Sunday newspaper round-up: BoE, Metro Bank, M&S, Countrywide, Brexit

A cocktail of risks is stirring in the global economy that could be damaging for Brexit-bound Britain, according to Sir Jon Cunliffe, a Bank of England deputy governor. Escalating trade wars, strains in emerging markets and a rising possibility of a Chinese credit crisis could combine into a “painful” experience for the British economy. - Sunday Times.

Powerful hedge fund managers, including Crispin Odey, have upped their bets against Metro Bank amid mounting speculation that the lender must issue new shares in coming months. Almost a tenth of the stock is now out on loan. Odey Asset Management last week increased its short position in the challenger bank to 1.38%, while other investors betting against Metro include Marshall Wace, JP Morgan, BlackRock, CZ Capital and Parvus Asset Management Europe. - Sunday Times

Short-selling of Marks & Spencer shares has soared to a record high with hedge funds having placed a collective £800 million bet on a slump in the price. Short positions – contracts that allow speculators to gamble that the value of a business will fall – reached almost 17 per cent of Marks & Spencer’s stock last week. - Mail on Sunday

Online property firm Emoov has made an audacious bid to merge with Countrywide, Britain’s biggest estate agent. Countrywide, which owns scores of high street chains including Hamptons and Gascoigne-Pees, last week posted its second profit warning of the year, wiping more than £50 million off its stock market value. - Mail on Sunday

BREXIT AND OTHER POLITICAL WRANGLING

The leader of backbench Conservative MPs has made a dramatic plea to warring cabinet ministers to unite at a crucial Chequers meeting this week – or risk a botched Brexit and a Jeremy Corbyn-led government. Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, suggests that ministers should learn lessons in discipline from their backbench colleagues, after an extraordinary week of infighting at the top of government. - Observer

Theresa May has vowed to defy cabinet plotters, telling aides that she will not be bullied out of office by ministers or hardline Brexiteers opposed to her EU plans. The prime minister has decided to stand and fight if Tory MPs force a vote to oust her — declaring that she is content to “win by one vote”. - Sunday Times

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is examining evidence of new Russian links to Arron Banks, the Brexit campaign’s largest donor. The crime-fighting agency has been handed a cache of the millionaire businessman’s emails that reveal undisclosed meetings between him and the Russian ambassador in London and show that Banks was offered three Russian business deals during the Brexit campaign. - Sunday Times

Significant planning is going on to prepare the NHS for the prospect of a no-deal Brexit, including securing continuation of medical supplies, the head of the health service has said. Concerns have been raised that if Britain leaves the EU without a deal, disruption to imports of drugs and medical equipment could cause widespread hardship to patients. - Observer

More than 6,000 British broadcasting jobs are at risk from Brexit, according to a secret industry analysis. The threat comes because broadcasters fear losing their ability to transmit their channels across the EU from the UK under 'country of origin' rules. - Mail on Sunday

The cost of war pensions and UN peace keeping missions should be stripped out of the defence budget to save £2billion a year, under plans being developed by military chiefs. The idea could be offered by defence secretary Gavin Williamson to Chancellor Philip Hammond as a peace offering after an increasingly fractious war of words over defence spending. - Sunday Telegraph

Landlords will be forced to give tenants a minimum three-year contract – but allow them to leave earlier if they want – under government proposals to give renters more security. The longer tenancies, proposed by communities secretary James Brokenshire in a consultation paper to be published on Monday, would stop landlords forcing tenants out at short notice. - Observer

Politicians and unions have hailed the merger of Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp, the steel giants, but warned sustained investment is needed to safeguard thousands of UK steel jobs. The two firms confirmed they are combining their European steel operations yesterday in a 50:50 joint venture. Between them they employ 48,000 workers. - Sunday Telegraph

Crisis-hit Govia Thameslink will be stripped of its rail franchises and forced to give hundreds of thousands of commuters free travel for a month if services do not improve within a fortnight. Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, is drawing up plans to remove the Thameslink and Great Northern routes from parent company Govia Thameslink if there is no improvement to services by July 15, when a new interim timetable will be introduced. GTR is a joint venture 65% owned by Go-Ahead Group. - Sunday Telegraph

Theresa May's Government was last night accused of 'declaring war on the business community' as a number of heavyweight Tory donors blasted the attitudes of senior Brexiteers. Bosses said relations between the Tories and business have hit a low not seen since the industrial strife of the 1970s due to recent comments from senior party figures Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith and Jeremy Hunt. - Mail on Sunday

KEEPING CASUAL, SORRELL'S RETURN

Casual Dining Group, the owner of Café Rouge, has orchestrated a debt-for-equity swap with its lenders in an attempt to slash its weighty interest bill. Under the deal, worth an estimated £150m, the American private equity giant KKR and Pemberton Asset Management will take shares in the company in exchange for writing off some debts. The deal also includes a £30m cash injection. - Sunday Times

Former WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell has raised £100 million for his new marketing services venture, The Mail on Sunday understands. The advertising mogul was rounding up City investors last week as he prepared for his dramatic stock market return. He did so amid allegations – which he denies – that he used WPP money to pay a prostitute and that he bullied staff.

The number of companies going bust is expected to jump this year as the high street crisis deepens, and other parts of the economy begin to struggle. Turnaround specialist Alvarez and Marsal has warned that a prolonged bout of dismal trading has left the retail industry facing a “make or break” ­moment. - Sunday Telegraph

Allan Leighton, the serial corporate troubleshooter, is set to make a shock intervention in the increasingly acrimonious battle for control of FTSE 250 conglomerate Stobart Group. The former boss of supermarket chain Asda is being lined up as interim chairman of the stricken energy and aviation company by M&G, a 5.4% shareholder. Leighton would replace Stobart’s current chairman Iain Ferguson. - Sunday Times

First there were worries about the beer running out because of a carbon dioxide shortage. Now a “crisps crisis” is looming. The head of one of Britain’s biggest independent crisp makers has warned that the Beast from the East, followed by the heatwave, has played havoc with potato crops. - Sunday Times

The chairman of Bird’s custard and Bisto gravy maker Premier Foods has promised to “sort out” the company’s problems as its spat with a hedge fund escalated further this weekend. Oasis Management, which owns a 9.3pc stake, has demanded the head of boss Gavin Darby, but chairman Keith Hamill said he needed more time. - Sunday Telegraph

Logistics firm Wincanton faces growing shareholder unrest after a major investor reiterated calls for a break-up and accused bosses of ­being overpaid. In a letter to chairman Stewart Oades, obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, Gatemore repeated proposals to offload parts of the business. - Sunday Telegraph

The insurance industry is pulling the wool over customers’ eyes with a recent promise to end discriminatory pricing – a regime that results in longstanding policyholders paying more than new ones with the same cover. This is the damning view of a leading consumer representative in regulatory circles who accuses the industry of ‘giving the appearance’ of cleaning up its act while introducing new pricing strategies that ‘have nothing to do with treating customers fairly’ – and everything to do with ‘maximising profits’. - Mail on Sunday

Sir Philip Green's family firm Taveta is considering legal action over a report by the accountancy regulator into the audit of failed department store BHS. A judge last week said the Financial Reporting Council could publish its report, but that it may be 'defamatory'. - Mail on Sunday

A secretive fund from Oman is in talks to buy a £50m stake in a London-listed lithium miner amid an escalating land grab for the mineral — a crucial component in electric car batteries. The Gulf nation’s State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) wants to buy a chunk of Bacanora Minerals, an AIM-quoted company looking to raise £400m in debt and shares to develop a Mexican lithium mine, say City sources. - Sunday Times

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is either “deceptive” or “delusional” in his pledges that Tesla will hit production targets and break into profitability, according to the world’s most renowned company valuation expert. Aswath Damodaran, a New York University professor known as Wall Street’s “dean of valuation”, issued his scathing critique last week as it emerged that Musk, 47, has resorted to sleeping on the floor of Tesla’s California factory because of the long hours he is working to try to resolve production problems. - Sunday Times

Google has been accused of running a “cynical” behind-the-scenes campaign to torpedo new EU copyright rules that would force it to pay music labels substantially higher fees for streaming their songs on YouTube. The internet search giant and other US tech goliaths are funding a slew of lobby groups seeking to quash a proposed change in the rules. - Sunday Times

Some of Britain's biggest firms are failing professional mothers who would leave their jobs 'in a heartbeat' if they were offered more flexible roles elsewhere. Entrepreneur Juliet Turnbull said women are becoming 'exhausted' trying to hold down full-time jobs which restrict the time the can spend with their young children because alternatives are not available. - Mail on Sunday

Super car manufacturer McLaren has been drawn into a mystery Government investigation that could damage its finances. Buried in the McLaren Group’s annual accounts, the business said it had been approached by unnamed “UK government authorities in connection with an ongoing investigation”, where investigators are seeking “information concerning certain third-party companies and concerning executive and other persons who have been, or are currently, associated with the group”. - Sunday Telegraph

The owner of hotel chains Malmaison and Hotel du Vin fell to a loss last year as a slump in consumer spending and higher overheads took their toll. Frasers Hospitality UK Holdings, which runs 34 hotels, fell to a loss of £187,000, compared with a pre-tax profit of £7.3m in the 16 months prior. Sales were flat in the year to September, at around £145m. - Sunday Telegraph