Thursday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Didi, Saudi Aramco, BlackRock
Updated : 18:38
Client meetings and emails could be picked up alongside a pint of milk and a box of eggs under a new deal between Tesco and flexible office operator IWG. From later this month, the owner of office operator Regus is to test out a 3,800 sq ft flexible working area within Tesco’s New Malden supermarket, with room for 12 private desks, 30 co-working spaces and a meeting room. - Guardian
Chinese taxi app Didi has told staff it has put plans for major international expansions on hold until at least 2025 and cut half its UK employees amid pressure from Beijing on one of its most prominent tech companies. Didi Chuxing has been on the back foot since last summer when the Cyberspace Administration of China, a powerful regulator, banned the country’s dominant ride-hailing company from listing its app on mobile app stores in the country. - Guardian
Saudi Aramco has overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable company after oil prices surged and inflation hammered technology stocks. Aramco traded near its highest level on record on Wednesday, reaching a market capitalisation of about $2.4 trillion (£1.9 trillion) and surpassing that of Apple for the first time since 2020. - Telegraph
BlackRock has warned it will vote against most shareholder green activism this year for being too extreme, in a significant u-turn by the world’s biggest money manager. The company said it was concerned about proposals to stop financing fossil fuel companies, including forcing them to decommission assets and setting absolute targets for reducing emissions in their supply chains. - Telegraph
The administrators to Debenhams have made £5.3 million in fees in the two years since the department store chain filed for insolvency. FRP Advisory was appointed to Debenhams in April 2020 after the retailer went bankrupt for a second time, shortly after lockdowns forced the closure of its stores. It oversaw the sale of the 200-year-old department store’s brand and website to Boohoo for £55 million last January. - The Times