Friday newspaper round-up: Carillion, Rio Tinto, gas supply, Siemens

The board of Carillion dismissed a proposal that could have poured £218m into the government contractor’s ailing pension scheme, believing a month before the company’s collapse that they could still revive its fortunes. Details of a plan drawn up by accountancy firm EY, but rejected by directors, emerged as MPs conducting an inquiry into Carillion’s failure released evidence they said proved “pervasive institutional failings” at the company. - Guardian

The voice of Australia’s coal lobby is under renewed threat as the country’s second biggest miner, Rio Tinto, faces a shareholder revolt over its membership of lobby groups including the Minerals Council of Australia and the role it plays in Australia’s climate and energy debate. Global investors worth $84bn have joined together to file a shareholder motion calling on Rio Tinto to rethink its membership of the MCA, NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) and the Queensland Resources Council (QRC). It demands Rio Tinto reveal all membership fees paid since 2012, review the consistency of the MCA’s lobbying positions with those held by Rio Tinto, and disclose what it would take for Rio to quit its membership of the MCA. – Guardian

British factories are preparing to shutter some of their operations to help National Grid avert a national gas supply crisis, as freezing temperatures sweep the country. For the first time in almost a decade National Grid said gas supplies will not be enough to meet demand, unless energy-intensive industries agree to use less gas in return for hefty compensation payments levied on to consumer bills. – Telegraph

UK lenders’ use of cheap Bank of England funding surged at the end of 2017, just weeks before the tap was due to be turned off The central bank’s £140bn Term Funding Scheme (TFS) was launched after the Brexit vote to boost the supply of cheap funding to the real economy. It closed on Wednesday this week. - Telegraph

Siemens is to open Britain’s third train manufacturing plant - if it wins multibillion-pound rolling stock orders for either HS2 or London Underground. With the German engineering group bidding for more than £5 billion of orders for the 225mph high-speed HS2 trains and the next generation of Tube rolling stock, it has begun plans to build a manufacturing plant at Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It will create 700 manufacturing jobs and 1,700 more in the supply chain. – The Times

There are fears that other high-street retailers could follow Toys R Us and Maplin into financial crisis as City analysts warned that the gloom engulfing the sector was likely to persist. Shares in Mothercare lost more than 12 per cent of their value yesterday after falling heavily the previous day, and Next and Debenhams both suffered falls after Toys R Us, the American toy company, and Maplin, the electrical goods retailer, went into administration on Wednesday. – The Times