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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 Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz declared almost a decade ago that 2014 "was the last year in which the United States could claim to be the world's largest economic power." It was, he claimed, the start of the "Chinese century". He was wrong: the US remains the world's largest economy. Yet experts keep predicting that China will soon become the preeminent global superpower, now believing that China's GDP will overtake America in the late 2030s. - Telegraph

Hooking up millions of electric vehicles, heat pumps and other devices to the UK's electricity grid could save up to £4.7bn a year by the end of this decade, the energy watchdog has predicted. Ofgem on Thursday set out proposals for how the electricity grid of the future could work, using technology to ensure infrastructure is used as efficiently as possible. - Telegraph

Esken, the listed company spun out of the old Eddie Stobart trucking business that plans to create a sixth London airport at Southend, has announced that it is to sell the empty site as well as other assets. The former Stobart Group changed its name to Esken, which means "arise" in old English, in an attempt to get away from a controversial past punctuated by High Court litigation. - The Times

An ambitious state-backed project intended to enable everyone in Britain to see all their pension arrangements on one screen has been delayed because of the complexity of connecting the first pension schemes. The government said yesterday that "additional time" was needed for pensions providers to meet the deadline of August 31 to connect to the central computer system of the "pensions dashboard programme". - The Times

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Monday newspaper round-up: Service charge, BP, Heathrow, Elon Musk
(Sharecast News) - An increasingly complex tax system is burdening the government and businesses with hundreds of millions of pounds more in administration costs, Whitehall's spending watchdog has warned. The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) also said "poor levels of service" meant some taxpayers and their representatives were "finding it more difficult to deal with their tax matters and are losing trust in HM Revenue & Customs [HMRC]". - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Etihad float, Shein, Thames Water
(Sharecast News) - Abu Dhabi based carrier Etihad is planning to float a stake of up to 20% on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. Sources indicate that it could command a valuation of $5bn (£4bn). It would be the second such transaction for its boss, Antonoaldo Neves. In 2017, the former McKinsey partner floated Azul, Brazil's third-largest airline, on the New York Stock Exchange. For Neves, any airline that aspires to be "relevant" needs to tap into different sources of capital. Its goal is to fly 170 jets by 2030, up from 93 at present. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Gambling sector, FOS, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - The gambling regulator has accidentally handed over more than 4,000 sensitive documents to lawyers acting for the media tycoon Richard Desmond, in an "unprecedented" blunder during its legal battle over the £6.4bn national lottery contract, the Guardian understands. Northern & Shell (N&S), the investment group owned by Desmond, is suing the Gambling Commission for £200m in damages over its handling of the lottery licence award process. - Guardian
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

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