament will vote on the government's new Brexit deal. He did however tell Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that "Parliament will find a away to have its say". The plan was expected to be unveiled possibly as early as Monday. "We want to handle this properly and in the right way," he said. I think one thing we've learned with meaningful votes and various other things since 2016 and beyond is that you have to carry Parliament with you, and I'm confident we would be able to." However, as of Sunday, it appeared unlikely that the proposals would satisfy the ERG or DUP. - Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Rogue landlords, gas network bosses, electric cars
(Sharecast News) - Rogue landlords are conning the government out of millions of pounds by fraudulently claiming housing benefits for so-called "ghost tenants", it has been revealed. Criminal gangs are among those buying cheap property to convert into housing for vulnerable people, in some cases claiming welfare payments for tenants who do not live there. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Energy costs, Sainsbury's, ChatGPT
(Sharecast News) - Ministers have moved to level the playing field on energy costs between British manufacturers and their European competitors after years of concerns that domestic firms faced an unfair disadvantage. The "British Industry Supercharger" scheme aims to improve conditions for 300 companies - employing 400,000 workers - in sectors including steel, metals, chemicals and paper manufacturing. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Wizz Air, Google, JPMorgan
(Sharecast News) - Wizz Air has been named the worst short-haul airline by UK passengers. Passengers surveyed by consumer group Which? gave the Hungary-based carrier one star out of five for boarding experience, cabin environment and seat comfort. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Energy suppliers, JLR, business optimism
(Sharecast News) - Switching between energy suppliers is expected to return later this year after a two-year pause due to lack of competition amid high bills. The energy consultancy Cornwall Insight said on Monday that easing costs later this year would present consumers with the chance to "take back some control" over their bills, as suppliers compete for customers again. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Retail jobs, online chatbots, Meta, Zopa
(Sharecast News) - Nearly 15,000 British retail jobs have already been cut since January in a "brutal start to the year" for the high street. A total of 14,874 retail job losses have been announced by companies so far, according to analysis from the Centre for Retail Research (CRR). - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Post-Brexit arrangements, Manchester United, Home REIT
(Sharecast News) - Rishi Sunak and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson are on a collision course over the former's plans to overhaul the post-Brexit arrangements as pertain to Northern Ireland. It is understood that Johnson is worried that a successful push by Sunak would become an obstacle to the government's ability to rip up some of the Brexit arrangements in the region. Keir Starmer on the other hand told the Observer that his party would support a vote in Parliament on the agreement. - Observer
Friday newspaper round-up: Meta, business taxes, PwC
(Sharecast News) - Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has said in a filing that it is increasing its spend on the personal security of chief executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg by $4m (£3.3m) to $14m, at a moment when the company has cut thousands of jobs in what Zuckerberg has called the "year of efficiency". Meta's board declared that the 40% increase was "appropriate and necessary under the circumstances" and was in place "to address safety concerns due to specific threats to his safety arising directly as a result of his position as Meta's founder, chairman, and CEO". - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Wilko, Revolut, Russian economy
(Sharecast News) - Wilko plans to cut more than 400 jobs, including assistant store managers, retail supervisors, head office managers and call centre workers, in the troubled retailer's latest effort to control costs. The value household and garden products retailer has told staff it plans to reduce hours for team supervisors in 150 of its 401 stores, leading to the equivalent of about 150 full-time equivalent job losses, after a fall in sales. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Subway, Waitrose, Royal Mail
(Sharecast News) - Fast-food chain Subway has put itself on the menu - announcing on Tuesday it is exploring a possible sale of its business after 58 years of family control. After years of rapid growth, rising costs and mounting competition from rivals have taken their toll on the company in recent years, but it still has more than 37,000 restaurants in over 100 countries - making it one of the largest chains in the world. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Vodafone, Toyota, Arm
(Sharecast News) - The US telecoms group chaired by "cable cowboy" John Malone has snapped up a stake in Vodafone in a bet on the UK company's revival - but has ruled out making a takeover bid. Liberty Global, which is an investor in ITV and Virgin Media O2, told investors on Monday it had acquired a 4.92% stake in Vodafone, saying it believed the shares were undervalued. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Telecoms providers, NatWest, energy firms
(Sharecast News) - Britain's biggest telecoms providers are preparing to launch inflation-busting price increases for broadband and mobile contracts this spring, hitting consumers with a combined bill worth £600m more than if these deals had matched the cost of living. BT, EE, Vodafone, Virgin Media, O2 and TalkTalk are to increase bills for tens of millions of customers under "mid-contract price rises" from April and May. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Savings, British Gas
(Sharecast News) - A cross-party summit that included both leavers and remainers has been held in high secrecy to address the failings of Brexit in the national interest. Also present were diplomats, defence experts and the heads of the largest businesses and lenders. A source said: "The main thrust of it was that Britain is losing out, that Brexit it not delivering, our economy is in a weak position," said the source. "It was about moving on from leave and remain, and what are the issues we now have to face, and how can we get into the best position in order to have a conversation with the EU about changes to the UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement when that happens?" - Observer
Friday newspaper round-up: News Corp, Shell, Stamp Duty tax
(Sharecast News) - Media conglomerate News Corp said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due to weakness in its news and digital real estate businesses. Rising inflation and higher interest rates are forcing companies to curb their ad and marketing spend, denting one of the major sources of revenue for companies such as News Corp, which has major publishing platforms including the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, the Sun and the Times in the UK, and the Australian. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Twitter, Disney, Siemens
(Sharecast News) - Twitter users were unable to post instantly on the website for almost an hour, in the latest outage to hit the social media platform since billionaire Elon Musk's $44bn takeover. From around 10pm GMT on Wednesday, users attempting to tweet were informed by the platform they had hit their daily limit - despite many of them reporting having not tweeted at all that day. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Zoom, fraudulent loans, Starling Bank
(Sharecast News) - Households in Britain will suffer a hit to their finances of up to £4,000 this year, according to a report warning that the economy could avoid recession but that, for millions, it will not feel like it has. Adding to pressure on Rishi Sunak as the government prepares to scale back its support for energy bills this spring, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said low and middle-income households were facing the biggest financial hit from the cost of living crisis. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Digital pound, bus services, Royal Mail
(Sharecast News) - Consumers could be using a new digital pound as an alternative to cash by the end of the decade under plans being drawn up by the Bank of England and the Treasury. The government is speeding up its response to the rise of privately issued cryptocurrencies and stable coins with a four-month public consultation process on a "Britcoin" starting on Tuesday. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Rail fares, Amazon, working from home
(Sharecast News) - Return tickets will be scrapped and new digital ticketing introduced under reforms of the British rail system expected to be announced this week. The two-way tickets, which offer a discounted rate, will be replaced by "single-leg pricing" which will mean that the price of two singles will be the same as the current return fare, according to the Telegraph. The idea was trialled by London North East Railway (LNER) in 2020. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Arm, Energy bills, Flybe
(Sharecast News) - The Financial Conduct Authority has offered to relax rules around so-called "related party transactions" in order to entice microchip designer Arm to float in London. Arm worries that otherwise it may have to report dealings with owner Softbank and any of the Japanese outfit's hundreds of investments as well as having to consult with shareholders each time. Such transaction nevertheless played an important role in failed US companies Enron and Tyco. Critics say the move would dilute the UK's highly regarded standards of corporate governance. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Netflix, Amazon, rental market
(Sharecast News) - Netflix has mistakenly launched a set of guidelines for cracking down on password sharing to global users. The streaming service said the guidelines being trialled in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica had been posted accidentally across its help centre pages including in the US on Wednesday, but had since been taken down. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Water bills, British Gas, Meta
(Sharecast News) - Households in England and Wales are facing the biggest increase to water bills in almost two decades from April, putting further pressure on budgets already weathering the cost of living crisis. The industry body Water UK said the typical water bill will increase to an average of £448 a year from April, a hike of 7.5%. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Stealth taxes, Lotus, PayPal
(Sharecast News) - Almost 13,000 offshore companies holding UK property have failed to declare their ultimate owners and may now face fines and a ban on selling their land, the government has said. Martin Callanan, a business minister, praised the introduction of the new register of overseas owners of UK properties, saying it had been "invaluable for tax and revenue services, bringing transparency to opaque offshore trusts often used to obscure assets for tax purposes". - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Stealth taxes, Lotus, PayPal
(Sharecast News) - Almost 13,000 offshore companies holding UK property have failed to declare their ultimate owners and may now face fines and a ban on selling their land, the government has said. Martin Callanan, a business minister, praised the introduction of the new register of overseas owners of UK properties, saying it had been "invaluable for tax and revenue services, bringing transparency to opaque offshore trusts often used to obscure assets for tax purposes". - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: TikTok, Arrival, Twitter
(Sharecast News) - As the US legislative battle over TikTok continues to escalate, Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of the video-sharing app, will make his first appearance before Congress to testify next month. Chew will testify before the House energy and commerce committee on 23 March, Republican representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers confirmed in a statement on Monday, as scrutiny of the Chinese-owned app over data privacy concerns grows. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Dividends, streaming services, Frasers Group
(Sharecast News) - The regular dividends that investors receive from owning shares in UK-listed companies soared by 16.5% in 2022, far outstripping wage growth in either the private or public sector. Investors' returns from underlying dividends - excluding volatile one-off payouts - reached £84.8bn during the year, partly owing to a £3.8bn boost from the weakness of the pound, which inflated the figures for dividends paid in dollars. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Dividends, BP, Capricorn Energy
(Sharecast News) - Companies' dividend payments jumped by 8% to reach £94.3bn, led by big banks alongside a surge in payouts from oil outfits. share buybacks meanwhile reached 2% of the combined value of UK-listed companies. However, Link Group anticipates that payments will decline by 2.8% in 2023 to reach £91.7bn and believes that the economic backdrop is "decidedly gloomier" than one year ago with higher interest rates set to pressure margins further. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: Wise, Royal Mail, Shell
(Sharecast News) - One of the UK's fintech darlings, Wise, could face a regulatory investigation after a rival startup accused the money transfer firm of stifling competition. London-headquartered Atlantic Money has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to raise concerns over potential conflicts of interest and anti-competitive behaviour after Wise blocked the firm from a swathe of its own price comparison sites. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Britishvolt, car production, Home Reit
(Sharecast News) - The battery startup Britishvolt owed as much as £120m to creditors when it collapsed last week in a major blow to hopes of sustaining the British car industry, it can be revealed. Creditors are expected to recover a very small proportion of the debts, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, although there are understood to be several bids for the company and its assets. EY, a professional services firm, is handling the administration. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Britishvolt, Fox Corp/News Corp, energy suppliers
(Sharecast News) - An Australian-based startup, Recharge Industries, has made a nonbinding offer for the collapsed UK battery company Britishvolt that could revive plans to construct a large plant in northern England. The bid was lodged in the UK late on Tuesday, shortly after a cash crunch at Britishvolt sent the company into administration. The collapse has severely dented the country's attempts to modernise its automotive industry and supply the next generation of UK-built electric vehicles. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: UK steel, Google, BT
(Sharecast News) - The companies running Britain's four remaining steel blastfurnaces have been offered £600m in government support to help fund the switch from coal and invest in lower-emissions technology. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is expected to confirm £300m each for British Steel and Tata Steel in an announcement as soon as this week, although the timing will depend on them accepting the offers. The BBC first reported the government offer to both companies. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Recession, Saga, National Grid
(Sharecast News) - The UK's impending recession could be twice as bad as previously thought, according to leading economic forecasters at the business consultancy EY. Reduced government support, higher taxes and an overall worsening outlook have all led the firm's analysts to conclude that the next three years could be worse than they anticipated three months ago. In October, EY's Item Club had predicted a 0.3% contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) this year, followed by 2.4% growth next year and a 2.3% rise in 2025. But in an updated forecast released on Monday, it said GDP would drop 0.7% this year, followed by growth of 1.9% and 2.2% over the next two years. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Coal-fired power plants, Metro Bank, Asda
(Sharecast News) - National Grid has called on coal-fired power plants to prepare to supply power on Monday given that temperatures are expected to remain near zero even as wind speeds remain low. The notifications that they should be ready - if needed - were served to three coal units owned by Drax and EdF. The plants had been scheduled to close in September but that decision was pushed back until 2024 due to soaring gas prices in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine. According to Bloomberg data, UK futures remain at over the twice the level typically seen at this time of the year. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Netflix, Home Reit, FTX
(Sharecast News) - Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, the entrepreneur who reshaped the media landscape and led the charge into streaming, announced he is stepping down as co-chief executive of the company on Thursday. Hastings, 62, co-founded the company in 1997 when Netflix delivered its subscribers movies on DVDs sent in the mail, will become chairman. Greg Peters, the company's chief product and chief operating officer, will join Ted Sarandos, chief content officer, as a co-chief executive. Sarandos was elevated to co-CEO in July 2020. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Holiday prices, Qinetiq, Tesla
(Sharecast News) - Prices for package holidays and flights to popular destinations have soared in the last year, according to research. A week-long trip to Greece costs about 30% more than it did last year, with holidays in Italy, Spain and Turkey up by a fifth or more. The sobering figures, from the consumer group Which?, could cause a rethink for those planning to escape the cost of living pressure with a holiday getaway.- Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: German economy, Microsoft, Asda/Co-op
(Sharecast News) - Germany will avoid a recession this year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted, despite the energy crisis which has ravaged its economy. Mr Scholz said that new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on the Baltic and North Sea coasts would help cushion the blow from the energy crisis on Germany's crucial manufacturing sector. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Energy bills, ULEZ, Aveva
(Sharecast News) - Jeremy Hunt is facing calls for a "social energy tariff" providing cheaper gas and electricity for low income households to be introduced when government support ends next year. In an open letter to the chancellor, 95 charities and non-profit organisations have urged the government to move quickly to legislate for a change in energy bills for "those in greatest need to ensure they are able to live in their homes comfortably". - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Prepayment meters, Revolut, Marks & Spencer
(Sharecast News) - Leading energy suppliers have stopped reclaiming debts from some prepayment meter customers amid calls for an industry moratorium on clawing back money owed through the devices. The Guardian understands that ScottishPower, which has nearly five million customers, has stopped recovering outstanding debts from people who have been moved on to prepayment meters in recent weeks. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, rail strikes, Tim Cook
(Sharecast News) - Royal Mail has been hit by a ransomware attack by a criminal group, which has threatened to publish the stolen information online. The postal service has received a ransom note purporting to be from LockBit, a hacker group widely thought to have close links to Russia. Royal Mail revealed that it had been hit by a "cyber incident" on Wednesday, and said it was unable to send parcels or letters abroad. The company asked customers to refrain from submitting new items for international delivery, although domestic services and imports were unaffected. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Prepayment meters, Elon Musk, FTX
(Sharecast News) - Ministers are being urged to stop the forced installation of prepayment meters after revelations that 3.2 million people - the equivalent of one person every 10 seconds - were left with cold and dark homes last year as they ran out of credit. As energy prices surged this winter, suppliers have stepped up the use of court warrants to force their way into homes to install prepayment meters, with some magistrates approving hundreds of applications at a time. For homes with smart meters, the change can be made remotely without even needing a warrant. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Independent bookshops, car makers, Boohoo
(Sharecast News) - Lidl, Zara's owner Inditex, H&M and Next have been accused of paying garment suppliers in Bangladesh during the pandemic less than the cost of production, leaving factories struggling to pay the country's legal minimum wage. In a survey of 1,000 factories in the country producing clothes for UK retailers, 19% of Lidl's suppliers made the claim, as did 11% of Inditex's, 9% of H&M's and 8% of Next's. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: UK inflation, landlords, City AM
(Sharecast News) - Businesses will receive reduced support for their energy bills from the end of March as the Treasury attempts to cut the cost of compensating for soaring gas and electricity prices, the UK government has confirmed. James Cartlidge, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said on Monday that the government would provide £5.5bn of "transitional support" for businesses over 12 months from 1 April 2023. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: UK manufacturers, OneWeb, foreign investors
(Sharecast News) - Almost two-thirds of manufacturers in Britain fear blackouts this winter amid the fallout from the energy crisis, according to an industry survey, as concerns grow about government plans to cut financial support for businesses. As the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, prepares to announce a sharp reduction in industry support, the trade body Make UK said the impact from sky-high energy costs on manufacturers showed no sign of abating. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Fuel prices, Microsoft, Aviva
(Sharecast News) - Pressure is mounting on petrol station owners to slash fuel prices after accusations of not passing on falling wholesale costs to drivers. The average price of petrol in the UK fell by 8p a litre in December to 151p and diesel by 9p to 174p, according to the RAC. But the motoring group accused retailers, including the largest supermarkets, of not cutting prices quickly or significantly enough compared with the falls in wholesale costs. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: FTSE bosses, Wilko, energy bills, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - The bosses of Britain's biggest companies will have made more money in 2023 by Thursday afternoon than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, according to analysis of vast pay gaps amid strike action and the cost of living crisis. The High Pay Centre, a thinktank that campaigns for fairer pay for workers, said that by 2pm on the third working day of the year, a FTSE 100 chief executive will have been paid more on an hourly basis than a UK worker's annual salary, based on median average remuneration figures for both groups. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Inflation, rail strikes, Centrica, Apple, Guardian
(Sharecast News) - Food prices rose by a record 13.3 per cent in December, increasing fears that inflation may not fall as sharply in 2023 as central bankers and economists hope. The war in Ukraine led to sustained rises in the cost of animal feed, fertiliser and energy that squeezed supplies as demand rose, according to the latest monthly shop prices index published by the British Retail Consortium and NielsenIQ. It is the highest level recorded since the index began in 2005. - The Times
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, Tesla, house prices, Citymapper, retail footfall
(Sharecast News) - A generation of passengers will be put off travelling by train for good because of industrial action, ministers fear, as Britain enters the worst week of rail disruption for 30 years. Millions of people have been advised to avoid using the railways as the country faces five days of industrial action, effectively delaying the return to offices by a week as an estimated 80,000 trains are cancelled. - The Times
Sunday newspaper round-up: Dividend payments, Beijing, Dow Jones
(Sharecast News) - AJ Bell believes that dividend payments by FTSE 100 companies will hit a record £85.8bn in 2023, for an 8% increase in comparison to 2022 and far above the £61.8bn low plumbed during Covid-19. According to analysts cited by the broker, that was in spite of estimates for slower profit growth, which was expected to come to a halt in 2024. In fact, dividends of £90.9bn were projected for 2024. Nonetheless, just 20 names would account would account for 72% of the total in 2022 with Shell, Glencore, Rio Tinto and British American Tobacco at the top of the leaderboard for payouts. - Financial Mail on Sunday
Thursday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Pret A Manger, THG
(Sharecast News) - Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure to offer more help to older workers who have fallen out of the workforce due to ill health, as official figures show a sharp increase in the rates of long-term sickness in every region of the UK except London. Highlighting deep regional divisions, figures from the Office for National Statistics show economic inactivity due to long-term sickness has increased most among 50 to 64-year-olds outside the capital since the Covid pandemic. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: THG, Twitter, European aviation
(Sharecast News) - The troubled online beauty retailer THG faces more pain after a leading credit insurer reduced cover to its suppliers. The Guardian can reveal that Allianz Trade, one of the UK's largest credit insurers, cut back cover for suppliers to the beauty-to-nutrition retailer, formerly known as the Hut Group, in recent weeks. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Asda, Capricorn Energy, Wirecard
(Sharecast News) - MPs have called for a ban on forced installations of prepayment meters amid fears that elderly and vulnerable people are being effectively cut off from heating and power supplies. Prepayment meters (PPM) are under the spotlight as thousands of warrants allowing forced installations are being issued while households struggle with a rise in the cost of energy. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Elon Musk, SSE, Ikea
(Sharecast News) - Elon Musk has asked Twitter users whether he should step down as the head of the company, promising to abide by the results of his poll. Musk assumed the role of CEO at the end of October after firing a host of senior executives and dissolving its board of directors. Within minutes of posting the poll, more than one million people had voted. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Strikes, Lloyds, Aston Martin
(Sharecast News) - Strikes by Border Force were threatening the first restriction free Christmas in over three years for millions of passengers. More than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union were due to strike from Friday. People arriving in the UK might be made to wait in queues at passport controls for over two hours. Contingency plans also contemplated the possibility that they might be held on jets in order to avoid overcrowding in arrival halls. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Twitter, Harbour Energy, Unilever
(Sharecast News) - Tax dodging and non-compliance during the pandemic cost the government £9bn, Whitehall's spending watchdog has found. The loss to the public purse came as HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) moved thousands of tax compliance staff to Covid support schemes, reducing its capacity to investigate people and businesses not paying the right amount, according to the National Audit Office. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Goldman bankers, train strikes, Uber
(Sharecast News) - Goldman Sachs bankers are reportedly at risk of having their bonus pool slashed by up to 40%, in what could be the lender's largest cut to payouts since the 2008 financial crisis. The bank is still in the process of deciding the size of its bonus pools for 2022, but the prospective cut could mean its 3,000 investment bankers endure the most significant drop in variable pay among their peers, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the news. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, Binance, Asos
(Sharecast News) - The price of a fresh turkey centrepiece for Christmas dinner has increased by as much as 45% because of shortages caused by the bird flu outbreak, which has wiped out 1.6 million of the birds in the UK. Not only are prices up but the choice of fresh turkey is more limited in the major supermarkets, with the number of whole bird and crown options falling by about a third this year. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, gas shortages, easyJet
(Sharecast News) - Shoppers tearing their hair out in the search for Christmas presents online amid strike-hit parcel deliveries have been urged to try a low-tech solution: their local high street. With a quarter of annual toy sales rung up in December, the boss of The Entertainer toy chain told the Guardian it had been forced to extend its delivery window to up to seven days and drop its next-day offer due to the holdups. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Twitter, power prices, Channel 5, National Grid
(Sharecast News) - Twitter is relaunching its subscription service on Monday, offering users verified status for $8 (£6.50) a month or $11 a month on their iPhone. The move follows a botched revamp of the service last month that resulted in a host of impersonator accounts appearing on the platform as some users took advantage of the chance to launch bogus "verified" accounts for major companies and public figures. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Power prices, Broadband bills, Brexit protocol
(Sharecast News) - Power prices hit a record high due to a combination of a cold snap and a dearth of wind. Power prices in the UK for a day ahead hit a record £675 per megawatt hour on the Epex Spot Exchange on Sunday as the country was blanketed with snow and temperatures fell below zero. At the peak hours between five and six o'clock power costs surged to £2,586 per megawatt hour. Furthermore, National Grid forecast that power demand would peak at nearly 46,700 megawatts on Monday, versus 43,000 MW on Sunday. Energy supply from wind meanwhile fell to about 5% of the country's demands on Sunday, against an average of 28.5% over 2022. - The Sunday Telegraph
Friday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, National Grid, Morrisons
(Sharecast News) - A "permanent" strike at the factory that makes Jacob's Cream Crackers and Twiglets has come to an end after biscuit bosses crumbled and upped a pay deal for workers. More than 750 of about 800 workers returned to work at the brand's factory in Aintree on Thursday having won a 6.5% pay increase, backdated to January, with a £500 bonus payment on top and a further £250 bonus to follow in January next year. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Energy support, hospitality industry, Bulb
(Sharecast News) - Britain's biggest business group has urged ministers to quickly decide which industries will receive energy support from next spring as hundreds of companies brace for their bills to more than double. The Confederation of British Industry called on the government to urgently set out details of how it plans to extend the energy bill relief scheme for firms with large bills beyond March 2023. The scheme, which discounts the wholesale cost of energy for all companies, charities and public sector organisations, was introduced in October to replicate the support offered to households in cushioning the shock from rapidly rising energy bills. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Mortgages, Twitter, Bulb, Glencore
(Sharecast News) - The chancellor will urge the UK's largest banks to do all they can to support those struggling to pay their mortgage during the cost-of-living crisis when he holds his first talks with chief executives on Wednesday. Jeremy Hunt will host a roundtable with heads of major mortgage lenders, including Debbie Crosbie of Nationwide, HSBC UK's Ian Stuart and NatWest's Alison Rose to discuss the impact of rising interest rates and living costs on customers. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, housebuilding, Vodafone
(Sharecast News) - Hopes of a deal to avert severe Christmas rail disruption were dashed on Monday night when the RMT union announced additional strike dates and rebuffed a pay offer from Network Rail just before the industry's deadline. The union said it would put the offer to members in an electronic referendum this week but recommend that they reject it. It affirmed that two 48-hour strikes that will stop much of the railway next week would go ahead either way. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: RMT, Christmas cost, Smith & Nephew
(Sharecast News) - The RMT has rejected an offer from rail employers aimed at heading off more strikes. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) offered the union a pay rise of 8% over two years with a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies to April 2024, in an attempt to resolve a long-running dispute over jobs, pay and conditions. The RMT's general secretary, Mick Lynch, said: "We have rejected this offer as it does not meet any of our criteria for securing a settlement on long-term job security, a decent pay rise and protecting working conditions. - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: House prices, Brexit, Credit Suisse
(Sharecast News) - The founder of property website Rightmove, Harry Hill, is nervous about a potentially deep recession, which he believes could see transactions and house prices fall by double figures with the latter possibly down by 20%. With monthly mortgage repayments set to double next year, many mortgage holders may opt to sell. However, Hill also pointed out the housing market's brilliant run over recent years, such that most property values are well above the acquisition price. Hill has been mooted by activist investor Adam Smith as an ideal candidate to replace Purplebricks chairman Paul Pindar. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
Friday newspaper round-up: UK farmers, Total, Royal Mail
(Sharecast News) - UK farmers are receiving negligible profits for many items as food prices rise and supermarkets boast record takings. An average block of cheese or loaf of bread produces less than a penny for farmers, and fruit producers do not fare much better, making just 3p from each kilo of apples. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: Fuel poverty, strikes, Lloyds Banking
(Sharecast News) - More than 7 million people who no longer qualify for energy support from next spring face years in fuel poverty if average heat and light bills remain at £3,000, according to a report calling for more targeted help. In his November budget the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced that the government's energy price guarantee (EPG) would rise from April to £3,000 a year for the typical home, and the £400 help paid to all households this winter - regardless of income - would not be repeated. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Avanti West Coast, Twitter, FTSE reshuffle
(Sharecast News) - Labour has called on ministers to claw back £12m in dividends paid by Avanti West Coast to its shareholders last year, when it was subsidised by £343m by the taxpayer. Figures released by the rail watchdog on Tuesday showed that Avanti paid out £12m in 2021-22 from management and performance fees. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Retailers, Elon Musk, LME
(Sharecast News) - UK retailers have launched a barrage of discounts to try to clear stock after a month of falling sales as soaring inflation and bills hit households' budgets and a warm autumn reduced demand for coats and boots. On Monday, New Look was offering a 50% discount off all products, Asos up to 80% off almost all lines and Boohoo 30% off everything, with many other fashion retailers - including Marks & Spencer, River Island and Matalan - offering between 20% and 30% cuts. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Amazon, British Airways, De La Rue
(Sharecast News) - Amazon's UK tax bill jump could jump by £29m next year as a result of changes to business rates that are scheduled to hit warehouses and online retailers the hardest. The online retailer is likely to be among firms facing big tax rises following the chancellor's autumn statement, according to analysis from the real estate adviser Altus Group. - Guardian
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