Thursday newspaper round-up: HSBC, UK car production, Facebook, Vectura

HSBC discovered a suspected money laundering network that received $4.2bn (£3bn) worth of payments, it has emerged, raising questions over whether it disclosed the information to US monitors who at the time were ensuring the bank cleaned up its act. Insiders who spoke to journalists as part of a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, have suggested that HSBC may not have appropriately shared the information with the monitoring team installed by US regulators in 2012 after HSBC allowed drug cartels in Latin America to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through its accounts. - Guardian

The number of cars rolling off UK production lines last month slumped to the lowest June level in almost 70 years, as car manufacturers were hit by shortages of both staff and semiconductors. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said just over 69,000 cars were produced in UK car plants last month, the lowest June total since 1953, although this excludes June 2020 when factories were slowly getting back up to speed after the first lockdown. - Guardian

The US private equity firm seeking to take over Morrisons was fighting a rearguard action after a second shareholder came out against its £9.5bn bid. Fortress is scrambling to get back on the front foot after top ten investor JO Hambro said that its 254p a share offer was too low. The intervention came a day after Morrsions' biggest shareholder Silchester said it was opposed to the deal. - Telegraph

Facebook shrugged off its feud with Apple to double its profits in the three months ending in June, smashing past Wall Street's expectations. The social media titan increased its profits from $5.2bn (£3.7bn) in the same period in 2020 to $10.4bn this year, while its revenue rose 53pc from $18.7bn to $28.6bn, the biggest year on year rise since at least 2017. - Telegraph

The government is looking into whether the takeover of Vectura, a respiratory drugs business, by Philip Morris International, the tobacco company, raises public interest concerns, the business secretary has confirmed. Kwasi Kwarteng gave the reassurance in response to a letter from Labour shadow ministers that had urged the government to consider blocking the £927 million deal. - The Times