Tuesday newspaper round-up: GFG Alliance, supermarkets, gas markets

Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance metals empire has launched an action in London’s high court in a last-ditch attempt to reclaim a prized aluminium smelter in northern France from a US private equity fund. Two GFG Alliance companies have filed a legal claim against a fund controlled by American Industrial Partners (AIP), which has run the smelter in Dunkerque since October after gaining approval from the French government. - Guardian

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of surplus food that could be going to hungry families is going to waste as supermarkets restrict who their suppliers can give it to, according to food distribution charities. Several independent charities, which are grouped together under the Xcess network, say they struggle to source unwanted edible food from manufacturers and processors because of supermarkets’ rules about the handling of their own-label products. - Guardian

Tens of billions of pounds in investment is to be unleashed by City insurers after ministers pledged to axe controversial EU-era red tape in a major post-Brexit shakeup. Two years after the UK officially left the EU, John Glen, the City minister, said the Government will ditch swathes of the controversial Solvency 2 rulebook governing insurers. - Telegraph

An influx of hedge funds and other financial traders into European gas markets has contributed to high and volatile prices over the past year, according to Shell. Prices are becoming less determined by news about gas supply and demand because of the influence of new financial players moving money in and out of the market, the energy group warned. - The Times

A self-styled “fintech” payments business was authorised by the City regulator while its founder was subject to a money laundering investigation related to the notorious multibillion-pound OneCoin scam. Viola Money (Europe), which once advertised itself as a rival to Monzo, the challenger bank, was placed into insolvency proceedings in December after the Financial Conduct Authority expressed “serious concerns” about its operations. - The Times