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Monday newspaper round-up: BT Group, Business rates, Small business

(Sharecast News) - Thousands of BT and Openreach workers will go on strike again on Monday in a dispute over pay. Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), including call centre workers and engineers, will hold a 24-hour strike, after similar action on Friday. The union will mount picket lines outside company offices across the UK and is asking people to bring food, which it will deliver to local food banks. - Guardian One of Britain's biggest shopkeepers has joined the call for Tory leadership candidates to prioritise a shake-up of 'outdated' business rates. Iceland boss Richard Walker urged the next prime minister to promise a 'root and branch' reform of the tax. He said the levy is penalising bricks and mortar retailers and, without a fundamental change, the High Street will 'continue to decline'. - Daily Mail

Half of smaller suppliers are still being paid late by their clients, triggering calls for the government to increase efforts to clamp down on the practice. As two key initiatives to address the problem stall, figures from the Federation of Small Businesses show that between April and June half of the 1,300 small business owners and sole traders surveyed for its quarterly research reported being paid late, while one in five said the issue was getting worse. - The Times

BP is to invest up to £50 million in a new global battery research and development centre in Britain. Planned to open by the end of 2024, the facilities will be located at the headquarters for its Castrol business in Pangbourne, Berkshire. They will help to advance the development of leading fluid technologies and engineering for hybrid and fully battery electric vehicles, with the aim of bringing the industry closer to the tipping point for mainstream electric vehicle adoption. - The Times

Waitrose is removing best-before dates from nearly 500 fresh food products in an effort to reduce food waste. From September, the staff-owned supermarket chain will scrap the dates on packaged fruit and vegetables, including lettuce, cucumber and peppers, to encourage consumers to use their own judgment about when food has gone off. The move is expected to cut food waste by preventing people from throwing away products that are still edible, the retailer says. - Guardian

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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
Thursday newspaper round-up: Car production, UK retailers, water bills, KPMG
(Sharecast News) - The architect of a ban on newspaper takeovers by foreign states has demanded that an Abu Dhabi fund be forced to sell The Telegraph by Easter. Baroness Stowell, the Conservative chairman of the Lords communications and digital committee, said the Government should impose an ultimatum on RedBird IMI. It should be backed by the threat of regulatory action, she said, to strip the fund of control of what has been dubbed "the newspaper auction from hell". - Telegraph

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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