Friday newspaper round-up: Nuclear power stations, THG, Klarna

(Sharecast News) - The cost of decommissioning the UK's seven ageing nuclear power stations has nearly doubled to £23.5bn and is likely to rise further, the public accounts committee has said. The soaring costs of safely decommissioning the advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs), including Dungeness B, Hunstanton B and Hinkley B, are being loaded on to the taxpayer, their report said. - Guardian Canada says it will ban Huawei and ZTE from the country's 5G network, a move that puts it in line with intelligence-sharing allies, but risks further chilling relations with China. The federal government made the announcement on Thursday afternoon after signalling for months it intended to block China's flagship telecommunications companies from accessing 5G networks in Canada. - Guardian

Property mogul Nick Candy is considering a bid for struggling online retailer THG, which said on Thursday night that it has rejected a £2bn offer from a separate group of investors. Shares in THG had earlier closed at 116p, down more than 80pc since last September after Matt Moulding's company failed to reassure City investors over the value of its IT platform Ingenuity. - Telegraph

Billions could be wiped off the valuation of Klarna, the "buy now, pay later" fintech business, amid regulatory scrutiny, increased competition and a broader sell-off of technology shares. One of Europe's most valuable private technology companies, Klarna is thought to be seeking to raise up to $1 billion at a valuation of just over $30 billion - a drop of 30 per cent compared with its previous financing round. Klarna, which claims 16 million users in Britain, has been hit by concerns about a regulatory clampdown and more competition, including from traditional rivals such as banks. - The Times