Sunday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Nissan, M&S, Debenhams, CYBG

Nissan has confirmed it is abandoning plans to build a new model of one of its flagship vehicles at its Sunderland plant, as it warned that uncertainty over Brexit was affecting businesses. The Japanese car manufacturer announced in 2016 it would be making the new version of the X-Trail SUV at the factory in north-east England after receiving unspecified assurances about Brexit from the government, but now says it would be produced in Japan. - Observer

Theresa May has invoked the support of Jeremy Corbyn to insist the EU must offer concessions on her Brexit deal, as she pledges to "battle for Britain" when she travels to Brussels to re-open negotiations this week. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mrs May states that although the Labour leader refused to support her in the Commons last week, he also believes that the controversial Irish backstop "needs to be addressed with Brussels".

...In Brussels, however, officials insist that neither of the options proposed last Tuesday exists in real life — and that the withdrawal agreement cannot be renegotiated. With time ticking down to March 29, many are visibly irritated, exhausted and depressed that an agreement that took years to negotiate has been upended by the prime minister who helped to devise it. - Sunday Times

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, today claimed that a technological solution could do away with the Irish backstop “with a bit of goodwill from Europe”. Mr Javid appeared to go further than Downing Street by backing plans put forward by Tory Brexiteers for Britain to demand that the EU scraps the backstop entirely. - Sunday Times

A no-deal Brexit would see Britain’s economy slow to a crawl over the next two years, but growth is likely to accelerate if an agreement is reached, according to an influential forecaster. EY Item Club, which uses the Treasury’s forecasting model, expects the economy to expand by 0.7% this year and 0.6% next year under a no-deal Brexit — with the potential for a recession in the second half of 2019. - Sunday Times

KPMG is inserting Brexit clauses in its audits in a sign that accounting firms are distancing themselves from potential collapses triggered by political chaos. It is the first of the 'Big Four' auditors to add warnings to company reports saying it cannot be held accountable if Brexit ravages an audited business's balance sheet. - Mail on Sunday

Soaring rents and stagnant pay have hit the youngest workers hardest over the past decade. Now things may be looking up for millennials, who are seeing their spending power rise faster than that of older people, according to a new report. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found that under-30s saw their pay rise by 0.8% last year, after adjusting for inflation, compared with a decline of 1.8% for the over-50s. - Sunday Times

Savers earned more in interest last year than property owners recouped in house price growth for the first time since 2012, according to the latest figures from Royal London, an insurance firm. The best fixed-rate savings bond on the market pays 2.75pc a year, said Moneyfacts, a data provider, while figures from the Land Registry showed the value of the average home in England rose just 2.6pc in the past 12 months to £247,430. - Sunday Telegraph

Britain's biggest housebuilders are poised to dish out a record £2.6 billion in dividends to shareholders this year – despite failing to tackle the housing crisis. The staggering amount to be handed out mainly to City investors in 2019 – largely as a result of taxpayer-funded schemes – is enough to build 11,400 houses. - Mail on Sunday

The UK “urgently” needs stricter banking rules to stop businesses in ­financial difficulties from being mistreated, a Conservative MP has warned. In a letter sent to City minister John Glen, Kevin Hollinrake argued that UK businesses do not have the same level of protection as borrowers in ­Ireland. He also said bankers are still not being held accountable. - Sunday Telegraph

Innocent people are increasingly being denied access to their money without any explanation from their banks. Figures show the number of complaints from customers locked out of accounts rose by a fifth in just 12 months. The steep rise comes as banks face intense scrutiny of their ability to combat the rising threat of transfer fraud. - Sunday Telegraph

Alleged victims of mis-selling by Clydesdale Bank will be able to claim compensation under a review of the historic mistreatment of small business customers funded by the banking industry. A business ombudsman for historic cases will be set up as part of a dispute resolution service proposed by the trade body UK Finance. The scheme is voluntary but all the leading banks are expected to be involved. - Sunday Times

Debenhams will this week reveal it has secured a lifeline from its lenders as the embattled department store chain races to tackle its bloated balance sheet and its burdensome store estate. The retailer has been locked in survival talks with some of Wall Street's most aggressive hedge funds, including Angelo Gordon, Alcentra and Silverpoint, about injecting fresh cash into the business to give it some much needed breathing space from its financial commitments. - Sunday Telegraph

Debenhams has advanced plans for a controversial form of insolvency known as a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) by instructing property agents to determine the rent it should pay on its stores. The CVA — a procedure in which struggling retailers can close stores and reduce rents — could be launched before Debenhams’ next quarterly rent payment date falls due in late March. - Sunday Times

Activist investor Crystal Amber has built a secret stake in Allied Minds, the US-based technology incubator backed by Neil Woodford. Richard Bernstein, Crystal Amber’s aggressive fund manager, is understood to have bought just under 2% of Allied Minds. Crystal Amber is known to target high executive salaries and the strategies of boards. - Sunday Times

A row between energy suppliers and government will reignite this week as the regulator prepares to lift household bills to within a breath of all-time highs. Ofgem is widely expected to usher in the biggest round of bill hikes on Thursday by lifting the controversial price cap for standard dual-fuel tariffs used by around 11m households. - Sunday Telegraph

West End landlord Shaftesbury’s board has won the support of two of the country’s most influential investor groups as it prepares for a showdown with its largest shareholder this week. Sammy Tak Lee, the Hong Kong billionaire who owns more than a quarter of Shaftesbury’s shares, has urged his fellow shareholders to join him in blocking three resolutions that will ­allow its directors to raise money by creating new shares. - Sunday Telegraph

Domino’s Pizza Group faces a growing rebellion from its franchisees — almost all of whom are believed to be refusing to open stores for the first half of this year. In a move that suggests the rancour between the company and its store owners is far worse than thought, almost all the franchisees have joined a group to lobby for a greater share of profits. - Sunday Times

Marks & Spencer chairman Archie Norman has 25 days to decide whether to push ahead with plans for a 'transformational' £1billion deal with Ocado to launch a food delivery service. Norman has been holding talks with home delivery giant Ocado, revealed last weekend, as part of his efforts to revitalise the historic high street chain. - Mail on Sunday

British Airways has scored two major legal victories in the space of just a few weeks. After a 20-year cartel case, an accuser was told it could only claim for a limited period. And US outsourcing giant CBRE agreed a payout for the IT meltdown that left tens of thousands of BA passengers stranded at Heathrow in May 2017, costing BA £56 million. - Mail on Sunday

The Indian telecoms tycoon Sunil ­Mittal is dialling up plans for a blockbuster $8bn (£6bn) London float of his Airtel Africa empire, in a boost for the City’s battle to attract major international listings. Mr Mittal, a multi-billionaire who controls India’s second-largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, has instructed advisers Bank of America Merrill Lynch to finalise the supporting line-up of banks for the share sale, which is pencilled in for later this year. - Sunday Telegraph

Secret Escapes is holding talks with investment banks about a potential £500m stock market float. The move is the clearest intention to date that Secret Escapes’ next fundraising will come by way of a listing on the public markets. - Sunday Telegraph

Credit card processing companies withheld payments from Norwegian Air Shuttle amid fears that the carrier might go bust, putting more pressure on its precarious finances. A number of the payment acquirers are said to have held back money in recent months to avoid being left short if the airline collapsed. - Sunday Times

A Canadian entrepreneur has made a dramatic late entrance in the race to buy HMV — a move that threatens to derail Mike Ashley’s latest high street raid. Doug Putman is said to be holding talks with HMV’s administrators and suppliers over a deal to buy the music and games retailer out of administration. - Sunday Times

Wedding rings could be made of UK gold after a major find in the hills of Northern Ireland, which could also generate one of the nation’s biggest environmental battles for many years. The gold mine, potentially the UK’s biggest, would extract millions of tons of gold ore from the Sperrin Mountains, a range renowned for its beauty, and then dump the waste on the slopes to create a huge spoil heap. - Sunday Times

Theresa May’s attitude to foreign takeovers is about to be tested as the Hong Kong-based billionaire Li Ka-shing and Chinese state power giants plot bids for a significant electricity network. Electricity North West, which supplies 5m people from Manchester to rural Cumbria, is being sold by US bank JP Morgan and Australian investor Colonial First State for an estimated £2bn. - Sunday Times

The data protection watchdog has called for online political advertising to be halted until parties and campaigns agree new rules on the digital “manipulation” of voters. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the use of data analytics and technology in political campaigns has left Britain “at a crucial juncture, where trust and confidence in the integrity of our democratic process risks being undermined if an ethical pause is not taken”. - Sunday Times

Flybe pensioners could face financial ruin if a rescue takeover led by Virgin Atlantic falls through, after it emerged that the airline’s retirement fund is 
not protected by Britain’s pension lifeboat. Some £170m of benefits owed to 1,350 members of the British Regional Airlines Group pension scheme may be wiped out if the Exeter-based airline failed because Flybe’s pension fund is registered in the Isle of Man, rather than the UK. - Sunday Telegraph

Holiday firm On the Beach is facing an investor rebellion over a 22 per cent pay hike awarded to its finance chief. Influential shareholder advisory group Glass Lewis criticised the firm's decision to lift chief financial officer Paul Meehan's salary by £55,000. - Mail on Sunday

Fashion chain Monsoon has asked for cuts to its rent bills as it considers 'accelerating' shop closures during one of the toughest periods in retail history. The 268-store group includes Accessorize and is owned by fashion millionaire Peter Simon. - Mail on Sunday

Patisserie Valerie administrator KPMG has blocked a rescue attempt by the former boss of cafe chain Druckers. Veteran restaurateur David Scott, who had hoped to save “at least half” of Patisserie Valerie’s remaining 122 shops, has been frozen out of the sales process of the coffee and cake chain. - Sunday Telegraph

Patisserie Valerie has been accused of failing to pay hundreds of staff who lost their jobs last month after it crashed into administration. A former duty manager at the café chain's site in Southport called the treatment of staff 'disgusting' and said colleagues were given 30 minutes' notice that the store was closing. - Mail on Sunday

A pair of private equity firms are close to sealing a billion pound deal in the North Sea that will hand them a stake in the giant Laggan-Tormore gas field. Total is expected to unveil the $1.3bn (£1bn) sale of a clutch of oil and gas fields in the North Sea region to Albion Energy and First Alpha Energy Capital this week, according to sources. Sunday Telegraph

Cosmetics chain SK:N has been scooped up by the owner of the restaurant chains Rosa’s Thai and Thunderbird Fried Chicken in a deal worth about £35m. The private equity firm TriSpan is understood to be planning to expand SK:N’s healthcare brand. - Sunday Times

Fashion chain Uniqlo has reported soaring sales as it plans to open its first UK store outside the South East, but warned a chaotic Brexit could hamper its growth. As fears rise of a no-deal Brexit, the Japanese firm said the UK's departure from the European Union could create 'challenges' for its business here but it is still going to open in Manchester in the spring. - Mail on Sunday

A British former music and TV executive has raised $2m (£1.7m) from a starry cast of tech investors to launch a Pinterest-style app that enables users to create lists for sharing and shopping. Jon Vlassopulos, who was an executive at Big Brother producer Endemol, launched Tribalist on the idea that lists, rather than sequential feeds of social media sites such as Twitter, could be a more helpful —and lucrative — way for users to organise and find content online. - Sunday Times

For vegans, even electricity and gas are becoming morally repulsive after revelations that most of Britain’s biggest energy companies use animal by-products to generate power. The finding emerged after the Vegan Society was asked by an energy company, Ecotricity, if it could brand its power as vegan. - Sunday Times

Manchester United legends Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs have reported growing losses at their hotel and restaurant business. The Old Trafford Supporters Club runs Hotel Football near the stadium and a restaurant in the National Football Museum in Manchester. - Mail on Sunday

A new study goes a long way toward suggesting the benefits of cutting Facebook out of our lives altogether. The study, titled The Welfare Effects of Social Media, from researchers at Stanford and NYU, found logging off leads to increased subjective wellbeing, less political drama and attention span agitation, and increased time spent with friends and family. - Observer

The Queen and other senior royals will be evacuated from London in the event of riots triggered by a no-deal Brexit, under secret plans being drawn up by Whitehall. Emergency proposals to rescue the royal family during the Cold War have been “repurposed” in recent weeks, as the risk continues to rise of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal before next month’s deadline. - Sunday Times