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 Rupert Murdoch has scrapped a proposal to combine Fox Corp with News Corp, in a deal that would have reunited the media empire he split nearly a decade ago. In 2013, shareholders approved a plan to divide the media giant's assets, which include the Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Australian, from its entertainment division in the wake of the UK's phone hacking scandal. Murdoch said at the time that the separation would "unlock the true value of both companies and their distinct assets". - Guardian

Britain was exporting power to Ireland even as British households were asked to cut their usage on Monday night, export flows show. Traders sent electricity via undersea cables to Northern Ireland and the Republic while thousands of British households avoided activities such as running the washing machine to save electricity in Britain. - Telegraph

Businesses came under increasing financial stress in the final months of last year as people reined in spending in response to rising household bills. The number of companies in critical financial distress jumped by 36 per cent in the final quarter, according to a report by Begbies Traynor, the insolvency specialist. - The Times

Two of Britain's biggest energy suppliers have admitted they have not passed on taxpayer-funded discounts in the bills of their small business customers. Both British Gas, which supplies more than 350,000 organisations with electricity and gas, and SSE Energy Solutions, the non-domestic division of SSE that provides energy to half a million customers, said a "small number" were affected, but declined to say how many. - The Times