Monday newspaper round-up: Rolls-Royce, Booker, Deutsche Bank

Civil servants are carrying out an internal inquiry to establish whether the engineering giant Rolls-Royce fraudulently obtained financial support worth hundreds of millions of pounds from the government. The inquiry was launched after the multinational manufacturer admitted last month it had used multimillion-pound bribes to secure export orders across the world over four decades. – Guardian

The organisation that provides warranties for most of the new homes in Britain is paying millions of pounds to the leading housebuilders every year, raising questions about its independence and credibility amid a wave of complaints about the quality of new-build properties. NHBC, the standard-setting body and main home construction warranty provider for new builds in the UK, is paying around £10m to £15m every year to housebuilders through what is effectively a profit-share agreement. The largest firms can receive as much as £2m from the scheme, because it rewards the developers who registered the most homes with NHBC. - Guardian

Booker bosses will launch a charm offensive this week in an attempt to convince Britain’s shopkeepers of the merits of its shock £3.7bn Tesco merger, amid rising concerns that the deal will strangle competition in the convenience store market. Booker chief executive Charles Wilson and managing director Steve Fox will begin by addressing thousands of Premier convenience franchise owners at Newbury Racecourse next Wednesday as part of a tour of the UK. - Telegraph

Deutsche Bank has taken the unusual step of apologising to the German public for the damage caused by its ongoing legal problems, which last week helped to push the bank to its second consecutive annual loss. Germany’s biggest bank took out full-page adverts in 10 of the country’s national newspapers over the weekend, in which it admitted that its past misconduct “not only cost us a lot of money; they have also cost us dearly in terms of reputation and trust”. - Telegraph

A hard Brexit could boost the pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors by more than £200 million, according to a study that reveals a surprise silver lining to leaving the single market. Drug companies and aeroplane parts groups represent two of Britain's most thriving export sectors and executives in both industries had issued stark warnings about leaving the EU. – The Times

Furious institutional investors in Sports Direct are considering calling for tighter listing rules to prevent dominant shareholders flouting boardroom standards. One option — to increase the minimum proportion of a company’s shares that must be freely held to qualify for a premium listing, from 25 per cent to 50 per cent — would stymie Mike Ashley, who owns 56 per cent of Sports Direct. – The Times