Wednesday newspaper round-up: Tata Steel, Lloyds, Balfour Beatty

Dominic Chappell, the former owner of BHS, could be pursued for millions of pounds owed to Philip Green’s business empire as well as to creditors of the now collapsed department store. Chappell’s Retail Acquisitions (RAL), which bought BHS for £1 in 2015, has been accused of extracting an estimated £17m from the retailer despite owning it for just 13 months before it went into administration in 2016. – Guardian

Tata Steel has taken a step towards helping secure the future of its UK operations – including the Port Talbot works in south Wales – by reaching an outline agreement over the restructuring of its pension scheme. Unions reacted cautiously to the announcement by the Indian-owned company that it would pump £550m into the British Steel pension scheme – one of the UK’s largest, with liabilities of £15bn and 130,000 members, including former employees from the days when it was part of a state-owned company. The scheme will also get a 33% stake in Tata’s UK business. – Guardian

Lloyds Banking Group has finally closed the darkest chapter in its history after the Government offloaded its remaining shareholding, removing the last vestiges of the lender’s £20.3bn bailout at the height of the financial crisis. The Treasury and the 252-year-old bank have announce that the taxpayer's residual 0.25pc stake was sold into the market today, returning Lloyds to full private ownership almost a decade after its 2008 rescue. – Telegraph

The wind developer behind the world’s largest working wind turbines has said the size of its giant offshore blades, currently in UK waters, will double again within seven years. Dong Energy will officially open the second phase of its giant Burbo Bank offshore wind farm off the coast of Merseyside coast later today by showcasing its 8MW turbines, the largest ever used. – Telegraph

Balfour Beatty faces a revolt at its annual shareholder meeting tomorrow as a leading corporate governance adviser recommends a vote against the top executives’ proposed pay deal. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the world’s biggest proxy voting agency, has recommended that investors in the FTSE 250 infrastructure and construction company — which has been involved in some of the UK’s biggest projects, such as Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel — reject the £3.76 million package for Leo Quinn, the chief executive. – The Times

The decision by Vanguard, the low-cost fund manager, to create its own fund supermarket to sell its goods, is likely to have a long-term impact on the investment industry similar to that of Aldi and Lidl on UK food retailing. Just as established players such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco had to engage in cost-cutting campaigns in an attempt to preserve market share, so the giants of the fund supermarket world will be wondering whether they need to lower their prices to stop customers deserting them for their cheaper rival. – The Times