Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Superdrug, Sainsbury/Asda, Slack
Britain would face labour shortages in London and the south-east from a no-deal Brexit, according to a report calling for the government to extend freedom of movement for EU migrants to protect the wider economy. The Centre for Cities thinktank urged the government to extend freedom of movement for two years after the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019, in the event of no deal on the terms of exit and future relations with the union. – Guardian
Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon may be big fans, but the rise of publicly owned energy companies looks like it is faltering in the face of tough market conditions. The movement was dealt a blow this month when a newly Lib Dem-controlled Portsmouth city council scrapped the former Conservative administration’s plans for an energy firm. – Guardian
Superdrug has advised thousands of its online customers to change their passwords after hackers attempted to blackmail the high street retailer, claiming to have stolen personal information on thousands of people. In an email, the high street pharmacy and beauty chain said it had been contacted late on Monday by a group which claims to have obtained the personal details of 20,000 customers of Superdrug's online shopping service. – Telegraph
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the cryptocurrency millionaire twins best known for suing Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook, have launched a push to legitimise the controversial world of digital currencies such as Bitcoin. The Virtual Commodity Association, an industry group led by the Winklevosses’ own online cryptocurrency exchange, said it planned to “promote fairness, transparency, risk management, and liquidity” in the market. – Telegraph
A leading shareholder in J Sainsbury has resoundingly backed its proposed £12 billion merger with Asda, saying that it would help the supermarket retailer to go “toe-to-toe” with Tesco. Martin Walker, UK equities fund manager at Invesco Perpetual, the third largest shareholder in Sainsbury, said that Mike Coupe, the boss of Sainsbury’s, was putting his job and reputation on the line for a merger that offered “huge” financial benefits. – The Times
A five-year-old start-up that wants to kill off email in the workplace has raised more than $427 million from investors, including Baillie Gifford, the Scottish fund manager. The bumper funding round raises Slack’s valuation to $7.1 billion, a 40 per cent increase on its previous funding round last year. – The Times