Market Buzz
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Just Eat, energy suppliers, Amazon
The takeaway company Just Eat is planning to open a customer service site in north-east England, which will employ 1,500 people as it brings jobs back from India and Bulgaria. The business said that it would invest £100m in the region over the next five years, with staff working partly from home and partly from its new Sunderland-based office. - Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Frasers Group, car production, Binance, Aviva
The incoming 31-year-old boss of Sports Direct owner Frasers Group could be handed shares worth more than £100m if he more than doubles its share price. The company, which also owns the House of Fraser department stores and the designer fashion chain Flannels, revealed the bumper potential payout on Wednesday night, weeks after it announced that Michael Murray would be taking over from his future father-in-law, Mike Ashley, next spring. - Guardian.
Friday newspaper round-up: THG, Swiss Re, Frasers Group
Warrington council lent the billionaire owner of The Hut Group (THG) £151m after the online retailer’s £5bn market listing. The Cheshire local authority extended a £200m loan facility to a company controlled by Matt Moulding in October, one of the largest council loans on record, from which it has taken three drawdowns totalling more than £151m. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Ultra Electronics, Newport Wafer, Avast
The annual pay of FTSE 100 chief executives fell during the pandemic but still equates to what a key worker would earn in a lifetime, according to a report that highlights the UK’s wage divide and the taxpayer support that has kept some companies afloat. The bosses of companies in the blue-chip share index were paid £2. 69m on average in 2020, the High Pay Centre said, with vaccine-maker AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, taking top spot thanks to a £15.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Pensions, Vectura, Wrightbus
Rishi Sunak has come under further pressure to suspend the state pension triple lock after wage figures showed that the chancellor is on course to pay pensioners a rise of more than 8% next year. Sunak is understood to be considering telling Britain’s 12 million state pension claimants that the pandemic has artificially inflated the official wages figures and a new formula is needed to calculate the rise in the basic state pension for next year. - Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Ultra Electronics, hydrogen, Virgin Galactic
The government is coming under growing criticism for taking a “weak” stance on overseas takeovers of UK businesses, amid the sale of two London-listed defence contractors to US-backed buyers worth almost £9bn. Labour and the former City minister Paul Myners said serious questions were being raised by the sale of Ultra Electronics, a defence firm that supported coalition forces in Afghanistan, and Meggitt, a Coventry-based supplier of wheels and brakes for fighter jets used by the Royal Air Force.
Monday newspaper round-up: Ticket resale websites, NZ trade deal, Morrisons
Ticket resale websites such as Viagogo and StubHub could be shut down or hit with large fines if they are found to break consumer protection rules, under proposals by the competition regulator to stop “unscrupulous” touts ripping off fans. In a landmark intervention that comes as the live events industry recovers from Covid-19 restrictions, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said existing laws were too weak. - Guardian.
Friday newspaper round-up: Facebook, Morrisons, Ultra Electronics, Vectura
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday refiled its antitrust case against Facebook, arguing the company holds monopoly power in social networking and renewing the fight to rein in big tech. The agency also dismissed a request from Facebook that its chair, Lina Khan, step aside in the case because of her criticism of them in the past. - Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Furlough, Pret a Manger, PwC
The TUC is urging the government to abandon plans to scrap the furlough scheme at the end of next month and instead build on the wage subsidy experiment to create a permanent short-time working scheme. Plans drawn up by the TUC would protect workers against recessions, a new wave of the pandemic or the transition to a green economy by having 80% of their wages guaranteed by the state. - Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Covid testing, Vectura, Tesco, Avast
The new low-cost long-haul Norwegian airline Norse Atlantic Airways has announced plans to fly between Europe and the US from early 2022, as it aims to fill the gap in budget transatlantic air travel left by Norwegian’s departure from long-haul routes. Norse, which was formed in March by Norwegian airline industry veterans, will initially fly from Oslo, London and Paris to New York, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale. - Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Greensill, DMGT, civil servants, David Lloyd
David Cameron made about $10m (£7m) from Greensill Capital before the finance firm he lobbied on behalf of collapsed, according to the BBC. Panorama said it had obtained documents showing the former prime minister received the sum from cashing in shares he held in the company worth $4. 5m (about £3. 3m) in 2019, in addition to an annual salary of $1m (£720,000). - Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: UK recovery, Philip Morris, Saudi Aramco
A letter to Boris Johnson sent a fortnight ago by James Ramsbotham called on the prime minister to save the north-east from the “damage being done to our economy” by Brexit and urged him to give it his “most urgent and personal attention”. Two weeks later, it remains unanswered. Ramsbotham is the chief executive of the North East England Chamber of Commerce and speaks for thousands of businesses caught by the red tape and extra costs of complying with EU rules.
Friday newspaper round-up: Live events sector, Virgin Galactic, Cairn Energy
The battered live events sector, from summer music festivals to business conferences and boat shows, has finally been promised a Covid cancellation insurance scheme. Campaigners have long been pleading for insurance support to help the sector get back on its feet, because commercial insurers have not provided cover for Covid-related cancellations. While welcomed, the announcement comes far too late for a string of festivals and events that have already been abandoned.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Uber, pensions, tech floats
Uber is regaining much of the momentum it lost during the pandemic, announcing on Wednesday that its ride-hailing services saw a 105% increase and that revenue had more than doubled from this time last year. Revenue for the company’s most recent financial quarter totaled $3. 93bn, beating analysts’ expectations and signaling an emergence from the dismal conditions at the same point last year when the pandemic was keeping most people at home. - Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Rolls-Royce, Amazon, Arm
Reusing and repairing household goods, from washing machines to phones, and recycling throwaway consumer items such as plastic bottles, could create hundreds of thousands of green jobs across the UK, a thinktank has found. The UK creates thousands of tonnes of unnecessary waste each year, some of which is still exported, because of a failure to value resources and invest in the infrastructure needed to re-purpose manufactured goods. - Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Driver shortage, unemployment, commercial rents
Gaps on supermarket shelves are likely to continue for several months unless the government does more to tackle the labour crisis hitting haulage firms, suppliers have warned. Logistics and hauliers’ organisations said August would be a pinch point in the shortage as workers take summer breaks, while firms offering bonuses and sign-on fees to recruit drivers were not helping matters. - Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: Pensions, remote roles, business optimism
Employers are offering signing-on fees of up to £10,000 to tempt “gold dust” applicants as more than 1. 1m jobs in the UK remain unfilled, with the pingdemic worsening a shortage of workers caused by Brexit and a lack of skills. Care home operator HC One is offering a £10,000 “welcome bonus” on two jobs for registered night nurses, both in Scotland, as private health care providers battle with a shortage of workers partly caused by EU citizens returning home.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Meggitt, GlaxoSmithKline, Luxury goods
Ministers must be prepared to block a takeover of Meggitt if any bidder tries to buy it without giving binding commitments on investment and jobs, the FTSE 250 aerospace and defence manufacturer’s chairman warned this weekend. Sir Nigel Rudd said that while “clearly, price is important”, any new owner would need to give Meggitt and the government undertakings, including to keep the company’s headquarters in Coventry and maintain R&D spending. - Sunday Times.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Morrisons, Amazon, Easyjet
Private equity giant Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) is poised to kick off a bidding war for Morrisons amid mounting opposition to the £6. 3 billion offer on the table for the grocer from a consortium led by American buyout rival Fortress. CD&R is understood to have been lining up equity and debt financing for a counterbid that could come as soon as this week. - Sunday Times.
Sunday newspaper round-up: SSE, Herd immunity, Virgin Galactic
The world's most powerful activist investor has secretly built a stake in energy giant SSE in a move that could lead to a £20billion takeover bid for the FTSE100-listed company. City sources said Elliott Management, which has been dubbed a 'corporate raider' for buying shares and forcing change at large companies, has recently bought a large shareholding in SSE which supplies around five million Britons with energy to their homes. - Financial Mail on Sunday.