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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 UK government officials expressed serious doubts about Paula Vennells' suitability as the chief executive of the Post Office and considered sacking her in 2014, five years before she resigned, the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal has heard. According to internal government documents shown at the inquiry on Thursday, officials and other Post Office board members had concerns about Vennells' leadership a decade ago. - Guardian

Mike Lynch, the British technology tycoon, has been cleared of fraud over the multibillion-dollar sale of his software company Autonomy. A San Francisco jury acquitted Mr Lynch on Thursday in a remarkable redemption for the entrepreneur, who has been plagued by legal problems since the company's sale 13 years ago. - Telegraph

Weak economic growth could send the national debt climbing by £28bn and blow both Labour and the Tories' fiscal targets, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have been urged to set out plans for how they would deal with a downturn in the economy, amid warnings that public finances are on a knife edge. Both Labour and the Conservatives have made it their target to have the UK's mountain of debt shrinking within five years, a key fiscal rule. - Telegraph

Labour will promise to get more young people on the housing ladder as it announces its "freedom to buy" scheme on Friday. The party will pledge to make the existing mortgage guarantee scheme - which sees the government act as a guarantor for people unable to save big deposits - into a permanent fixture if it wins the election on 4 July. - Sky News

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Thursday newspaper round-up: CMA, Riverford, Lloyds, Arm Holdings
(Sharecast News) - The appointment of the former boss of Amazon UK to lead the competition watchdog poses a threat to its independence and pledge to hold big tech to account, according to a group including tech companies and the former business secretary Vince Cable. The group - which includes the News Media Association, the Firefox developer Mozilla, the consumer group Which? and the Future of Technology Institute - has written to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to raise concerns about the appointment of Doug Gurr as the interim chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, Johnson & Johnson, BoE
(Sharecast News) - Thames Water may need as much as £10bn in debt and equity investment to repair its finances, according to a representative of creditors hoping to lend the struggling utility another £3bn. London's high court heard evidence on Tuesday that suggested the UK's largest water company may need significantly more resources than the roughly £6.3bn it has previously indicated. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Zero-hours contracts, Barclays, Asos
(Sharecast News) - Hundreds of thousands of British workers are on zero-hours contracts despite being with the same employer for years, according to analysis from the TUC. The majority of zero-hours contract workers have been with their employer for more than 12 months, while one in eight have not been granted regular employment rights after more than a decade working in the same place, the organisation said. - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Apple, Daily Mail, OpenAI, Homebase
(Sharecast News) - Apple slightly beat analysts' expectations in its first-quarter earnings for fiscal year 2025 on Thursday. The iPhone-maker's revenue rose by 4%, coming in at $124.30bn, barely above estimates of $124.12bn. Earnings per share were $2.40, just ahead of analysts' expectations of $2.35. Shares rose more than 8% in extended trading after CEO Tim Cook indicated in an earnings call on Thursday that Apple is on the trajectory for revenue growth next quarter. - Guardian

Important information: This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice. When you are thinking about investing in shares, it’s generally a good idea to consider holding them alongside other investments in a diversified portfolio of assets. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

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