Wednesday newspaper round-up: Credit card lenders, Fox News, ASOS

Credit card lenders appear to be targeting people struggling with unaffordable levels of debt, according to a new report calling on Britain’s financial watchdog to intervene. Research from Citizens Advice finds almost one in five people struggling with debts have had their credit card limit raised without them requesting it. The charity has demanded the Financial Conduct Authority bans the practice, amid growing concerns over a boom in lending. – Guardian

Companies that have built NHS hospitals under the private finance initiative have made pre-tax profits of £831m over the past six years and are poised to make almost £1bn more over the next five years. Large sums that could have been used for patient care have instead gone into the pockets of a handful of PFI companies at a time when the health service is starved of funding, according to the Centre for Health and the Public Interest. – Guardian

The Government will reboot its industrial strategy today with a £160m injection into Britain’s drugs sector, with a major vaccines lab to prepare the country for emergency epidemics among the first initiatives to get support. Business Secretary Greg Clark and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will unveil the funding allocation at a launch event at the University of Birmingham later today. – Telegraph

Rupert Murdoch has stopped broadcasting Fox News in the UK after 15 years, ahead of a government decision over whether to refer 21st Century Fox's planned takeover of Sky to competition regulators. 21st Century Fox, which is owned by Mr Murdoch, said it was withdrawing the channel from Sky as it was no longer in the company's "commercial interest" to continue broadcasting it in the UK. – Telegraph

Asos, the 17-year-old online retail upstart, is little more than £100 million short of overhauling the market value of Marks & Spencer in what is being called the UK high street’s “Tesla moment”. The Aim-listed internet-only fashion retailer was worth £4.93 billion yesterday compared with M&S’s £5.05 billion, with analysts saying that it was just a matter of time before the 133-year-old high street giant loses its crown. Asos is threatening to shake up the old order in the same way that Tesla, the electric car company, did in April by overtaking General Motors to become America’s most valuable carmaker. – The Times

Four years of falling shop prices are drawing to a close as inflation creeps back on to the high street as a result of the fall in the pound since the country voted for Brexit, according to the British Retail Consortium. Overall shop prices fell 0.3 per cent in August compared with last year but it was the equal closest that the index has come to inflation since November 2013. - The Times